Birchbox Opens First Retail Store in NYC

From online sampling to retail sampling…Birchbox is opening its first retail store this spring in the heart of NYC’s SoHo’s main shopping area.

Birchbox, is the pioneer of beauty sampling box subscriptions. Born out of the idea that women wanted help “de-cluttering” their beauty products, Birchbox founders Katia Beauchamp and Hayley Barna created Birchbox, a $10 monthly online subscription service which sent consumers a little box of high-end beauty samples based on their online beauty profiles.

Based on its success, Birchbox extended into men’s products in April 2012 with Birchbox Man and in September 2012, acquired Paris-based JolieBox gaining international customers in France, the UK, and Spain.

Following the lead of other web-only retailers like Bonobos and Warby Parker, Birchbox decided to open its first brick-and-mortar physical store in New York City this spring. It first experimented by opening five “pop up” stores for brief stints in New York City and the Hamptons. According to a recent NY Times article, Barna “saw some clues along the way — wow, it’s really powerful to interact with our customers.”

With the store, Beauchamp said, “We want that message to be clearer to consumers. You’re supposed to discover what you love and then act on that” by buying it from Birchbox.

Promising a “full retail store experience,” Birchbox’s store will carry about 2,000 products for sale in the store (representing some 150 to 250 brands), and will include a row of vanities for product testing, makeup and hair-styling classes, and a unique  B.Y.O.B. (Build your own Birchbox) section which lets shoppers fill those pink boxes with samples of their choice for $15.

(l to r) Birchbox co-founders  Hayley Barna, and Katia Beauchamp, standing in their first retail store in NYC’s SoHo district (photo from Evan Sung for The New York Times)

Adding a “high tech feel” to the planned store, Birchbox will install touch screens throughout the store for shoppers to access product information, recommendations, and customer reviews.

The store will open in late May or early June.

We’re curious to see how Birchbox does with their first retail store. They’ve certainly made their impact on the beauty industry by introducing a revolutionary business model involving beauty sampling and the buying of selling and buying beauty products online. In creating their first retail store, Birchbox is bridging the gap between online and retail and brings up the question of whether online brand can exist without a retail component.