The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan 321: Birchbox’s Katia Beauchamp On Scaling Relationships, Building Trust, And More
In 2010, only 2% of beauty products were being sold on the internet. When Katia Beauchamp and her Harvard Business School classmate, Hayley Barna, came across this statistic, they were floored. This seemed like a huge missed opportunity—so they decided to dig deeper.
What they discovered was that people were overwhelmed by the prospect of shopping for beauty products. With this problem in mind, Birchbox was created as the simple solution. The monthly subscription box contained a wide variety of beauty samples, and customers could buy the full size of whichever product they liked. In short, Birchbox made the beauty shopping experience easy for the casual consumer.
Since the brand’s launch in 2010, Birchbox has grown to a nine-figure business that now has access to thousands of products, offers over 100 types of boxes for consumers, and has expanded globally. Listen to this podcast episode to learn more about Beauchamp’s thoughts on scaling relationships, building a trustworthy brand, and appealing to your target customer.
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Key Takeaways
- Why people weren’t shopping for beauty products online in the mid-2000s
- How this problem inspired Beauchamp and co-founder Hayley Barna to launch their beauty subscription box, Birchbox
- The idea of the “casual consumer” and how this demographic became Birchbox’s target customer
- Why Beauchamp doesn’t view beauty stores like Sephora or department stores as competitors
- How Birchbox launched its beta test in 2010, and what it took to grow its customer base
- Beauchamp’s thoughts on scaling relationships and building a trustworthy brand
- What Beauchamp is most excited about when it comes to the future of Birchbox