Beauty subscription pioneer Bellabox to cease operations amid rising costs
Bellabox, a skincare and beauty product subscription service that pioneered the model in Australia, says it will cease operations this month.
Bellabox, a skincare and beauty product subscription service that pioneered the model in Australia, says it will cease operations this month.
In a statement shared across social media on Thursday, Bellabox said economic challenges over the past year drove the decision to wind down.
“Operating a subscription business is no easy feat, and with the current retail landscape being particularly tough, the additional demands and rising costs have made it increasingly challenging for our small Australian-owned business to stay afloat,” the business said.
Bellabox is sending its final subscription boxes, with the business “committed to ensuring you receive your boxes as planned”.
Founded in 2011 by sisters Emily and Sarah Hamilton, Bellabox was an early competitor in Australia’s booming beauty box subscription market.
Emulating overseas players like Birchbox, Bellabox operated on two fronts: as a consumer-facing business allowing subscribers to try a wide variety of products, and as a marketing channel for those very same brands.
“We tell the brands we’re a marketing and sales service, and the channel we use is our subscription boxes and our online store,” Sarah Hamilton told SmartCompany in 2013.
“We’re not a glamorous beauty company. We’re logistics, we’re marketing and we’re all the other facets.”
The brand outlived roughly a dozen domestic competitors within its first two years, and in 2013 secured a $1.3 million investment from parties including Square Peg Capital, Apex Capital, and Monash Private Capital.
By the end of that year, Bellabox boasted the delivery of 10,000 boxes a month.
The same year, the Hamiltons co-founded their own skincare label, Sand & Sky; Sarah Hamilton would go on to co-found the popular haircare line STRAAND in 2023.
Enticed by Bellabox’s success, Allure Media, then owned by Fairfax Media, acquired half of the business in 2014 for $3 million.
Further entrepreneurial success would come through the Emily Hamilton’s launch of Coco & Eve in 2019, whose Bali-inspired products are now stocked across Australia, and by global skincare giants like the UK’s Boots and America’s Ulta chain.
Bellabox faced another burst of success in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic when many locked-down Australian consumers sought ways to pamper themselves at home.
However, the reopening of brick-and-mortar stores, and rising inflation since the end of public health restrictions, have made it hard for subscription box services and online marketplaces to operate in Australia.
Backdropped by rising operating costs, including increased postage fees, numerous Australian lootbox-style businesses have either shut doors or drastically changed their business model in recent years.
At the same time, the Australian market has embraced operators like Adore Beauty and Mecca, the latter of which offers its own Beauty Loop program, granting shoppers sample boxes when they hit certain spending thresholds.
After more than a decade of service to curious beauty and skincare fans, Bellabox thanked subscribers for their support over the years.
“While this chapter is coming to a close, we hope you’ll join us in celebrating the wonderful memories and connections we’ve built together,” it said.
SmartCompany has contacted Bellabox for comment.
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