Creating a Business with Custom Subscription Boxes
Sometimes, you just need to look cute when you go to your book club.
At least, that’s what Tanisha “Nisha” Parker thinks. And that’s also why she created BeautyandaBookBox.com – in part with the help of BoxUp.
Parker’s not only an entrepreneur, but she’s also an author. (Oh, and a wife, mother, and special education teacher.) Out on a book tour back in 2017 for a trilogy she had written, she kept hearing people repeating similar things.
“A lot of people were saying, ‘Oh my gosh, this is the first time I’m buying a book in 10 years’ or ‘I don’t get to read’ … and I was just, like, ‘What?!’” she said.
The wheels started churning for Parker. She knew how to run a business already. She’d had both an event-planning business and an online boutique before. But they weren’t quite what she wanted to be doing.
“I was searching for that ‘thing’,” Parker said. She clearly loved reading and writing – but she needed that hook. “So, when I came up with the idea to combine and align literacy with beauty, I had to think of a way to do it that could reach a lot of people. And that’s when I saw the subscription model.”
She then pitched the idea to a few friends who had been business partners with her in the past. Immediately, they wanted to set up a business plan. “Let’s learn this platform of subscription boxes,” they said. BeautyandaBookBox.com was born.
And to learn the business model of subscription boxes, Parker and her friends had to do a deep dive. Into boxes.
“I’m in a lot of subscription box company resource groups, and I was researching “where is the best place to get your boxes?’” she said. “And then when people made their recommendations, I went to look at their box to see, because sometimes cheaper is not better. It may be better for your pockets, but is it better for your brand? Do you want a mushy box going to your subscribers? … We want to give them something of quality.”
Her research led her to a few names – including BoxUp’s. She ordered samples from three vendors.
“I could tell the difference between the boxes,” Parker said. “I knew I liked this one (from BoxUp.com), I liked the sturdiness. When we’re packing boxes, we have to stack them, and we don’t see them mushed in.”
BoxUp was the winner. And she wasn’t the only one who liked the boxes.
“People reuse it!” she said. “So, after they take the contents out, they tell us that they use it for the bookmarks we send, or they use it for our journals – and that’s really great.”
But it’s a lot more than just the box that drew Parker in.
“I like BoxUp’s design process,” she said. “I like that they have that digital tool that you can use to see the entire box and turn it. … I love, love, love this feature. It gives you a true visual.”
In addition, Parker likes the low number of minimums that BoxUp has. Combined with the pricing, it works for her startup.
“The more you buy, the cheaper it is,” she said. “I like that they do have minimums, where you can buy 12, or you can buy 36. Because our numbers fluctuate, I like the flexibility of not having to hold a bunch of boxes in the house or in our workspace. We can just actually order what we need.”
Since starting BeautyandaBookBox in 2019, Parker has learned quite a bit about boxes, too.
“When we first started, we started with the flat wider boxes, and then we realized there was too much movement because of too much space,” she said. “So now we have the taller boxes with minimal width. Because it’s able to fit the book in it, and it’s able to fit the beauty products in it.”
BoxUp has lots of variety in packaging sizes, she said.
“They have different types of boxes, so you can get how you want the boxing to be,” Parker said. “There’s so many different styles of boxes, so choose something that works for your customer. … We send a lot of international boxes, so sometimes they’re in transit for weeks. We wanted something sturdy that wasn’t going to open in the process. You have to choose based on who you’re serving.”
And though she still receives emails from companies that want her to make a switch in box vendors, she’s not budging.
“We get a lot of inquiries from different companies in Asia to give us more boxes for less money – but I just don’t want to gamble,” she said. “This is highly important to me, and now we have an established brand where people know the quality of what we’re going to send. So, I don’t want to switch that. … It’s just been a great partnership with BoxUp. That’s why we’ve stayed with them because they’ve just been amazing.”
BoxUp is a business she’s proud to align hers with.
“Overall, it’s just been a professional experience,” Parker said. “If we have a question about anything, they have the chat box feature on their website and they get back to you ASAP, which is great. Once it’s good, I don’t change. If it’s working, why change?”