This section of our guide focuses on product subscription plans, or subscription business models, in which a customer pays a recurring price at regular intervals for access to a product.
Subscription shopping plans have been around for a while but have become increasingly popular in recent years, offering consumers a convenient and personalized way to receive products on a recurring basis.
In 1926, the Book of the Month Club was one of the earliest subscription services. Still in service, the Book of the Month Club offers members a selection of five to seven new hardcover books each month. Books are selected and endorsed by a panel of judges, and members choose which book they would like to receive, similar to how it operated when it began.
From the 1960s through the 1980s, Columbia House and the Capitol Record Club both operated music record clubs. A typical offer promised a choice of eleven records for a dollar, after which members would receive a choice of records each month. If they didn't respond, random records would be shipped to the subscriber, who was expected to pay for it.
Several types of products are available through monthly or annual subscription programs today.
Companies like Blue Apron, EveryPlate, Factor, HelloFresh, and Home Chef deliver pre-portioned ingredients and recipes to the door, allowing subscribers to enjoy cooking at home without the hassle of grocery shopping. Also available are plans that include fully prepared, ready-to-cook meals.
Various coffee subscription programs allow coffee enthusiasts to sign up for monthly coffee deliveries from specialty roasters. These include Atlas Coffee Club, Black Rifle Coffee, Blue Bottle Coffee, and Trade Coffee. Generally, these programs allow subscribers to choose the coffees they want to receive, although there may also be an option to let the company choose. I have been a Black Rifle subscriber for years, and I let them decide what to send me. I have never received a coffee I didn't like, allowing me to try coffees that I might otherwise never experience.
Beauty box subscription plans, like Allure Beauty Box, Birchbox, Margot Elena Discovery Box, and Petit Vour, provide a mix of skincare, makeup, and haircare products.
Services like Stitch Fix send curated clothing items based on the subscriber's style preferences.
Graze and SnackCrate offer monthly snack boxes with unique and international treats. Wine and beer clubs have long been popular, with subscribers receiving regular shipments of curated wines or craft beers. There are also monthly cheese clubs.
As noted above, the Book of the Month Club is still in operation, offering handpicked books to avid readers. Other choices include Once Upon a Book Club, OwlCrate, and Used Books Monthly.
BarkBox, Chewy, and others provide monthly supplies of toys, treats, and food to subscribing pet owners.
Recent start-ups like the Dollar Shave Club began offering razors and blades through subscription models. Since then, established brands, like Gillette, have entered the market with its Gillette On Demand program.
These are just a few examples. There are several others.
While many of these plans existed before the COVID-19 pandemic, the difficulties in shopping at retail locations and shortages in some products encouraged the use of such programs. Regular deliveries save time and effort, and some subscription programs offer discounts compared to retail prices. Subscribers are often able to access products that are not available from local sources. Businesses benefit from recurring income.
Successful subscription models focus on customer experience and adaptability and create reliable revenue streams for the companies engaged in them. Whether it's coffee, meals, or beauty products, subscription shopping plans can shape the way we shop.
Some shoppers enjoy the subscription model of shopping, while others prefer to shop in a physical store or to select the items they want from an online shopping site.
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Affiliated with Allure Magazine, published monthly by Condé Nast, Allure Beauty Box is a monthly beauty membership plan. Every product that goes inside the box has been vetted, researched, and selected by its editors, and each box is a culmination of the magazine's expertise. Available are annual, quarterly, and monthly subscription plans, with slightly better per-month prices for the quarterly and annual plans. A description of the plan is posted on the site.
https://allurebeautybox.com/
The Atlas Coffee Club curates micro-lot, single-origin coffees from around the world. Each month, twelve ounces of freshly roasted coffee, flavor notes, a postcard from each month's country, and coffee history are delivered fresh to the subscriber's door. Subscribers can receive amazing and exotic coffees that they can't find elsewhere online or on the shelf. Current and past coffees may be viewed on its website, and its subscription program is explained in detail.
https://atlascoffeeclub.com/
Serving dogs in the United States and Canada, BarkBox is a monthly subscription service providing dog products, services, and experiences through BarkBox and Super Chewer subscriptions and retail distribution. Subscribers can personalize their dog's monthly subscription boxes based on their dog's needs. Its programs are defined in detail, along with special offers, competitions, and other bargains, its affiliate program, investor information, and career opportunities.
https://www.barkbox.com/
Based in New York City, Birchbox is an online monthly subscription service that sends subscribers a box of from four to five selected samples of makeup or other beauty-related products, such as skincare items, perfumes, organic-based products, and other cosmetics. Founded in 2010, the company was acquired by Retention Brands in 2023. For its black, indigenous, and people of color within the company, Birchbox partners with BIPOC-founded, owned, and run brands.
https://www.birchbox.com/
BRCC is a Utah-based coffee company founded in 2014 by former U.S. Army Green Beret Evan Hafer. He began selling his "Freedom Coffee" through a friend's apparel website. When it sold well, he launched his own brand and website to sell his coffee and branded accessories, specializing in its online, direct-to-consumer coffee subscription service. In addition to its online sales, the company has physical coffee shops in some states. Subscription information is presented on its site.
https://www.blackriflecoffee.com/
Blue Apron Holdings, Inc. is an American ingredient and recipe meal kit headquartered in New York City and operating exclusively in the United States. Its subscription program offers weekly boxes containing ingredients, including suggested recipes that the customer must cook by hand using the pre-ordered ingredients. Meal plans are selected based on the number (2 or 4) of servings per meal desired and the number (2, 3, 4, or 5) of meals desired per week and preferences.
https://www.blueapron.com/
Blue Bottle Coffee is a coffee roaster that focuses on single-origin beans. Once based in Oakland, California, the company expanded to other areas and currently operates nearly a hundred stores. Through its subscription program, subscribers can change, pause, or cancel their subscriptions at any time. Besides the convenience of coffee delivered straight to their home, subscribers get free shipping and early access to product releases, cultural events, and collaborations.
https://bluebottlecoffee.com/
Founded in 1926, Book of the Month is a US-based subscription e-commerce service that offers its members a selection of five to seven hardcover books. Books are selected and endorsed by a panel of judges, and members choose which book they would like to receive, similar to how it operated in 1926. The club focuses on debut and emerging writers, with about 80% of its titles in the fiction genre. Current books are highlighted, and all of its books may be browsed.
https://www.bookofthemonth.com/
Created in 1994, Clubs of America was designed as a Microbrewery Beer of the Month Club. Later, they launched other monthly gift clubs, delivering wine, flowers, cigars, coffee, fruit, pizza, and chocolate. Its current domain name was registered in 1996, and the business has a full staff of dedicated office and warehouse employees. Most of its monthly offerings are available only to Clubs of America customers. Its business model, products, guarantees, and membership plan are highlighted.
https://www.greatclubs.com/
The US-based company, owned by Unilever, delivers razors and personal grooming products to customers by mail every month and offers additional grooming products for home delivery. The Dollar Shave Club offers three membership plans, which can be upgraded or downgraded anytime. In 2012, the company expanded to Canada and Australia, and the United Kingdom in 2018. Its programs, rewards, and an overview of its products are featured, along with customer testimonials.
https://us.dollarshaveclub.com/
Trading as Graze, Nature Delivered Limited is a UK-based snack company owned by Unilever. Graze offers more than two hundred snack combinations through snack subscription boxes, an online shop, and retailers. Founded in 2008, the company began delivering snacks across the United Kingdom and expanded to the United States in 2013. Its history, collections, promises, and product catalog are set forth, along with subscription information, job opportunities, and contacts.
https://uk.graze.com/
The German-based meal-kit company operates in the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Europe. It trades on the Frankfort Stock Exchange and is the largest meal-kit provider in the United States. Its business model is to prepare the ingredients needed for a meal and deliver them to subscribers, who must then cook the meal using recipe cards. Its plans, menus, gift cards, and special offers are featured on the website. Questions are answered in a FAQ.
https://www.hellofresh.com/
The meal kit and food delivery company delivers pre-portioned ingredients and recipes to subscribers weekly in the United States. Since Kroger acquired Home Chef in 2018, its meal kits are also stocked at Kroger stores. With distribution centers in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Lithonia, Georgia, Home Chef delivers meals to the lower 48 states, each with recyclable packaging, pre-portioned ingredients, and meal instructions. Breakfast, lunch, smoothie, and fruit basket options are available.
https://www.homechef.com/
Magic Kitchen provides flexible meal plans tailored to individual needs. Seniors, busy corporate customers, and families can select from a variety of meals and delivery schedules. They offer dairy-free, gluten-free, low-carb, low-cholesterol, and low-sodium options and deliver meals to the home. Most require just a few minutes in a microwave to prepare. Menus, options, qualifications, testimonials, online ordering, and contact information are posted on the site.
https://www.magickitchen.com/
Founded in 2015, OwlCrate began as a small, home-based business and has amassed thousands of subscribers. The company orders most of its books from independent artists and sells the remaining stock from previous monthly boxes at reduced prices until the stock is depleted. Subscription boxes are mostly of the science fiction and fantasy genre, designed for young children and adolescent readers, and typically include an exclusive rare design book cover with an author autograph and other items.
https://www.owlcrate.com/
Created in 2012, Petit Vour provides a curated selection of clean, vegan beauty products tailored to the subscriber's preferences. It includes top-rated fragrances, skincare-infused makeup, products designed to hydrate, treat, and protect the skin, and frequent new products. Statements about its performance, ingredient integrity, ethical manufacturing, and exceptional aesthetics are presented, and a list of restricted ingredients is posted, along with its beauty box subscription program.
https://www.petitvour.com/
Offering monthly, biannual, and annual subscription plans, SnackCrate is a subscription program that delivers a monthly box of snacks from around the world. Each month, the subscription will renew for the month's featured country, and a box of surprise snacks will ship to each subscriber before the end of the month. While subscribers can choose their first country from a few options to start, they are surprised each month thereafter. The program is explained here.
https://www.snackcrate.com/
The online personal styling service uses recommendation algorithms and data science to personalize clothing items based on the subscriber's size, budget, and style preferences. Headquartered in San Francisco, California, the company operates internationally. Customers fill out a survey online about their style preferences, and a company stylist selects five items to send, choosing items based on customer surveys and any access they have to their social media outlets.
https://www.stitchfix.com/
Currently carrying more than 450 coffees, Trade Coffee experts search the United States for the best roasters, and its Q Grader tastes each coffee and curates a unique selection meeting the company's quality standards while satisfying the broadest range of tastes. Its data scientists pair feedback from real coffee drinkers with expert tasting notes to narrow its coffees to personalize recommendations for each coffee drinker. Its program is defined, and coffee is delivered to the door.
https://www.drinktrade.com/
Through this subscription book plan, subscribers begin by selecting how many books (1, 2, or 4) they would like in their subscription, although this quantity can be changed before each renewal. Next, they would select a favorite genre. Then, they can sit back and wait for their first shipment. Only used books meeting quality standards are sent. Selections are carefully curated each month based on the subscriber's selected genres. Gift certificates can also be bought.
https://www.usedbooksmonthly.com/
