How Birchbox Grew to 850,000 Subscribers In 3.5 Years
Birchbox is a subscription service that sends a monthly box with personalized beauty products. Its success has been overwhelming, as it managed 850,000 subscribers in 3.5 years.
Birchbox based its growth hacking strategy on several strategies, but the most effective method was its recommendation program, aimed at making users recommend others quickly and easily. The recommender would receive a reward for every new customer who joined Birchbox. It’s not a new, breakthrough strategy, but its key to success lies in the offer’s value. Many times companies decide to offer a reward or incentive that is not interesting enough for the customer to take the time to make recommendations. In this case, Birchbox gave 10€ to the recommender, providing a significant incentive since the cost of one Birchbox is nearly 10€.
The Growth Hack
Katia Beauchamp and Hayley Barna perfected the recommendation process with the following:
- They created a concept that solves a real problem for their consumers with easy to trust mechanism – users rely on their friends’ recommendations for buying new products. It’s even more relevant for beauty products, which you must try physically. In addition, there are many beauty brands and products on the market, making the selection process more complicated. They solved this by letting people try samples delivered to their doorstep and get recommendations from their friends in a simple recommendation process.
- It’s like unwrapping a present every month! They’ve created anticipation with their customers, waiting to receive new recommended products wrapped in a beautiful box. The products are recommended, customized based on the customer’s needs, and came with in-depth descriptions of how to facilitate the process. This excitement made the Birchbox fans eager to share their new knowledge and spread the word!
- They improved the recommendation process with a referral program. Now anyone, not only customers, can recommend their products. For users, it provided an added incentive to share. On top of the cash rewards for subscribing, users can also receive rewards through their referral program.
The Results
Grew to 850,000 monthly subscribers In 3.5 Years.
