Almost a fifth of UK consumers have ordered a subscription box in the past six months

To coincide with the launch of uOpen, Jellyfish Connect carried out an online survey of 2,008 UK respondents through Censuswide. The research found that almost a fifth of UK consumers have now signed up for a subscription box scheme in the past six months. Less than one per cent of those surveyed had a subscription in 2014. This rose to 10 per cent in 2016. Huge numbers of consumers are now signing up for regular deliveries from brands such as Abel & Cole, beauty box Birchbox, Dollar Shave Club and Harry’s shaving goods.

Food and drink is the most popular category for subscription boxes, followed by beauty goods, fashion, shaving and arts and crafts, the survey found. Men seem to outspend women when signing up.

The highest spending category is the “geek and gaming” sector with an average monthly spend of £65. Next is health and fitness with a spend of £59, while fashion, home and living and family and kids all have an average monthly spend of about £57. Monthly spend on pet products is £54. Food and drink spend is about £52.

The biggest spenders are 16-24 year olds. The 16-24 year olds who participate in subscription box schemes spend over £66 a month. The over-55s who participate spend under £20 a month.

Subscription boxes are one of the fastest growing areas of UK retail. There was a 30% increase in consumers signing up to the sites in 2017, according to digital research company Hitwise. It found that there were 3.1 million unique visitors to subscription box websites in the fourth quarter of 2017, while the total number of visits - including repeated visits by the same people - in the whole of 2017 was 76.7 million.

Carola York, Managing Director, Jellyfish Connect said: “uOpen offers a fantastic opportunity for entrepreneurs and small businesses to ride the wave of the subscription box trend. We approve each box based on quality, value for money and first-rate customer experience. Through large-scale digital marketing campaigns and social and influencer activities, uOpen will drive huge volumes of traffic from consumers interested in and searching for subscription boxes, making it easy, fast and safe for them to buy through the platform.”

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