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If you’ve been thinking about starting an online business, then have you considered starting a subscription box service?
Consider theses statistics from a recent study, per LiquidWeb:
- 15% of online shoppers have signed up for a subscription box service
- Nearly 25% subscribers have at least 3 subscriptions
- Sales have been increasing ($2.6 billion in 2016 versus $570 million in 2011)
- They are most popular with younger, affluent women
And you can create some great subscription box services. You can really personalize them and make each box special, which people who get subscription box services like. Pick something you’re interested in (like tea, fashion, beauty, toys, dog toys, etc.).
To get started, just follow this 10 step guide to not only start your first subscription box, but to make it successful, too!
1) Register as a business to protect yourself legally. My favorite company to do this is Incfile. I talk about the advantages of forming an LLC here.
2) Get a domain name from a company like Namecheap or 1&1. If available, use the name of your business and include a word that has to do with the genre you’re in (like if it’s about dogs, make sure dogs is in your domain name).
3) Get yourself a web host and a way to sell your products. I recommend using Liquid Web’s Managed Woocommerce; I go into detail why Liquid Web is a great choice & how to do that here.
4) Get yourself a theme to easily make your website look great and professional, such as the e-Shopper Premium.
5) Get a plugin that could allow you to take in money for the subscriptions. If you want to charge the subscription services in one lump prepaid fee, then check out this Prepaid/Upfront Payment for WooCommerce Subscriptions Plugin. If you want to take in recurring payments allowing customers to cancel anytime (and allowing you to get a good, steady income) then check out WP Simple Pay.
6) Start getting your boxes together! If you want unique items, consider finding something on Etsy. Other great places to go are Ebay and Amazon (which is probably true for anything you’d think about buying!).
7) Try to find good rates for shipping products to help you save money. A great business to work with is ShipStation.
8) Get Social Media Accounts like Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, a YouTube Channel, etc. to help get out the word about your new product.
9) Advertise your product! This could be with Google Ads, Bing Ads, Facebook ads, Instagram ads, etc.
10) Start an e-mail list with a company like Constant Contact so you can keep customers knowledgeable if you start any subscription boxes (after all, as I mentioned before, happy subscription box customers often want new subscription boxes!).
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