If you already sell high-quality meat online, offering a meat subscription box could be a great source of recurring revenue.
But simply offering a subscription isn’t a guarantee for success. You need to create a subscription box that encapsulates what makes you unique. Still stuck? Sometimes, it’s helpful to look at established businesses for inspiration.
In this article, we’ll look at our favorite meat subscription boxes, what you can learn from them, and give you an overview of how you can manage your own.
Related Read: How To Sell Beef Off the Farm: 6 Best Practices
If you’re thinking of offering meat subscription boxes, it’s important to know what draws people to them in the first place.
No matter what form your subscription takes, make sure it ticks all these boxes.
If you need inspiration for your meat subscription boxes, here are three great companies to look at.
ButcherBox is one of the most popular meat subscription boxes for a good reason. Much of its appeal comes from its no-nonsense approach, offering delivery monthly or every other month at an affordable price. They tend to offer high-quality replacements for what you’d get at a grocery store instead of specialty cuts.
ButcherBox works with a collection of farms and meat suppliers, so it can work at a scale and offer free shipping that may be out of reach for smaller businesses. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t some lessons to take away from their success.
Takeaways
Rastelli’s started as a local butcher shop and has been in operation for over 40 years, marketing themselves as “America’s Personal Butcher.” They offer a mix of curated boxes or give customers the option to build custom boxes.
They proudly share their story with their customers all over the website, which is a great lesson for any small meat business. Remember, if people want meat from a faceless store, they’ll go to a big supermarket. Most people looking to buy from a small business like yours want to know your story and what sets you apart, something your website should proudly showcase.
Takeaways
Porter Road sells single cuts of beef, chicken, pork, and sausage as well as curated subscription boxes. Unlike others on this list, their subscriptions focus less on choice and variety, but the careful curation of these boxes makes them stand out.
As a small business, you may not have the inventory to offer monthly custom subscriptions. A curated subscription box gives you the flexibility to surprise customers and manage your inventory more effectively.
Takeaways
Here are the basic steps to set up and manage a successful meat subscription box.
Subscriptions are an excellent way for meat sellers to build recurring revenue. Unfortunately, not all e-commerce solutions are built to handle them.
To successfully offer a meat subscription box on your website, your e-commerce solution must have a few specific features.
Some platforms allow you to pay for food-specific add-ons or integrate with other programs. We recommend using an e-commerce platform that includes all the features you need to cut down on subscription costs and complexity.
There are many ways to offer meat subscriptions to customers. The most common are:
There’s no right or wrong type of subscription — pick one that’s a good fit for your business.
Pro tip: If you sell single items and boxes, offering a slight discount for subscriptions is a good idea. Some e-commerce tools let customers subscribe and save before they add an item to their cart — an effective upselling tool.
Boxes can also be either a fixed or variable price. Many subscription services at a fixed price offer a range of weights (e.g., 10-15 lbs) to ensure boxes with more expensive cuts remain profitable.
Next, determine how often you want to ship your subscription box and how far you’ll ship it. Cold shipping partners for fresh food tend to be more expensive to use than standard shipping, and sometimes shipping nationwide isn’t worth the added cost.
Use your e-commerce solution to set up shipping regions and automatically assign a shipping method based on the customer’s zip code. Many subscription boxes offer free shipping, but that may only be worth it for high-value orders.
A vital part of a subscription box is, well, the box. Find packaging that both shows off your brand and is food-safe. One easy way to do this is to have an outer branded box and include the more practical insulated packing material inside it.
Use insulated box liners and find eco-friendly packing materials, as many consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable products.
If you include receipts, recipes, or other printed information inside the box, make sure it’s adequately packaged or moisture-resistant. You’ll be using cold packs or other materials to keep the food fresh, which will wreak havoc on plain paper.
There are many fresh food subscription services, and online grocery deliveries have made the space even more competitive. While we wish it wasn’t the case, simply producing fantastic quality meat won’t be enough to grow your business and reach new customers (at least not at first).
To stand out, you’ll need to develop a solid marketing strategy. Here’s how to start:
Regardless of your marketing strategies, make sure to track their success. Use the reports on your e-commerce solution to see which promotions and discounts worked and which fell flat. This will help you get a better return on investment (ROI) later.
You’ve got a great idea for a meat subscription box, so what are you waiting for? With the right tools and marketing, subscription boxes are a fantastic source of recurring revenue.
If you’re still not sure how to get started, we can help. GrazeCart comes with everything you need to manage a meat subscription box, including:
We specifically work with small to mid-size meat markets, farms, and grocers to simplify fresh food sales online. Try out a free 14-day trial of GrazeCart today, or speak with one of our experts.