Subscription boxes make every month seem like Christmas, so there’s no wonder they’ve become so popular in the last few years. Receiving a box of goodies on a monthly basis, whether it’s a gift to yourself or from someone else, is truly an original way to feel special. But where can you buy and sell subscriptions to these boxes? We'll tell you all about the answer to that question in this Cratejoy review.
Cratejoy is a platform that’s one of a kind. It’s commercially famous as a marketplace where you can subscribe to a monthly package of your own choosing, but you can also sell subscription boxes on Cratejoy. The business part of it is less talked about, yet there are many users signing up to sell on this platform.
How exactly does selling monthly subscription boxes on this platform work? Are Cratejoy’s features good enough for running a business in this niche?
We answer these questions and more in today’s Cratejoy review.
What Is Cratejoy?
Cratejoy is a subscription-based online marketplace founded in 2014 by Amir Elaguizy and Alex Morse. The platform offers subscription boxes full of curated goodies that consumers can choose to receive monthly or buy as a gift. There are many different niche categories and subcategories to choose from, such as books, jewelry, beverages, arts and crafts, beauty, games, home accessories, and more.
The content of the subscription boxes depends entirely on the seller, but they usually include various other items and freebies besides the main selection of products, especially in the first subscription box. This is done in part as a marketing strategy and to make the product stand out but also just to make their customers happy. For example, sellers of artisan tea may include a free mug and/or a tea strainer in the box, along with other inclusions.
On the other end, Cratejoy is also a selling platform for subscription-based e-commerce businesses, particularly small ones. To sell on Cratejoy, you need to subscribe to a pricing plan, and the rest will be provided by them. You can build your own website with their tool and run the entirety of your business from the dashboard without needing any other additional tools.
Since the products you’re selling don’t necessarily need to be produced by you, anyone can set up their marketplace on Cratejoy, which we like. All you need is some creativity and enthusiasm to assemble nicely curated packages and start selling them.
It’s important to note that Cratejoy doesn’t handle any of the shipping processes, nor do sellers get paid by the platform. It’s simply a mediator between small businesses and consumers and offers a place where the two can make a transaction.
In this review, we’ll focus on Cratejoy as a selling platform, but before we get into the specifics of selling on Cratejoy, let’s have a look at their pricing plans.
Pricing
Cratejoy used to have three pricing plans, but now they’re down to just two: one free and one paid.
Free (Sell on the Marketplace Only)
The free plan offers you the opportunity to set up your subscription box on the marketplace and sell there with no monthly fees. The free plan is great if you’re just starting out and want to establish your subscription-based business.
With this plan, Cratejoy promises all the benefits that come with the popularity of this platform – increased online visibility with over 30,000 unique views daily and 4 million total views monthly. The free plan also enables you to be featured on Cratejoy and work with affiliates through their affiliate program, as well as to customize your subscribers’ user experience by allowing them to choose a date for the subscription renewal, make a custom order, and more.
Cratejoy supports accepting payments in 138 currencies by integrating with Stripe and includes fraud protection. There is also an app store where you can find different marketing apps to integrate with, like MailChimp, TaxJar, Sublitics, and others. All in all, for a free plan, this sounds pretty good.
However, the problem with this plan is the extra fees incurred, which can add up. For example, in addition to the transaction fees of 1.25% + $0.10 for each sale you make, they also charge a 15% category-based referral fee for listing your subscription service on the marketplace. Add to that the payment processor fees, which are also inevitable, and you’ve got yourself some considerable costs.
So, as you can see, this plan isn’t sustainable for everyone because it might be hard to cover the costs and make enough in the beginning before you establish your business and gain customers.
Paid (All-in-One)
The paid pricing plan costs $39 per month, plus it incurs the same fees as the free plan. In addition to the features you get in the free plan, this plan offers a solid set of tools not too different from other platforms like Shopify and Wix. That’s why it’s best suited for sellers who already have a number of subscribers and want to upgrade and scale their business.
The biggest upgrade you get with this plan is that you have access to Cratejoy’s own website builder, along with website hosting, your own custom domain, and SSL encrypted checkout. You’ll be able to build your storefront, choose a website template, and edit it with the website code editor, which is quite a generous offering.
Apart from that, you also get automated sales tax calculations and collections and real-time shipping calculations. You’ll be able to offer gifting and create coupons for promotions and discounts or discounted shipping prices.
With this plan, running your subscription box will be easier because you'll have access to the premium analytics dashboard, which gives you conversion insights. The cherry on top is the premium support during business hours if anything comes up.
More on the Features
Cratejoy really does come with a set of useful features, and even though most of them are only available in the paid plan, the free plan is still very functional. You can access these features from your dashboard, which is fairly neat.
It can be clunky at times, but it’s overall very functional and easy to navigate. As you can see in the image below, all features are located in the left navigation menu, and all you need to do is click on the section you want to explore.
Additionally, if you’re just starting out and have no experience with e-commerce, Cratejoy has a set of free e-commerce tools to help you with setting the right prices for your subscription boxes, calculating the startup costs and expected revenue, and more.
We like that these basics are taken care of for merchants because these are some of the most common dilemmas newbie merchants face.
Advanced Analytics and Tools
One of the most important features in running a business is having a detailed picture of how your business is doing, what the engagement is, and what’s most popular with your subscribers. Cratejoy gives you some solid tools to use to get this information. It also gives you the tools to provide your customers with some other benefits, like shipping estimates and coupons. Here’s a brief overview:
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Subscription KPIs. Cratejoy allows you to access different types of metrics through your dashboard, like traffic sources, churn rates, cancellation analytics, lifetime value, and others.
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Customizable coupons. Cratejoy has tools that enable you to create coupons, run promotions, and give discounts on your site to attract new customers and encourage more subscriptions.
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Export data and use APIs. If you ever need to export data to a CSV file, you can do so with Cratejoy’s API, so you can later use the data to import it to Microsoft Excel or any other data-crunching software.
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Automated shipping and tax estimates. One very helpful feature of Cratejoy is its automatic calculation of the tax you need to pay, based on your and your customer’s location and the shipping rates, which depend on the weight of the product, its price, and the type of product it is.
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Cash flow reports. Cratejoy makes it easy to track how much you’re making and how much you should be making each month, which is a useful guide. You also have an overview of how much you’ve made from each product and from your coupons.
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Google Analytics. Google Analytics is already integrated with Cratejoy, and it includes Google Analytics E-commerce support.
Shipping Tools
With Cratejoy, you can print your own shipping labels directly from your account, and you can integrate with third-party shipping services like ShipStation and Pirate Ship. Even though Cratejoy doesn’t handle the shipping process, thanks to its ties with major shipping services, you’ll still be able to offer competitive shipping rates.
Subscriber Tools
Cratejoy also offers a variety of ways to manage your subscribers’ user experience. For example, they’re fully in charge of their subscriptions, renewal dates, billing information, and shipping addresses and can modify them as they please without having to contact you. If you ever need any information about a customer’s order history, shipping information, or anything else, you will find it all in your customer management interface.
The most important feature that Cratejoy offers for your subscribers, though, is letting them skip a renewal cycle instead of having to cancel their subscription altogether, which will encourage them to keep their current subscription for longer.
Lastly, you’ll be able to issue full or partial refunds and cancel active subscriptions if needed to avoid sticky situations.
Referral Campaigns
To boost your sales and attract more customers, Cratejoy enables you to create refer-a-friend campaigns and include them in the checkout page or the subscribers’ account pages. The promotion can entail anything from giving a 50% discount to a free subscription for a month. You can also conduct the campaign via different referring channels, like email or social media, and then check via Cratejoy’s analytics tool which channels had the best conversion rates.
E-Commerce Features
Since Cratejoy is an e-commerce platform, its e-commerce game is pretty strong. Here are all the tools offered:
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One-time products. Cratejoy supports organizing one-time sales, for instance when you have excess inventory, which is also a great way to build your customer base among those who aren’t looking to commit to a regular monthly subscription.
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One-time product add-ons. On top of that, you could also offer one-time bonus items on top of the regular subscription to spice things up. These would simply add to your normal revenue stream. For example, if you’re selling trading cards, you might want to offer special collectibles along with personalized merch.
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Customized email campaigns. One way to stand out is to have custom email templates. Cratejoy allows you to automate the email processes, so sending a welcome email, order confirmation, or order shipped notice, for example, will all happen automatically with little effort on your part. Additionally, if you integrate with CartHook or SumoMe, you can send automated abandoned cart emails to customers who didn’t complete their purchases.
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More users. When your business starts growing, you will likely need a hand or two. That’s why Cratejoy supports adding more users to your subscription box to help you with your business.
Website Building Tool
Cratejoy’s paid plan allows you to build your own website on the platform, and we already like this feature. As we mentioned earlier, you also get hosting and the ability to add a custom domain. SSL protection during the checkout process is also a given, so your customers’ private information is fully safe. Plus, the websites are already optimized for mobile.
Simply put, it’s the whole package. They even offer a nice selection of templates to choose from, which you can preview before installing. Speaking of which, their website builder has a drag-and-drop editor, which is awesome as this type of editor is simple to use and gives you enough freedom to be creative and, of course, doesn’t require coding prowess. If you do want to edit the code, Cratejoy gives you access to the code editor, where you can customize your site however you want to by modifying the HTML/CSS.
The editor itself is pretty easy to use, especially if you’ve ever used a drag-and-drop editor. The sections of the website are located in the right navigation menu and all you need to do is choose which element of your chosen page you want to edit and click on it. You can modify the fonts, colors, buttons, the header and footer, and the social media buttons, as well as add or replace images.
You can edit the live version of your website or make a copy of it before the edits in case something goes wrong. When you’re done with the edits, you can preview the changes before officially launching the new version of your site.
Help and Customer Support
Cratejoy has an extensive Help and Support Center, where you’ll find tons of helpful articles, guides, and tutorials on how to use the platform. Everything is well organized by topics and the articles are comprehensive. In case you don’t find the answer you’re looking for, you can join the Merchant Community Facebook group and share your experience with fellow sellers.
Where Cratejoy falls short, though, is the lack of good customer support. They do have a chatbot, but they don’t offer any other form of support like live chat, email, or phone support. You can only reach them by submitting a ticket and waiting for them to contact you, which is very disappointing.
An e-commerce platform that deals with both buyers and sellers should be able to offer more than that because it leaves both the subscribers and merchants to their own devices.
Closing Thoughts - The Pros and Cons of Cratejoy
Cratejoy is the only platform of its kind – offering niche subscription boxes with a miscellany of curated products and items, whether it’s food and beverages, books, skincare, toys, clothing, or many other possibilities. It’s a great way to get exposed as a merchant, considering the high volume of visitors.
Besides that, the tools and features it offers are impressive, to say the least. You can manage everything about your business from the dashboard, from the inventory and shipments to the analytics. Cratejoy enables you to increase your reach and turn potential leads into subscribers by offering promotional codes and one-time purchases. The most impressive feature is their website builder, which is fully functional and good enough for this type of service.
However, selling on Cratejoy can be costly. Both the free and the paid plans incur fees that can add up, so with a paid plan it may take a while before you see a return on investment that’ll make up for the fees you’re paying. And then there’s the lack of proper customer support, as we already mentioned. But, none of these are deal-breakers. If they were, Cratejoy wouldn’t have gotten this far. So, if you’re okay with the costs and having to wait a while for direct customer support, Cratejoy might just be the start of something new for you.