Birchbox enters bricks-and-mortar

Birchbox, a New York-based online monthly subscription service that offers beauty products, is entering bricks-and-mortar. The company recently announced a partnership with Walgreens and opened its first bricks-and-mortar within Walgreens locations in December 2018. During an interview with the National Retail Federation, Birchbox Co-Founder and CEO Katia Beauchamp shared more about the newly announced partnership and the evolution of the disruptive beauty brand.

Before Birchbox launched in 2010, Beauchamp and her co-founder Hayley Barna looked at the beauty market and saw a $500 billion industry that hadn’t been experienced any change since the primary market shifted from department stores to specialty stores. In 2010, she says, only 2 percent of beauty sales were sold online. Once Birchbox introduced a new form of beauty purchasing and personalizing, the number of consumers demanding the convenience of purchasing beauty products online became more prominent.

“We just thought, ‘Wow, this one feels obvious,’” Beauchamp said. “Within two days, we came up with a business model that was a personalized subscription paired with content, paired with ecommerce, so you could discover, learn and buy in one encapsulated experience.”

Although Birchbox launched as an e-commerce brand, moving into physical retail enhances the experience. “We believe that physical retail can just deepen that relationship,” she says, “and create something that is long-lasting for a new kind of consumer-driven business.”

To watch the NRF interview, click here.