Subscription Boxes: The Beauty Industry's Best New Tool?

Each day I am taunted by a new subscription box. FabFitFun, Birchbox, YogaClub—the list is endless (but my bank account is not, so I'll have to resist the temptation for now). Subscription boxes—monthly boxes shipped to customers filled with a variety of sample products, usually sampling on a theme like beauty products or exercise gear—have taken off over the past year. There is a box for everything—one for being single, one for potheads, even one for people who just really like Pusheen the cat. And according to a recent study by Hitwise, the U.S. subscription market has grown by over 800% in the past few years.

Subscription boxes aren't a totally new invention. From Book of the Month to Beer of the Month, monthly subscription boxes have been around for awhile, but they've only recently hit their stride. I chalk that up to Instagram. Most of these boxes—especially those featuring beauty products—are clearly designed to be marketed through Instagram. The packages themselves are aesthetically appealing, and the companies tend to advertise with promoted photos on Instagram feeds. For some, part of the appeal of getting a box at all is to be able to post a photo of it when it arrives.

Based on the numbers, that strategy is clearly working out for the makers of the boxes. But I'm curious how well these boxes work as a tool for the individual companies whose products are featured in the boxes. Did Orville Redenbacher's sales go up after one of their products was featured in the FabFitFun box? I'll be researching questions like this over the next few weeks to determine if subscription boxes are a viable option for companies looking to gain exposure to new customers.