MEMEBOX
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Contents
Background
- E-commerce beauty retailer
- Launched in Seoul, Korea, headquartered in Palo Alto, California
- Consists of 6-8 Korea beauty products
- Deluxe samples
- Full sizes
- Offer insights into Korean cosmetic trends
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Click to visit --> MEMEBOX fb page
Click to visit --> MEMEBOX website
Company business model
- Curate best-loved Korean beauty products at everyday prices
- Steer away from traditional subscription-based programs
- No monthly subscriptions
- Customers buy according to their wants
- Order online, deliver to them
- Buy full sized at discounted rate
Memebox curates only the most trusted, best-loved Korean beauty products at everyday price. Unlike traditional subscription-based programs, Memebox believes in offering consumers the utmost freedom, by allowing them to only buy what they want. An email will be sent to their customers when a new box is available, and if they are interested, they will order online which will be delivered to them. If they like the products in the box, they can buy the full sized from Memebox website at a discounted rate. The boxes are only available for 1-time purchase.As of now, no subscription. Boxes are available for 1-time purchase, not subscribed to anything like other beauty box services like Birchbox or Glossybok. Memebox will email notification whenever they launch a new box.
Company team
| Name | Designation |
|---|---|
| Hyungseok Dino Ha | CEO (Co-founder) |
| Namsu Ryan Kim | CTO |
| Gyeong Su Jeff Cho | COO |
| Dosung Derek Choi | CIO |
| Doin Kim | CPO (Co-founder) |
Company current outlook
- Achieved break-even in third month of business
- Continue to grow in revenue
- Receiving funds from investors
- Long-term partnership agreement
- Partnership with 300 beauty suppliers and manufacturers
- Shipped to over 36 countries
Their position is also bolstered by a long-term partnership agreement with powerful local partners, such as CJ E&M, a major media channel in Korea. This, combined with their existing partnership agreements with over 300 beauty suppliers and manufacturers in Korea, makes their expansion plans seem very realistic, as long as logistical issues can be resolved effectively.
Memebox ships to 36 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russian Federation, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Ukraine, United Kingdom, USA, Vietnam.
Company Business Strategy
- Reduce start up cost
- Hire interns
- Disregard engineers and designers
- Focus on sales, partnering with good brands
- Speed
- Cheap and effective marketing tactics
- Eliminate conventional subscription
In an interview, Memebox's CEO mentioned that the US customers tend to think that Asian companies have better skincare product. Up to date, despite with a minimal marketing and sales presence, they have 10,000 sales customers across USA. They have since used Asian branding and image as their selling point as well as Famous brand Cosmax brand to fill their boxes. By partnering with great brands like Cormex. They are able to utilise cheap marketing tactics. for example: using word of mouth and riding on the branding of bigger cosmetic product names.They engage in Facebook and twitter to actively promote their product. Samples are sent to bloggers to review regularly. They even entered a partnership with Korean talkshow : “ Get it Beauty” and at the same time Korean international star PSY to be part of their product in one of their MEMEBOX editions.
They have already partner Y Combinator in USA to accelerate their expansion plans in USA. In the initial phase, speed was their focus. They wanted to push out their products as soon as possible.
In order to reduce cost in Memebox, Memebox do not hire engineers and designers. They do outsource e-commerce ,marketing collaterals. They.They had sales in mind and only hired sales people from the start to drive their sales.
Challenges
- Initial challenges
- Building a user-friendly e-commerce website. "Website looked like crap."
- Finding good brands for partnership
- Managing cash flow
- Current challenges
- Expansion overlapping large corporations
Current competitors
Analysis
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Future Growth for MEMEBOX?
- Create own Memebox beauty products
Products in our Memebox branded collection currently include basic cosmetic items such as face brushes and cotton pads. We seek to expand this range, and Memebox's private collection will be an online-and-mobile-exclusive label.
- Partnership with Y Combinator, further expansion in USA
It’s the first Korean company accepted into the Y Combinator program recently this month .Y Combinator is an American seed accelerator, started in March 2005. Y Combinator provides seed money, advice, and connections at two three-month programs per year.
- Global expansion
Memebox has more than 100,000 users and is past the preparation stage, and is now ready to execute their global expansion strategy. After Japan, their next target market is Thailand, and later the rest of Southeast Asia..
Recommendations
- Expanding to retailers to sell Memebox
Instead of being just an e commerce, Memebox can expand the distribution channels, by allowing selective retailers to sell their products as well. This way, they can reach out to more people, especially those who are not tech savvy. It also eliminate any significant cost since they are not setting up a physical store.
- Social media campaign to market within South East Asia(SEA)
Memebox has also mentioned they would like to target the South East Asia market and have a website that is more localised to SEA context. However, there is a lack of awareness of this brand in SEA now, and their Facebook Page does not seem as active. Therefore, social media campaigns can be launched to raise awareness about the company. For example, they can have people to like Memebox FB page, share & win competition whereby the winners will get some free beauty products. By having their current fans to share, they are able to reach out to more people and their friends’ friends may share as well, which will increase the outreach and enhance Memebox's social media presence.
- Setting up virtual store near shopping malls, subway stations
Like the Tesco virtual supermarket, they can collaborate with advertising agency to set up virtual store in locations whereby people interested in beauty products will be able to notice and make purchase. There is not much physical cost involved besides setting up of the virtual store, and this is another distribution channel whereby they are able to gain new customers.
