Overview:
‘Build-a-box’, also known as box or box subscriptions, is a subset of subscription or recurring revenue-based business models. In build-a-box, a customer is allowed to literally build their own customized box of products or services and check them out together, as a bundle. The same bundle is delivered on a recurring basis to the customer! Some of the well-known and successful examples of build-a-box models are Stich fix (apparel and fashion), Dollar Shave (grooming), and Hello Fresh (food). What started as an innovative business model idea to build customer loyalty and lasting relationships about a decade ago has grown at a stellar rate! The IMARC group estimates the worldwide size of the subscription box market at approx. $18.8B (as of 2020), with a 20% YoY CAGR. That is just astounding!
In this help doc, we will be walking you through the steps to set up a build-a-box, or bundling, model in your store using Appstle Subscriptions.
Creating a build-a-box subscription using Appstle
Create a Subscription Plan: The first step in creating a build-a-box plan is creating a regular or traditional subscription plan.
To learn more about creating a regular subscription plan, please click on this link.
In your dashboard, go to Settings > Subscriber Acquisition Settings > Build-A-Box.
Toggle General State on.
Choose from one of two types of Build-a-box, Classic or Single Product.
The main difference between them lies in pricing. In Classic, the pricing will depend on the number of products a customer adds into their box and the price of the individual products. In Single Product, you, as the merchant, set a fixed quantity of products for purchase at a fixed price (determined when creating your subscription plan).Set the minimum product count, as well as the minimum and maximum order amounts customers' boxes need to be with numbers that make the most sense for you in the appropriate fields.
Finally, select where the bundle (accessible through a link you will receive once the build-a-box is finalized) will redirect upon opening. It is the cart page by default, but it can be configured in the dropdown to also be either the checkout page or a custom page on your website (with an appropriate URL).
Finally, there is the option for Tiered Discounts. You can choose to base it on quantities of products or the monetary value of products being purchased.
Then configure the discounts so that the more customers purchase, the greater discount they will receive.
Then there’s the Single Product type. Like with Classic, select a subscription plan you have created to tie the box to.
You will need to select a source products, which will act as poster products for every build-a-box option you want to provide to your customers. Click Add Settings in Single Product Build-A-Box Settings if you intend to provide more than one option.
Select the products you wish to enable with the single product build a box in Basic Settings.
Subscription Bundle Link: To generate the subscription link, click save and re-open the subscription plan. A subscription bundle link will be automatically generated. You can click on the highlighted 'document' icon to copy the subscription bundle link.
Build-a-box menu: To make the build-a-box, a part of your product page and Shopify admin page, go to Shopify Admin - Online Store - Navigations. Click on open Main Menu
Click on Add Menu Item. The 'menu item' here refers to the bundle subscription you just created.
Name the 'Menu item' and Paste the Subscription Bundle Link that you copied in Step 4.
Click on save. When you go to your online store, you will see the Build-a-Box Menu.
Here are examples of how both types of build-a-boxes will look like:
Classic:
Customers will be directed to a page where they can immediately choose products to add to their carts to purchase.
Single Product:
Customers will first see a page where they can choose the build-a-box plan that they would like to purchase from. The products they will see here are the source products you chose when configuring, and the price they will see is the price of the source product you set when creating your subscription plan.
Once selected, they can click Next Step to be taken to the product selection page:
Customization: You can customize the build-a-box page to best suit your store, theme, and industry, by using our Subscription Bundling CSS)
If you want to learn more about strategizing the build-a-box model, please visit our blog article.
Don't hesitate to reach out to us
Irrespective of whether you are someone who already has a box subscription business, or are exploring the option, we hope this process explanation was useful to you. If you have any questions on build-a-box or need any help, please don't hesitate to reach out to us at subscription-support@appstle.com. Our 24x7x365 available experts will be happy to assist you further.