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Katie Rosen Kitchens Co-founder and Editor-in-Main of FabFitFun

Tenure

March 2010-Present

Experience

Prior to founding FabFitFun, Rosen Kitchens was a freelance writer for publications such equally the Los Angeles Times, Fine art and Living, Women's Life and Dining Out. She also worked in events and marketing at Out of the Box Events.

FabFitFun doesn't want to tell you how you should look, how you lot should dress or how yous should feel. FabFitFun just wants to be your best friend. The best friend, that is, "that merely happened to know everything well-nigh dazzler, fashion and fitness."

At least that's how Katie Rosen Kitchens, co-founder of the subscription-based service and editor-in-main of its media arm, describes it. In many ways, it sounds similar a useful best friend to take — 1 that'southward always digging upwards cool new products and sharing them with you — simply that'south where the illustration falls short. Because most shoppers don't pay $49.99 seasonally for the luxury of having a well-informed bestie.

In reality, FabFitFun isn't asking customers to pay $50 for a best friend's communication every season. Members are paying that much to receive $200 worth of products every 3 months, discounts on other items sold through its website and admission to a whole community of FabFitFun lovers, as well every bit conditioning and cooking content.

"Our goal is really to exist the most valuable membership in a person's life," Rosen Kitchens said in an interview with Retail Swoop. "We believe with FabFitFun, you lot are never too decorated to take care of yourself."

Thinking outside the (subscription) box

There are subscriptions for just well-nigh everything , from wearing apparel to beauty to food. FabFitFun falls somewhere in the middle of a few spaces, with a mix of apparel and accessories, domicile items and fitness products. In some ways, information technology'southward aiming to exist a lifestyle box the way that so many direct-to-consumer businesses are trying to become lifestyle brands.

The appeal of a lifestyle make, at to the lowest degree to a consumer, is largely that it tracks with their own likes and dislikes beyond several tangentially related categories: a one-terminate shop for that piece of their life. One needn't look far to find examples of brands doing exactly that, including unicorns like Away and Casper , which have both expanded beyond a cadre product into adjacent categories, aiming to be the make for travel or sleep, respectively.

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With FabFitFun, that challenge is three-fold. Not only does the company have to stay relevant in the beauty space, curating cosmetics and haircare products that its members will (hopefully) love, but the aforementioned has to be done in fettle and home products, 3 spaces that are not all that similar. Whereas a lifestyle brand like Away wants to resonate with a specific travel lifestyle, FabFitFun is trying to harmonize with the private lifestyles of over one million members, on at to the lowest degree three dissever planes.

"If y'all think about what nosotros do — members are paying us for something that they have no thought what it is," Rosen Kitchens said of the difficulties in curation. "In gild to brand that work, in order for them to keep to give us $49.99 every quarter, they really accept to trust u.s.a. and we have to continue to evangelize value, surprise, delight and actually enrich their lives in a way that feels meaningful."

That's been a big shift from when the visitor first launched the subscription box in 2013. According to Rosen Kitchens, FabFitFun started off with around 2,000 members, all of whom were familiar with the brand through its written content.

"They all came from the website, they were very much my demo, and it was relatively easy for me to pick eight or nine products I liked and have it resonate with our members," Rosen Kitchens said of the early days of the business organisation, noting that the audience is much more diverse now. "What we know is that an 18-yr-sometime in San Diego doesn't want necessarily the same production as a 75-twelvemonth-old in Kansas City, and both women exist in our membership."

Combating that has meant proactively reaching out to shoppers for feedback on their about recent box and giving customers the option to mitt pick some of the items that will come up in their box, perchance selecting a scarf over a haircare production.

"What we know is that an 18-year-one-time in San Diego doesn't want necessarily the same product as a 75-year-onetime in Kansas City, and both women exist in our membership."

Katie Rosen Kitchens

Co-founder and Editor in Primary of FabFitFun

Customers also play a cardinal part in the selection process while the next box is being planned. Employees on FabFitFun's consumer insights team survey customers most which brands they like, what trends they're excited about and other preferences to get an idea of where they should go looking for their side by side batch of products.

An additional layer of quality command comes through a testing phase after products have been selected.

"Anybody on the team, from merch to operations to marketing to editorial, really get their hands dirty and try out these products to make sure that they are, ane, equally effective and wonderful as nosotros believe them to exist, and two, that they're going to resonate with our incredibly diverse membership," Rosen Kitchens said. "That they look skilful on all different skin tones and skin types, that they fit on different body types, etc."

Keeping things fresh

The other challenge with running a subscription-based business, in add-on to curating boxes well, is maintaining excitement around a product that comes on a regular basis. Challenges with retention vary depending on the source of the analysis, simply one survey from last year establish that almost 40% of subscribers finish upward canceling their services, and only 55% of consumers who consider a subscription actually end upwardly signing up for it.

Other studies have taken a more than positive expect at the model as it gains momentum with younger demographics . An Baronial written report by Magid establish that renewal rates for subscription services were 85%, with club, fitness and food memberships being the nigh popular.

While subscription services are certainly catching on in retail, with Gap and Target fifty-fifty launching kids subscription boxes, the ability to retain customers is a constant business concern from skeptics of the model. That pressure has arguably led to more flexibility in subscription services, with some offering the ability to skip a calendar month or post-obit a similar model to Stitch Fix, which offers a seasonal selection and a i-fourth dimension "fix" in improver to the monthly product information technology became famous for.

FabFitFun'due south solution to the retentiveness upshot was to launch with a seasonal service rather than a monthly 1, which Rosen Kitchens believes is a large driver of the brand's user-generated content.

"What we found is this three months in between boxes really helped to build the anticipation and the excitement," she said, noting that when the boxes finally arrive customers have "been waiting for it" and jump onto social media to share their favorite products.

Brand and product assortment also play a role in keeping the box fresh every season. Not only does the company try to residuum the boxes with a multifariousness of personal care, habitation, wellness, wearing apparel and accessories products, but they also include a mix of established, well-loved brands with up-and-coming brands that their members might not take tried out all the same.

"[T]he reality is: most of our members are working professionals, they're moms. They don't have an hour to spend in the mirror before they go to work."

Katie Rosen Kitchens

Co-founder and Editor in Chief of FabFitFun

The idea is to requite customers some things they already know and love while as well fostering a sense of discovery. It's also left room for FabFitFun to launch its own private labels, which are tossed in with proper name brands in customer's boxes and, co-ordinate to Rosen Kitchens, are also beingness grown exterior of the FabFitFun universe through retail partners like Urban Outfitters.

The brand's private labels include ISH (I am Smoking Hot), a cosmetics brand; Summer and Rose, a beachy accessories line; Chic and Tonic, a home drinkware drove and ii others launching over the summertime and the fourth quarter respectively.

The company's decision to move into private labels followed similar logic to Glamsquad, a service-based company that ultimately launched makeup and pilus care products because of the overwhelming amount of data information technology received from client feedback. Rosen Kitchens said it all started when contouring was the hip new trend in cosmetics and she struggled — hard — to discover a product that made sense for members.

"All of these kits were super time intensive," she explained. "The thought was, like, you embrace your confront in all this makeup that makes yous look like a panthera leo and then you rub it in. And the reality is: most of our members are working professionals, they're moms. They don't take an hour to spend in the mirror before they go to piece of work."

As it turned out, the solution to finding a production was to stop looking and outset creating.

A amend box

And so far, the company's efforts in the subscription space seem to be paying off. The retailer raised $80 million in a Serial A funding round in January and has a valuation of $930 million, according to PitchBook. Not only that, simply the retailer recently appear its expansion into the U.K., which kicked off May 15, in function due to "thousands of in-bounds requesting FabFitFun" in the expanse, co-founders Michael and Daniel Broukhim told Retail Dive in an email.

Despite its success in the subscription space, Rosen Kitchens notes that she doesn't compare FabFitFun to other subscription boxes, but likens it instead to memberships such every bit Amazon Prime number, Spotify and Netflix, which are personalization-heavy services. Much like those platforms, Rosen Kitchens argues, FabFitFun is using customer data to provide a ameliorate, personalized experience.

"It's that Paradox of Choice that leaves us paralyzed."

Katie Rosen Kitchens

Co-founder and Editor in Principal of FabFitFun

The retailer's efforts are by no ways over. According to the Broukhims, the brand'southward latest Summertime Box had over 1,000 variations, but onboarding surveys, which gauge a customer's involvement in certain products, are but used to "curate overall boxes," Rosen​ Kitchens said.

"So we know more of our members prefer argent over aureate, we know what pct of our members are going to find a super heavy scarf useful because of the percentage of members who live in a cold climate," Rosen Kitchens said of the mode personalization currently works at FabFitFun. "So that's how we buy product and how we plan for overall box curation."

Where'south the testify that information technology'south working? At least on the business side, 95% of the brands the company sends out in boxes ask to partner with the company again, Rosen​ Kitchens said.

She admits that FabFitFun was slow to start in personalization and is at present investing heavily to make sure customers are getting better boxes in the future — a quest to improve choices that, ultimately, her team is making for customers. And nonetheless, that's also role of the appeal of the box: not having to choose.

"We live in a world of just countless option and we know that endless choice leads to stress, distress, unhappiness, correct?" Rosen Kitchens said. "It's that 'paradox of choice' that leaves us paralyzed. What we're doing with this is we are curating pick."