One of Cratejoy’s longest standing and most popular sellers is A Little Bundle, a monthly curated box designed for expecting mothers and their newborns. Every month, founder Annie Lin works with a variety of designers and brands to bring exclusive, beautiful and unique products to her 400 subscribers – and we’re thrilled we can help along the way. “It’s really what differentiates us compared to other baby brands is that we deliver products to people that they won’t find anywhere else in the world,” Annie recently shared with us. “In response, customers are always telling me how much they enjoy discovering new brands and products through our boxes, and it’s definitely rewarding.”
So why boxes of mom and baby products? Well, before moving to Austin, Annie was living in New York City and working in the fashion industry. After becoming familiar with Birchbox and other subscription businesses and seeing how much her friends were drawn to them, Annie came up with her own idea for a subscription business.
When you’ve worked on something for over a year, it’s a pretty surreal experience to see it finally come together. That’s what my co-founder Alex and I are experiencing right now.
Today, we’re proud to officially announce that Cratejoy has launched its public beta, allowing the most passionate and unique sellers to register their subscription businesses on our cutting-edge platform. We’ve been working towards this day since graduating from Y Combinator last August. It hasn’t always been easy, but it’s incredibly rewarding to finally take our first big step towards our vision to bring the subscription model to everyone and change the face of modern e-commerce.
A couple of weeks ago, Claire Cain Miller of The New York Times wrote a great piece about the surge of consumer rental platforms that has surfaced over the past several years, and this piece resonated with us. From Uber and Lyft to Rent the Runway and Le Tote, there are now an unlimited number of ways to rent even the most basic services and products. And while the average consumer is spending significantly less money on certain aspects of their life, rental businesses everywhere are thriving, and the phenomenon only appears to be growing.
Most ecommerce sellers and subscription box owners are so focused on finding the social media “secret sauce” that they are ignoring one of the most valuable marketing channels: Email.
Many marketers claim that the inbox is a ghost town where spammy content and promotional clutter go to live unopened, but sending a good email is still the best way to capture leads and drive sales. In the last four years, customer acquisition through email has quadrupled. Adopting an email marketing campaign lets you enter the personal lives of people who have already “opted-in” to receiving information and deals from your company.
According to the Direct Marketing Association, email has an ROI of 4300%. This is easy to believe with simple and cheap solutions such as Mailchimp helping ecommerce storeowners automate and personalize attractive email campaigns. An effective email strategy requires time and planning, but you can jumpstart your creative process with these five awesome subscription box emails.
“Anything that is measured and watched, improves.” -Bob Parsons, Founder of Go Daddy
An online presence is practically a given in order for any small business to grow. However, just creating a website and hoping that people will find and engage with your content is not enough to propel your company into success. There are many powerful and free tools that can help you understand your web traffic, but Google Analytics is the best way to gain true, actionable insight. For 10 years homegrown and startup companies have been using Google’s software to improve their business. So can you
Online sellers have a lot of explaining to do. There’s no sales rep on the floor guiding customers through available inventory. Your buyers can’t touch or feel the quality of your product through a virtual storefront. In ecommerce, what you see is what you get—which makes contracting a professional product photographer absolutely essential to your success.
Beautiful, clear images sell. It is that simple. Photos add personality, context and value to your brand, even if what you’re selling inside your subscription box is always changing. While there are many tools and resources for DIY photography, hiring a professional is your best bet. They understand what works and can help plan shoots, scout locations and select props.
We caught up with Gerry Flynn, Cratejoy seller and owner of Austin’s paleo food service “Fixed Foods.” He gave us an inside look at how he hired a photographer to bring his brand and products to life for his online shop.
Choosing a name for your business is a daunting task. This is especially true if you have multiple partners and are trying to reach a consensus.
A name is the identity that will drive your company and will often be the deciding factor for customers choosing between two similar products or services. A great name tells a story, legitimizes your business and inspires brand advocates. The foolproof way to create a business name that sells is to embark on a good ol’ brainstorm session.
Here are four things to consider when brainstorming a company name:
