Out of the box

Out of the box

It seems like a no-brainer. Man has needs (or wants). Man is lazy. Subscription retail programmes deliver those needs (and wants) to Man's doorstep on a regular basis - all at the click of a mouse.

Man is happy. Pioneered by four-year-old American start-up Birchbox, subscription box services are now dime-a-dozen in the United States and Europe - and the innovative retail format is fast becoming a way of life here too, with more than 10 of such new services launched in the first eight months of this year, by everyone from local actresses to mum-preneurs and former bankers.

The subscription retail model works like this: buyers commit to a one-month, three-month, six-month or an annual subscription for a box containing typically four to eight items curated according to a theme to be mailed to them on a monthly basis.

The items can be trial-sized samples obtained for free from brands who want to market a new product to a niche group of customers, or travel and full-sized products purchased by the box curators, who typically also run e-commerce stores for repeat orders.

Subscription boxes first made headway in Singapore in 2012 with beauty boxes offering make-up and skincare samples such as Bellabox, Vanity Trove and Glamabox. These days, you can get a subscription for your every need, from surprise boxes containing kids' toys, pet supplies and organic products and healthy snacks, to more utility-based regular supplies of creature comforts such as beer, wine and coffee - and even sanitary napkins.

Caleb Leow of said sanitary napkin provision service PSLove attributes the increased popularity of subscription retail to Singapore's increasingly online and mobile-savvy population. Likening it to newspaper and mobile phone subscriptions, he says: "Long ago, you had to go to magazine stands to buy your daily newspaper or pay your mobile phone bills at the post office regularly, this is not very different. With technology, every part of your life can be now simplified through subscriptions."

Besides the surprise element, subscription retail appeals to customers who are too time-strapped, too overwhelmed with choices - or simply too lazy - to pick out items for themselves.

"The whole idea of subscription is that people like not having to choose the items. It forces them to overcome the psychological barrier against trying something new that they normally wouldn't pick off a shelf," says Roland Utama of craft beer shop Thirsty, who initially rolled out his Monthly Beer Club subscription service for regular customers who did not have the time to lug home heavy cartons from his Liang Court shop regularly.

For business owners, meanwhile, the subscription retail model helps them to concentrate their marketing efforts on a specified target group, as well as better collect data that will help them predict consumer behaviour. "The next level of e-commerce is in personalisation. And compared to traditional supermarkets, subscription programs are a two-way channel for marketing," says BoxGreen's Walter Oh. In their e-commerce site, to be launched in a month, subscribers will have a function to rate the snacks they've received, which helps Mr Oh and his partner Andrew Lim better curate the products that go into future boxes.

Others view the subscription model as an extension of their core business. Wagbox, a monthly surprise box containing pet toys and accessories, is a spin-off of online pet store, Furry Star; Intellibox and Vaby Box are subscription retail extensions of childhood development centre Thinkers Box and e-commerce site for new mothers Vaby. Like Thirsty's beer programme, Papa Palheta's coffee subscription and Eastern Granola largely cater to already loyal customers.

The good and the bad

Another operational benefit for retailers: subscription is a good way to push slow-moving products, admits Thirsty's Mr Utam. And that's not such a bad thing for consumers. He elaborates: "They are not necessarily inferior products, but maybe because of less attractive packaging, a higher price point or the lack of marketing, they don't appeal as much to customers when simply displayed on the shelf."

Businesses can also purchase in bulk at a better price and meet minimum order quantities with confidence once they've built up a sizeable subscription base, he adds. "When you can purchase according to their needs, you avoid the risk of holding inventory."

But while it sounds good, the reality is not all that rosy. There are no official numbers on subscription businesses in Singapore but dormant Facebook pages and websites bearing posts from two years ago hint at the scores of subscription box schemes that have come and gone. Email queries and phone calls to some of their order hotlines go unanswered. Some don't even list any contact numbers or founders' details so subscribers who may have paid up upfront are left without any recourse when these businesses shut down without a trace.

That is why PSLove's Mr Leow and co-founder Tan Peck Ying didn't want to start a frills-based subscription box, but a needs-based subscription retail scheme, which they believe to be more sustainable in the long-run.

"The fundamental challenge with surprise boxes is that it may be exciting to get the first few boxes, but after a while the novelty dies off. You have to set the bar higher and higher each time," Ms Tan observes. Needs-based subscriptions appeal to the pragmatic side of Singaporeans, he says, adding that PS Love currently has a 90 per cent retention rate.

Additionally, when a subscription service's membership base grows to more than 1,000 subscribers, companies can no longer sponsor that many sample products for free, he points out.

Theresa Shan of The Box disagrees. Though The Box's previous founders opted out of the business earlier this year, she and partner Marc Dass, who run wellness studio In The Loop together, decided to acquire it for an undisclosed sum as it tied in with the core values of their main business of promoting sustainable living and supporting small businesses. When their customer pool grows, they plan to diversify into boxes with different themes, such as a men's box or a box for sports lovers.

Other stumbling blocks are infrastructural challenges, such as the high cost of delivery in Singapore - especially for items that are heavy or have short shelf-lives - as well as the lack of cost-effective monthly recurring online payment arrangements, say box operators such as Boxgreen's Mr Oh.

"In the US, there are even businesses built around helping subscription services build their business. We are a few years behind," says Mr Oh.

Likewise, Thirsty's Mr Utama thinks subscription models make sense in the US "because it's such a large country and you may not be able to get what you want if you live in a small town in Tennessee with only one liquor store".

"But stores in Singapore are so accessible and so many products are imported so it's easy to get what you need," he says.

Issues such as lost parcels, delivery at wrong timings and poor service by mail providers are also hiccups beyond business owners. "We can only try to minimise such incidents by keeping our feedback channels open so we can rectify these issues immediately when they happen," says Ms Hoo of Intellibox.

When all has been said and done, The Box's Ms Shan is still hopeful: "It is a million dollar industry in the Europe and the US, so it's a proven model. You can't deny that."


 

Living it green

BoxGreen

www.boxgreen.co

Some people get mid-afternoon snack attacks in the office. The more enterprising among them turn those hunger pangs into a new business.

Bankers Walter Oh, 27, and Andrew Lim, 29, recall how the idea for BoxGreen, a subscription service for healthy snacks, came about. "We would get hungry at 4pm and we only had two options: walk for 10 minutes to buy snacks or get potato chips and chocolate from the office vending machine," says Mr Oh. "If I had to sit at my desk for 12 hours and eat chocolate and potato chips all day, I would feel horrible."

Launched in June, BoxGreen mails out its boxes on the second Monday of every month, and each box typically contains four to six snacks following a 80:20 mix of healthy tidbits, such as nuts, granola, fruit strips and cacao nibs and other superfoods, and "indulgent" snacks such as chocolates and cookies. Snacks are organic, additive and preservative-free as far as possible.

Apart from snacks by local food makers, the duo came up with an in-house line of original flavours such as a "cheng tng" trail mix with dried longans, wolfberries and lotus seeds, and an "almond longan jelly" mix of almonds and dried longans.

"Jason's supermarket has many interesting organic snacks but they're expensive, and a costly risk if you end up not liking them," explains Mr Lim. Each Boxgreen package is priced at S$19.90 (S$15.90 if you sign up for a year) but has a retail value of S$20 to S$30 worth of snacks that should last for 20 serves, or 20 working days in a month.

BoxGreen also packs door gifts for corporate events, and can customise giant boxes as incentive gifts or "mobile pantries", adds Mr Lim. About 200 boxes are sent out each month and they hope to eventually tailor boxes to individuals' preferences.

"The snack industry is estimated to be worth over S$20 million in Asia, the market is big enough," says Mr Oh. They hope to bring the service to other regional cities eventually.

The Box

www.boxbylohasia.net

Organic health food stores are a dime-a-dozen now, but if you have no time to suss them out individually, there's The Box, a quarterly curated subscription service for wellness-centric products. The service is run by former F&B exec Marc Dass and yoga teacher Theresa Shan, who also own In The Loop, a eight-month-old wellness showroom and studio for private yoga and dance classes.

Each box, mailed out quarterly, costs S$50 (S$40 if you sign on for a year) and contains at least eight items with a retail value of between S$150 and S$200 in various categories such as cosmetics, toiletries, food, beauty and wellness, including vouchers for free trial sessions.

The latest box, for instance, included a 250ml bottle of cold-pressed coconut oil from Pure and Sure, a 10-sachet packet of cold-brewed infusion teas from local company Infuusa, and a pack of cacao nibs from local brand Bruneus.

Not more than 300 boxes are sent out each time, and gifters can opt to leave personalised handwritten notes in each box. "It lets people become kids again. It's like Christmas comes four times a year now," laughs Mr Dass.

In keeping with the box's "try, love, buy" philosophy, the couple will also debut an e-commerce site next year to retail full-sized versions of their sample products.

"We're not going to be millionaires doing this," Mr Dass admits, as sustainability-conscious consumers are still a niche target market, and customer acquisition is tough. But the upside is that subscribers are more likely to be repeat customers as they already adhere to similar lifestyles, and even more commercial brands are launching sustainable product lines, he adds.

Easy edibles

ChefBox

www.getchefbox.com

Cooking for two but loathe the hassle of grocery shopping and trying to buy just the right amount of ingredients? ChefBox is a food delivery subscription programme that sends you pre-portioned raw ingredients on a weekly basis. Pick from six new recipes on their website weekly, and whether you require two, four or six-person portions and await the doorstep delivery the following week.

The menu varies from Korean sweet potato vermicelli with beef and broccoli, to quinoa with spicy Sriracha chicken, and Western lemon thyme halibut with kale, and come with step-by-step cooking directions. Prices start at S$9 a diner for a meal for six, and boxes can be purchased on an adhoc basis for now. Every order will eventually be matched with a meal donation to a local charity, according to founder Max Tiong.

Thirsty's Monthly Beer Club

www.thirsty.com.sg

A value-added service by craft beer store Thirsty at Liang Court, the Monthly Beer Club is a subscription programme akin to "picking beers blindfolded", according to store owner and beer distributor, Roland Utama.

Subscribers choose a monthly or bi-monthly doorstep delivery of a carton of 24 bottles of craft beers. Unlike most subscription schemes, Thirsty will reveal the beer selections of the upcoming month on their website ahead of sending them out. Previous picks have included less well-known brews such as Avery Out of Bounds and Karl Strauss Red Trolley, along with popular favourites such as the Magic Hat #9.

Three, six and 12-month subscriptions are available, and start from S$165 for a commitment-free one-month order, and go up to S$900 for bi-monthly orders for an entire year.

Must Drink Coffee by Papa Palheta

www.papapalheta.com/mustdrinkcoffee

Leading local coffee roasters Papa Palheta's Must Drink Coffee is a "community-building" subscription programme that sends you up to 500g of locally roasted coffee beans monthly, says the brand's coffee purveyor Adryll Lin. Choose from three plans: the Filter Twin Pack for coffee beans roasted for manual filter brew; or the Terra Firma and Revolver plans, which comprise two bags of 250g coffee beans for espresso. Terra Firma gets you the same blend monthly, while Revolver is a monthly changing selection of different blends and single origin roasts. Prices start at S$114 for a three-month Terra Firma subscription and go up to S$230 for a six-month Revolver plan.

The beans are specially roasted for MDC subscribers, rested for a day, checked for quality the next day, and then sent out immediately by local courier. The beans are sent whole, which means you have to grind them yourself for maximum freshness, says Mr Lin. Besides coffee, subscribers also get first dibs on new and limited edition coffees, exclusive cupping sessions and discounts on coffee merchandise at their Jalan Besar flagship store.

The French Cellar

www.thefrenchcellar.sg

Singapore's first wine subscription programme was started last October by Frenchman Vincent Morello with the goal of bringing the best wines of French wines to members on a monthly basis.

Members have a choice of two top-notch French wines every month, which they can pick from a selection carefully curated by sommelier Nicolas Rebut, the former Chef Sommelier at three Michelin star restaurants Le Meurice in Paris and Louis XV in Monaco. Plans start at S$79 a month for two bottles of wine.

Eastern Granola

www.easterngranola.com

Granola maker Chin Hui Wen has launched a Granola Club Membership for granola addicts. For S$150 a year (S$12.50 a month), you get a 250g bag of granola every month.

Specially baked for subscribers only, the granolas come in limited edition and quirky local flavours such as kopi (with coffee and white chocolate), nasi lemak (with ikan bilis, peanuts and coconut), and chicken rice (with chicken floss, scallions and ginger.)

Out of necessity

PSLove

www.pslove.co

As a fresh graduate who had to clock in office hours, Tan Peck Ying quickly came to realise one of the hassles of adulthood: having to do supermarket runs for groceries and sanitary supplies. So the 27-year-old former administrator at the National University of Singapore Enterprise programme, a body that supports entrepreneurship, practised what she preached: she launched her own start-up.

For a varying monthly fee, PS Love will delivery a box of feminine care products direct to your doorstep.

The range of products are fully customisable, and selections fall under three categories: a needs-based basic option, where subscribers receive between 10 to 20 sanitary pads from all the major brands from $6; a PMS buster set, which includes sanitary pads and remedies such as heat packs and herbal teas to alleviate menstrual-related ailments for $8 to $10; and a Complete Happiness option, which comes with pads, remedies and comfort snacks and chocolates for up to $18.

Ms Tan left her full-time job this April to focus on the business. The first box was mailed out in May, and they've sent out more than 1,000 pads in their four months of operations, adds co-founder Caleb Leow, a final-year undergraduate at NUS. A small number of their buyers are men who purchase the boxes for their wives and girlfriends, he notes.

The founders are working on building a period-tracking and fertility planning app and hope to soon debut in Singapore interesting period-related products such as menstrual cups, organic and herbal sanitary pads and stain-proof undergarments. The goal is to be a one-stop shop for feminine care products.

"We hope to be with our subscribers from youth till old age, says Ms Tan. "A woman spends an average of 1,852 days of her life menstruating - that's five years in total. If we can make five years of a woman's life better, that's as good a reason as any to do it."


 

For baby and me

Vaby Box

www.vaby.com.sg

Mothers know best - especially when it comes to picking products for other mothers and mummies-to-be. Launched last month, Vaby Box targets pregnant women and new mothers and was started by mother-of-three Shirley Sim.

Each monthly box typically contains five to eight samples customised according to the subscriber's profile. Priced at S$18.90 each, contents have included diapers, organic snacks, wet wipes and baby booties. It's part of a service offered on Ms Sim's e-commerce website Vaby, which retails baby products.

Members have to sign up for a free subscription to the website to be able to order the box. Members can get up to 90 per cent discounts on everything from play mats to grooming workshops and Javanese pre-natal home massages.

To tap on a growing market, Vaby intends to further develop its subscription service next year by dividing the boxes into three categories: a Maternity box for expectant mothers, a Baby Box and a Toddler Box for those with children of up to six years old.

Intellibox by Thinkers Box

www.thinkersbox.com

Felicia Hoo is a woman on a mission: she wants to bring back playtime, and she wants time-strapped parents to share it with their children, says the co-founder of Intellibox.

Pegged as a subscription-based "brain development kit" for children from four to seven, the eight-month-old service is an extension of eight-year-old ThinkersBox, a development centre that organises parental workshops and holiday programmes and cognitive training courses for children between five and 12 years old.

Parents can sign up for three, six or 12-month subscriptions and monthly boxes comprising three sets of hands-on brain-stimulating games and a booklet of worksheet-like puzzles designed in-house around different areas of focus each month, such as audio-visual, memory or reasoning skills. Prices start at S$145 for a three-month plan but go down to S$42 a box for longer subscription plans.

iNbox

myinbox.sg

Designed for children aged three to seven, iNbox is a subscription retail extension of Smart Alley, an educational toys store with branches in Centrepoint Orchard and Changi City Point. Boxes are delivered on the seventh day of every month and typically contain four to five activities for children to complete under parental guidance.

Boxes cost between S$32.25 per month and S$25.80, if you sign up for a 12-month subscription. A 30-day money back guarantee applies for customers on their three, six or 12-month subscription plans.

KinderHands

www.kinderhands.com

A subscription box designed around children's books, KinderHands' boxes contain a storybook and two to three activities on the same theme that children between three and seven can complete post-reading. Past book themes have covered getting over one's fear of monsters to dental care and dreaming big. Book boxes cost S$44.90 and project boxes - the same activities without the books included - cost S$29.90. Subscriptions start at S$28.90 for a one-month trial to S$490.80 for a year.

Lollibox

Lollibox.sg

Tired of running around craft stores buying materials for your child's art project? Lollibox rounds them up to send to you monthly, and they also think up activities designed to boost kids' development skills. Boxes are sent out in the third week of the month, and start at S$84.90 (S$28.30 per box) for a three-year subscription or S$334.90 for a year, or S$27.90 per box. Boxes from previous months can also be bought individually at S$28.90, along with party favours and a mobile craft buffet set-up for up to 15 children.

Pet topics

Pup Post

Jane and Oliver Tan so loved shopping for unusual toys and treats for their pet dog on their overseas trips, they started shopping for their dog-owning friends too, and eventually decided to extend this service to other dog lovers via year-old subscription service, Pup Post.

For $45 per box, inclusive of shipping fees, subscribers will receive a bi-monthly box containing dog treats, toys and other accessories to subscribers on the 15th of every even month.

After signing up, each subscriber is asked about their dog, such as their allergies, hobbies, likes and dislikes to help the Tans better personalise the items that go into each box. "We won't bulk buy 100 of the same items and push them all out at one go," says Ms Tan of the time-consuming - but personally enjoyable - process.

Personalised items can range from custom-made magnets and Christmas tree baubles decorated with their dogs' pictures to photoshoots with a professional photographer. For their Easter-themed April box, subscribers were sent stickers and plastic eggs as part of a community-building interactive game they could participate in via Instagram.

In response to customers' requests, the couple have also recently launched a Pup Post Store to retail popular items previously featured in earlier boxes.

Wagbox

www.wagbox.com.sg

Started by the owners of online pet shop Furrystar last November, Wagbox is sent out monthly and contains toys, dental chews, treats, hygiene products and accessories for dogs. Boxes come in three categories, according to the weight of the dog, and priced at $38, $40.50 and $42.50 respectively. Customers can also commit to a three-month subscription to get a slight $1 to $3 off each box. $1 from every box sold goes to a different partner local dog shelter every month.

Fetchbox

fetch-box.com

Founded last August for dog and cat lovers alike, Fetchbox sends out a monthly collection of four to six treats, toys and accessories for pets sourced from the United States. The items are mostly limited edition, eco-friendly and safe for pets. Orders must be placed by the 10th of each month, and boxes will be delivered in the third week of the month. Their fully recyclable boxes come in different categories for small, medium and large dogs, cats, and limited edition boxes with Burt's Bees pet shampoo and Marvel comic toys. Prices start at $39.90 for a box and no month-to-month subscription is required.


This article was first published on August 16, 2014.
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