Mystery box delivers beauty to your door

Customers talk with saleswomen at cosmetic shops. Buying a face lotion or foundation is a risky business — cosmetics cost a fortune and they may not even work for you. / Korea Times file

By Noh Hyun-gi

Buying a face lotion or foundation is a risky business — cosmetics cost a fortune and they may not even work for you. Sellers only provide additional samples upon purchase, and refunds are rarely available for opened products.

This inconvenient point of transaction is where Glossy Box steps in. Every month, Glossy Box members receive pink boxes with five miniature cosmetic products for 16,500 won. Members order the box in the previous month, and to spice things up, Glossy Box unveils the content on the first day of the month. Often, the boxes are sold out before the products are made known.

With enough to test the product for one to two weeks, women can make educated purchases. Moreover, Glossy Box provides discounts and bonuses if one chooses to buy a product that was included in the box.

This unique service doesn’t just benefit the members. The monthly delivery is a great way for cosmetic companies to promote their products and get feedback.

“To the suppliers, we provide market intelligence service. Our members represent very specific demographic — Korean women in their 20s and 30s who are interested in beauty. Thus, we possess an inventory of data sources that all beauty companies want,” said Choi Hongjun, CEO of Glossy Box Korea and managing director of Glossy Box Asia.

“Beauty firms come to us when they want to, for example, devise a new marketing strategy or need consumer opinion on their new products.”

Firms are eager to know how they should phrase their key messages — aggressive, active, or comforting- through which channel — Twitter, blogs or salesperson.

Glossy Box started with some 500 members in June 2011. Fortunately, those brave enough to sign up for this new service were also quite vocal. “Many of the early members were power bloggers. We definitely benefited a lot from their online reviews about our boxes,” Choi said. Now the company has about 12,000 members. Some cosmetic suppliers agreed to produce miniatures to cater specifically to Glossy Box.

He brought the Germany-based service to Korea. “There are a number of similar services.”

The pioneers were Hayley Barna and Katia Beauchamp, graduates from Harvard Business School. They launched Birchbox in 2010 which has grown into a more than $12 million-a-year business with over 100,000 members in the United States. “Glossy Box was looking to expand overseas; many investors were surprised by just how much people utilize the Internet for information gathering. Korea is a gold-mine for web-based marketing.”

Though there are only 21 employees on board, Glossy Box Korea does not gloss over any detail. Customizing the boxes to fit every member’s skin type and preference is given. It also compiles each member’s feedback and history to ensure a satisfying delivery. “If a member received foundation, we make sure that she doesn’t get a similar product for at least two boxes.”

Glossy Box is not out to provide bargain deals. “We are for people who want to be at the front of beauty trends; those who are interested in learning what’s new and hot.”

“There are so many great programs to process data. What we need are people who can ask the right questions, and I’ve been lucky with people.”

Choi is a data nerd turned beauty guru. He majored in Economics at Seoul National University. Then, he worked at IBM for sales and marketing where he became fascinated with data mining. After receiving a Master in Business Administration at the University of California, Los Angeles, Choi moved to New York to work for Yahoo’s online marketing department. “I’ve been drawn to numbers — online marketing is based on data.”

Glossy Box was a perfect move for Choi.

“It collects a pool of data for the benefits of both the customers and the cosmetic brands.” He finds beauty related data is extremely attractive because it is highly segmented and specific. “Profiling is so easy. Based on a woman’s lifestyle — income, education level and so on — we can tailor our approaches.”

“Also, the industry itself has one of the most sophisticated marketing infrastructures. The marketing managers have very high standards and demands, which pose an enjoyable challenge for me.”

According to an analysis, Korean women in their early 20s gather most of their information on beauty products from the Internet. But the most crucial input that leads to purchase are friends’ opinions

The box sometimes comes with unexpected surprises. In the month with Valentine’s day, the members received boxes with chocolates as well as coupons to go on dates organized by a matchmaking company.

Choi added that he plans to expand their game. “Right now, when people think of Glossy Box, they think of the monthly delivery. However, it is our goal to become a beauty portal known for our content such as articles.”

Competition is mushrooming but Choi is not worried. “The emergence of similar services demonstrates that we are over the proof-of-concept phase. This will also encourage more women to register for membership.”

As of February, the Korea Food and Drug Administration banned all sales of cosmetic samples. “We are not selling samples that are meant for free distribution — we provide miniatures meant for sale.” Yet the guidelines from the government agency are fuzzy; Choi and his team are working with officials to set the rules.