# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Consumers' health is front and center for those who churn out the food products that will line supermarket shelves in the next year. At Campbell's, organic and all natural are the buzzwords as the company prepares to launch a variety of soups using USDA-certified organic ingredients and shelf-stable fruit and vegetable juices with no added sugar or artificial ingredients. At the 2015 Consumer Analyst Group of NY conference this week, many of the major food industry representatives echoed the health theme. Executives from Mondelez, for example, spoke about their recent acquisition of healthy lifestyle brand Enjoy Life Foods (which includes products for consumers who have allergies or want gluten-free and non-GMO fare), citing 30% growth of the US allergen-free segment. General Mills execs are betting on gluten-free, too: They cite the category as a bright spot with an estimated $8.8 billion in US retail sales in 2014 with predicted growth of $10.6 billion in 2015. The company is launching varieties of gluten-free Cheerios this July.

Global sales of healthy food products, in fact, are estimated to reach $1 trillion by 2017, according to Euromonitor. While the health fads and trends have come and gone (remember oat bran in the 1980s or low-fat everything in the 1990s?), this time the category appears to have serious stamina. Consider Nielsen's 2015 Global Health & Wellness Survey that polled over 30,000 individuals online and suggests consumer mindset about healthy foods has shifted and they are ready to pay more for products that claim to boost health and weight loss.

Some 88% of those polled are willing to pay more for healthier foods.

All demographics-from Generation Z to Baby Boomers--say they would pay more for healthy foods, including those that are GMO-free, have no artificial coloring/flavors and are deemed all natural.

Functional foods-including foods high in fiber (36%), protein (32%), whole grains (30%) or fortified with calcium (30%), vitamins (30%) or minerals (29%)--that can either reduce disease and/or promote good health also are desirable.

So what triggered the shift? James Russo, SVP, Global Consumer Insights at Nielsen offers perspective. "While economic concerns remain in the forefront for consumers, health and wellness concerns continue to increase in importance. The reasons vary from societal, demographic, technological, governmental and, most importantly, a shift in consumer focus on the role diet plays in health.

"In fact, as consumers take more responsibility for their health food as medicine is becoming increasingly dynamic."

This idea of using food to manage health may, in part, help explain growing consumer interest in fresh, natural and organic products. Russo also suggests that consumers understand a food's nutritional value (in helping to lower blood pressure, for example), as well as overall health risk. Some of this response is partially rooted in growing corporate transparency about a product's health benefits. Yet Russo cautions that consumers are skeptical when it comes to food manufacturers' claims. "The claim has to be credible. A food high in sodium that promotes itself as rich in whole grains won't work. Consumers are very savvy."

While the food giants are taking big bets on health, the survey also points to something countless marketers already know: Consumers can be fickle. "There's always a bit of a disconnect with consumers. As it relates to diet, however, there is an aspirational component, and that's consistent. But there's a balance, too." In other words, they want healthy and indulgent products. So large fries and diet soda will probably still be on the menu.

I produce multi-platform food content (print/online/radio) that focuses on news and narratives. I am an adjunct instructor at New York University and enrolled in the school's Food Studies PhD program. My areas of interest are food/consumer culture, gender and media. For two...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Consumers Want Healthy Foods--And Will Pay More For Them

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Consumers' health is front and center for those who churn out the food products that will line supermarket shelves in the next year. At Campbell's, organic and all natural are the buzzwords as the company prepares to launch a variety of soups using USDA-certified organic ingredients and shelf-stable fruit and vegetable [...]

# data[].attributes.headline
Demographic Consumer Segments &. Competitor Analysis

# data[].attributes.subject
Demographic Consumer Segments &. Competitor Analysis

# data[].attributes.headline
Meal Kit Subscription Boxes Market Forecast; Profitability

# data[].attributes.subject
Meal Kit Subscription Boxes Market Forecast; Profitability

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In the month of April 2017, subscription company websites had about 37 million visitors. Since 2014, that number has grown by over 800%.

What are subscription businesses, who are these companies and why are they so popular?

A subscription business is a company that sends you a package, usually once a month, of items they've picked out for you. The subscription companies in the chart below from Hitwise got more visitors than any others in the month of April this year:

If you're not familiar with them, Ipsy and Birchbox sell beauty products for women, Blue Apron and Home Chef deliver a box of ingredients for a complete meal that you cook at home, Dollar Shave Club sells men's shaving products, Stitch Fix sells fashion. Success in subscription does not depend on what's being sold, it's a new way of selling products regardless of the product category.

The chart below shows the subscription website categories with the most visits in the month of April 2017. These are not new types of products, they're categories that consumers already know. Subscription companies don't create new types of products, they are a new way to sell existing types of products. Subscriptions don't change what consumers want, subscriptions get consumers to look at existing products in a new way.
Why Is This Happening?
With all the changes happening at retail, it is tempting to say that it's because of technology. And it's true that subscription businesses have adapted to mobile far faster and ahead of other retailers and that facilitates the growth of the subscription industry. Adam Goldenberg, CEO of TechStyle told me, "the last billion-dollar fashion brand to be created was Lululemon in 1999, before social media and before the smartphone. We said there has to be a better way to create and launch digitally first, as opposed to the way it was done in retail previously. We've reimagined many parts of the fashion business and the fashion industry."

But technology is not the underlying reason why subscription businesses are growing, technology is a catalyst. The use of technology in the explosion of subscription businesses is only a reflection of demographics of the customer base it's attracting.

There are about 5.7 million subscription box shoppers in the US today according to Hitwise. They overindex for:

College Degree

Liberal politics

Female

Household income exceeding $100 thousand

Children ages 3-5 in the household

That's not to say that all or even most subscription customers fit the above demographics but it does mean that people who fit those demographics are much more likely to be subscription customers.

The most important reason for subscription companies' growth is that retail tastes have changed. It's not enough anymore just to give consumers what they're looking for, if they know what they want they can get it with a click any time. To get a consumer excited, you have to offer something they're not expecting and subscriptions are an ideal instrument for surprise.

Nadia Boujarwah, Co-Founder of subscription company Dia & Co., told me a subscription company has to remember that it's not just about numbers and data. "Sometimes what gets lost in personalization is the person," she says. "To succeed long term, you must remember your customers are humans, driven by deep needs and desires. While data is critical, it's most important that our work is rooted in the psychographics of our customer and the emotional arc of her experience. Ultimately, the most powerful customer experiences are rarely functional. The products we love most are those that have a real emotional benefit we come to depend on."

To find out what will work for customers, you have to know what they want and technology helps do that. John Fetto of Hitwise, who presented at the recent Subscription Summit in Austin says, "Personalization is key. Don't be afraid to ask for information from your consumer to help you deliver a more curated experience." To be successful in a curated product business, you have to do something retailers have struggled to do for a long time - ask consumers what they want, listen to the answer and act on it. Consumers will give up personal information if they think they'll get a better experience for it. Successful subscription boxes are adapting and personalizing their boxes to each individual consumer. It's an example of what internet retail has been talking about for a long time: mass customization. If a company can make a subscription box with pleasant surprises, they will continue to sell through as long as the customer maintains an interest in discovering new products. Once that phase ends, the subscription company needs a non-subscription business plan to give consumers while they want until they get back into discovery mode again.
How It Works
There are many different types of products being sold by subscription. Some products are simply replenishment, like soap, pet food or shaving cream, things you buy all the time on a regular schedule. Those products rely on the convenience of letting consumers not have to remember their replenishment chore. Other types of subscriptions are inspirational, like fashion and food. Those companies have a lot more risk built into their business because they have to get the consumer to want what they're offering. In order to get subscribers to start, they have to make it very low risk for the consumer, offering free returns and no commitment to buy on the consumer's part and personalization is critical to success in that part of the subscription business. Usually, subscriptions can be canceled at any time so only companies selling products that inspire consumers to buy can succeed. Some of the most popular search terms used by consumers looking for subscriptions on Google are:

There are many different types of subscription models. Most are very straightforward, you get a monthly box and choose which products you keep and send back the ones you don't want. Often, there's a price incentive to keep everything in the box. Some will tell you what's in the box before it's shipped so you can opt in or out beforehand. Others are rental sites, like the way Netflix worked when it only had DVD's: you choose what you want and they send it to you after you send back the last things you rented. Goldenberg of Techstyle says that like a lot of companies referred to as subscription businesses, they have their own variation on the business. "We don't call it subscription, we call it membership because consumers can decide if they want to opt-out. We also pick products with recommendations based on data and that lets the customer pick the items they want, when they want." Techstyle's strategy seems to be working - the Company has over 4 million members.

Subscriptions don't go on forever, eventually consumers end them. The key to enhanced profitability for subscription businesses is selling products that are good enough to lengthen the life of the average subscription. Subscription companies are always trying to replace the subscribers that leave and increase their subscriber base. The cost of doing that, what's called Customer Acquisition Costs, is one of the most important keys to a subscription company's profitability and success. Google search is the biggest source of customers for subscription companies and social media is second. Social media is a more important source of customers for subscription businesses than it is for other types of retailers. Consumers who are subscribers are at least four times more likely to subscribe to multiple boxes in different classes of product than other consumers.
Where Are Subscriptions Going?
The subscription market is hardly settled. We are seeing a lot of volatility within various categories. For example, in the beauty business, the chart below shows that IPSY is the leading company in the category but their site visits over the last year are down by 31%. FabFitFun is moving up fast, and the men's site Dr. Squatch is now the 10th largest in the category, growing by over 300% per year. Another beauty site called Lola (focused on organic products for feminine hygiene) is also coming up very quickly.

Subscription companies also face a big threat: existing retailers, especially online direct-to-consumer retailers. According to John Fetto of Hitwise, "[When a retailer sees] a model that's doing well, they have the inventory to do it themselves... We saw that very clearly when Amazon filed for a meal delivery service trademark a few weeks ago right after acquiring Whole Foods and right before Blue Apron went public. Investors now worry that Amazon will kill or seriously wound Blue Apron. Sephora with their Play service could also become a threat to Birchbox and Ipsy. Likewise, PetSmart could effectively kill the pure-play pet boxes by launching their own."

The data indicate that winners and losers are not yet chosen, the market is wide open right now for anyone with a better idea and better execution to develop their business and become a leader. This market will likely follow the pattern of the flash sale market where a new idea took root, consumers adopted it, valuations exploded and then the market became mature and consolidated. Right now is a time of volatility and the players who can move faster and better will win.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Subscription Businesses Are Exploding With Growth

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In the month of April 2017, subscription company websites had about 37 million visitors. Since 2014, that number has grown by over 800%. What are subscription businesses, who are these companies and why are they so popular? A subscription business is a company that sends you a package, usually once a month, of items they've picked out for you.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Food subscription boxes like Blue Apron, HelloFresh and Plated are the newest fad among everyone from young professionals looking to learn to cook and long time parents looking for new meals to feed their families. These boxes promise to send you all the ingredients you need to make delicious, healthy meals. But are they really worth the money?

A Look at Meal Subscription Boxes

When you subscribe to a meal delivery service, you are agreeing to a schedule of ingredient deliveries right to your door step. Depending on the amount of food you would like to receive each month and the company you subscribe to, you could be paying a few dollars to a few hundred dollars every month.

Within these boxes, you're getting everything you need to complete the meal, aside from a few items, like salt and pepper, that they expect you to have in your kitchen. That means that your meats, pastas, vegetables, and any other necessary ingredients for cooking will come right to your door in a cooler-style package.

These boxes also come with step-by-step instructions on how to prepare the meals. Even if you've never cooked a day in your life, your meal subscription box can guide you through the process of putting together a delicious meal that could impress anyone.

The Benefits of Meal Subscription Boxes

The biggest benefit of a meal subscription box is convenience. When everything is delivered right to your door, the stress and thought of preparing and planning your meals is taken off your shoulders. You don't need to go to the grocery store, plan what you're going to have for dinner, or worry about if you have the skills to actually prepare it.

A meal subscription box also includes each and every ingredient that you may need to complete your meal. For anyone who has gone grocery shopping only to return and find they forgot a major ingredient, not needing to worry about a grocery list can remove a lot of stress.

Finally, a meal subscription box introduces you to new recipes and ingredients you may not have tried otherwise. While many of the recipes are taken right out of popular cookbooks or from food blogs, you don't need to worry about spending hours browsing Pinterest and picking out the recipes yourself.

The Price You Pay for Convenience

Although meal subscription boxes can be extremely beneficial for the busy person trying to minimize the take out they eat, it definitely comes at a price. Even though the meals are cooked at home, the price per meal can be compared to a meal dining out.

Most meal subscription boxes cost about $10 per person per meal. That means if you planned to use your meal subscription box to make just dinner every day of the month, you would be spending around $300 a month just for one person to eat one meal a day. On top of that $300, you would still need to go to the grocery store and purchase items for breakfast, lunch, and snacks or eat out for those meals.

If you have any dietary restrictions or you would like healthier options, the price per person per meal can quickly go up. With meal subscription boxes that act like personal nutritionists, you could be expected to pay upwards of $30 per person per meal, coming in at a grand total of $900 a month just to use your meal subscription service every day.

While most people who have given in to the meal subscription box trend do not rely on it for their only source of groceries, it begs the question, is it worth it?

Is a Food Subscription Box Worth It?

Sure, there are some people that will say a meal subscription box is totally worth the money. The food is delivered right to your door, you get to try new things and make impressive meals without any additional stress on your part. But if you really break down what you're paying for, are you getting a good deal?

Your meal subscription service isn't sending you any secret ingredients you can't pick up at the grocery store. They aren't supplying rare recipes that you can only find through ordering from them. As we've addressed, you're paying for the convenience when you use a meal subscription service.

At a $10 per person per meal minimum, you're paying a relatively high premium to have your food delivered right to your door. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, a male between the ages of 19 and 50 will spend between $43.60 a week and $86.80 a week on groceries while a female in the same age range will spend between $38.40 and $76.60. These amounts include all meals and snacks for the seven-day period.

Even on the most expensive level, seven days of breakfast, lunch, and dinner would cost a male a little over $4 per meal and a female about $3.65. With at least $6 of savings per meal when you do your own grocery shopping, you're giving yourself a lot of extra cash for the month.

When you go grocery shopping, you have the additional benefit of leftovers and extra ingredients. In many meal subscription boxes, they send you only enough of that ingredient to complete the meal. You won't have left overs to add to another meal later. With your meal subscription box, you're essentially paying full price for an ingredient that you're only going to use a portion of.

While a meal subscription box can definitely ease some stress during busy times or introduce you to your next favorite meal, you'll save a lot of money when you do your own grocery shopping.

If you still want to try a meal subscription box, opt for the lowest plan you can, save your recipe cards, and go out and buy your own ingredients the next time you're ready to make that dish.

Have you bought into the meal subscription box movement? Leave a comment and let us know whether or not you think they're worth the money!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Are Food Subscription Boxes Worth The Money? | Money Goody

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Food subscription boxes like Blue Apron, HelloFresh and Plated are the newest fad among everyone from young professionals looking to learn to cook and long time parents looking for new meals to feed their families. These boxes promise to send you all the ingredients you need to make delicious, healthy meals.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Since the German meal-kit service, HelloFresh, went public late last year, the company more than doubled its customer base in the United States. This is thanks to its wise investment in marketing, which has propelled the business forward surpassing its biggest competitor- Blue Apron.

"HelloFresh's customer base also grew to 1.5 million globally, making it much bigger than Blue Apron, whose customer base shrank 15 percent to 746,000 due to lowered marketing spending," as reported by "Recode." It's important to note that "HelloFresh includes customers who've received free boxes toward its customer total while Blue Apron only counts paying customers," which obviously adds to its overall customer count.

The American meal-kit company has struggled ever since it announced its IPO around the same time the tech giant, Amazon, announced it was acquiring Whole Foods Market. Blue Apron also experienced many operational problems which were attached to the expansion of a fulfillment center in Linden, New Jersey. All these factors have contributed to the slow growth of the company and as it adjusted to become more automated, it did not help Blue Apron chose to cut its marketing budget and implement a hiring freeze.

In the meantime, sales for HelloFresh have grown exponentially, in comparison.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
HelloFresh Finds Success in U.S. Surpassing Blue Apron in Customer Growth

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Since the German meal-kit service, HelloFresh, went public late last year, the company more than doubled its customer base in the United States. This is thanks to its wise investment in marketing, which has propelled the business forward surpassing its biggest competitor- Blue Apron. "HelloFresh's

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Home-delivered meal kits are forecasted to have an annual growth rate of 25% to 30% over the next five years and become a $2.2 billion business-but that's still just a rounding error in the multitrillion-dollar food industry. Blue Apron didn't invent the ingredient-and-recipe meal kit service industry, but it drove it into the public's consciousness and took off on an impressive growth run. Unfortunately, that initial success masked a problem with customer defection-churn-that unexpectedly tripped up the company just as it was celebrating early victory.

Blue Apron was founded in August 2012 from a commercial kitchen in Long Island, New York. Working from the notion that the market context was shifting due to the nexus of the internet, fast modern delivery infrastructure, and a growing population of consumers wanting gourmet food at home, the company's three founders (CEO Matt Salzberg, Ilia Papas, and Matt Wadiak) devised, packaged, and shipped packages of ingredients and suggested recipes that consumers could cook by hand to create superior meals.

Blue Apron took off like wildfire-and within four years the company had shipped 8 million meals. By that point, Blue Apron had grown sufficiently large to open its own fulfillment centers in Richmond, California (to serve the West Coast), Jersey City, New Jersey (the East), and Arlington, Texas (the rest of the United States). A fourth center, in Linden, New Jersey, was announced in early 2017.

In November 2014, in a quick shift (and in hindsight, maybe a premature move) to a new growth path, Blue Apron also began to pursue customer and product diversification-opening Blue Apron Market, a cookware, merchandise, and cookbook store, and Blue Apron Wine, a subscription service that delivered to users six bottles of wine per month-to maximize customer acquisition cost by offering its existing base of subscribers more products to purchase-a classic product expansion strategy. But was it too much too fast? As might be expected, there were setbacks: some health and safety violations at the Richmond plant reduced customer (experience) satisfaction because delivery times weren't met as promised, which could be blamed on the rush of such rapid growth. But all in all, Blue Apron seemed unstoppable.

It came as no surprise when on June 29, 2017, Blue Apron went public-30 million shares that opened at $10 per share were sold. That made it the first public company dedicated to meal kit delivery-and worth an estimated $3 billion. The future seemed bright indeed.

That's when the dark clouds appeared. The first clue came in the company's first IPO quarterly financials. The company reported revenues of $238.1 million, better than market expectations-yes, but it also suffered a loss of $0.47 a share, versus the street's prediction of a loss of $0.30 a share. Clearly something was wrong. By September, the stock price was off nearly 50% and hovering around $5 per share. Why the plunge? Two reasons: competition and churn. In the words of Techcrunch, investors were "concerned about customer retention and the looming threat of Amazon." Suddenly Blue Apron found itself hit by a class-action "stock drop" lawsuit-making three main claims:

1. The company had cut its advertising just before the IPO, damaging revenues;

2. Problems with the Linden, New Jersey, center had slowed deliveries; and the big one-

3. The company was suffering diminishing customer retention-that is, greater churn-due to orders arriving late or incomplete.

Diversifying and expanding a portfolio of products is a calculated risk, but as is the case in many other examples, often companies forget about the interconnectedness of the decisions it makes to other parts of the business.

The first two could either be explained or fixed. But for many, the last was the kiss of death for a subscription-based business. If you lose more customers than you gain each month, you don't have much of a business at all. According to an analysis, the company could lose 72% of its customers within six months, which puts a tremendous strain on the cost of acquiring new customers (CAC) fast enough and at an appropriate cost, especially in light of number one on that list above. In the second quarter of 2017, it lost (via churn) 9% of its customer base. With revenues falling, the company was forced to institute a hiring freeze and, aggravating number one in the class-action suit, further cut back on marketing, customer acquisition, and spending. Blue Apron's marketing as a percentage of net revenue decreased as it continued to pull back on marketing. This is a vicious cycle when churn gets out of control. You end up cutting spending in areas such as marketing, sales, and customer service to save on costs, but those decisions will impact the company's top-line growth and put even further pressure on its stock price.

Diversifying and expanding a portfolio of products is a calculated risk, but as is the case in many other examples, often companies forget about the interconnectedness of the decisions it makes to other parts of the business. In Blue Apron's case, the good news was that it was growing-the bad news was that it was growing so fast that it wasn't able to ensure that the rest of the company could keep pace. An example was when it announced the rollout of its expanded plan and menu options at the Linden facility it was opening.

At the time, it was only able to offer those new products to half of its customers, which negatively impacted the value of the monthly subscription. Since then, Blue Apron has completed the rollout, and now 100% of its customers have access to the expanded product offering. In Blue Apron's Q3 2017 Earnings call, Matt Salzberg, CEO, said, "Our initial indications, although early, show improvements in both order rate and retention when comparing customers who received the product expansion to those who had not yet received it." If products aren't consistent, if you don't meet and exceed customer expectations in a subscription business month after month, you will lose customers.

The fact that it had acquired so many customers so quickly should have been a huge competitive advantage. Why? It now had a base of customers that it could learn from. It could use purchasing habits, average sales price and "basket size," recipe choices, and average revenue per customer to help it design future products. Anticipating what your customers may want next has helped Netflix and Spotify stay ahead of churn and offensively mitigate customer defection. Blue Apron could have done the same thing, but didn't.

Meanwhile, attracted by Blue Apron's early success, the market was being flooded with other meal kit companies, including Chef'd, Hello Fresh, and Plated-while giants such as Unilever, Anheuser-Busch, and Coca-Cola were making investments in food-delivery service companies. Then, in the midst of all of this uproar, the biggest hit of all came: Amazon announced its purchase of Whole Foods.

Had Blue Apron used its early advantage to focus its attention on retaining its current customers, that is, reduced churn by developing a reputation for personalized, prompt, and quality service, instead of capturing new ones as quickly as possible, it might have found itself in a much more defensible position. The latest move from Blue Apron as it tries to navigate its way back to profitability and growth is that it replaced its CEO in December 2017 after its third-quarter earnings.
Correction: An earlier version of this article state that Blue Apron cut more than 1,200 jobs in August 2017. It moved the jobs to another facility. Excerpted from Growth IQ: Get Smarter About The Choices That Will Make Or Break Your Business.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The cautionary tale of Blue Apron's growth strategy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Home-delivered meal kits are forecasted to have an annual growth rate of 25% to 30% over the next five years and become a $2.2 billion business-but that's still just a rounding error in the multitrillion-dollar food industry. Blue Apron didn't invent the ingredient-and-recipe meal kit service industry, but it drove it into the public's consciousness and took off on an impressive growth run.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
HelloFresh reported increased revenue and decreased losses in its earnings report today - pushing it further ahead of its U.S. competitor Blue Apron. Yesterday, HelloFresh also announced it acquired organic meal kit company Green Chef, expanding its dietary options and its threat to competitors.

The Berlin-based company, which went public last November, saw its revenue top $1 billion in 2017, a 52 percent increase from 2016. Meanwhile, Blue Apron's revenue grew 11 percent to $881 million.

Neither company is profitable, but HelloFresh's net loss is smaller and shrinking. Blue Apron's is growing.

HelloFresh's customer base also grew to 1.5 million globally, making it much bigger than Blue Apron, whose customer base shrank 15 percent to 746,000 due to lowered marketing spending. However, HelloFresh includes customers who've received free boxes toward its customer total while Blue Apron only counts paying customers, so the comparison isn't quite fair.

Blue Apron has struggled since it went public last summer, thanks to warehousing issues and competition from Amazon as well as brick-and-mortar grocery stores. Investors have responded in kind. Its stock is currently trading at about $2 a share, which is 80 percent below its opening IPO price.

HelloFresh, meanwhile, is up 4 percent today, 43 percent above its first day of trading.

Recode Daily

Sign up for our Recode Daily newsletter to get the top tech and business news stories delivered to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and European users agree to the data transfer policy.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
HelloFresh's sales are growing five times faster than Blue Apron's

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
HelloFresh reported increased revenue and decreased losses in its earnings report today - pushing it further ahead of its U.S. competitor Blue Apron. Yesterday, HelloFresh also announced it acquired organic meal kit company Green Chef, expanding its dietary options and its threat to competitors.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
hellofresh.co.uk is ranked #316 for Food and Drink/Cooking and Recipes and #74050 Globally. Get a full report of their traffic statistics and market share.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
HelloFresh: #1 Recipe Box Delivery Service | Dinner is Solved

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Time-starved and convenience-seeking consumers yes, again led by millennials - are showing a growing appetite for having food delivered at home, a bright spot in an otherwise lackluster restaurant industry. But could this behavior sound the death knell for home-cooked meals and kitchens?

In an 82-page report published last week titled "Is the Kitchen Dead?" investment bank UBS echoed many other studies and made a bullish case for increased global online food ordering sales. UBS forecast delivery sales could rise an annual average of more than 20% to $365 billion worldwide by 2030, from $35 billion.
Related on Forbes: IHOP's Recent Publicity Stunt Is Just One Of The Things On Its Menu
But the biggest attention grabber of the study, which includes a survey of 13,000-plus consumers worldwide, isn't the fact that restaurants from McDonald's to Buffalo Wild Wings are hot on delivery and have signed on with apps like Uber Eats, which has seen its restaurant listings almost triple in the past year. It's also not the finding that millennials are three times as likely to order in than their parents, or that food delivery apps are now on average in the top 40 most downloaded apps in major markets.

Instead, it's this picture UBS painted:

"There could be a scenario where by 2030 most meals currently cooked at home are instead ordered online and delivered from either restaurants or central kitchens."

UBS wrote that online business models that have disrupted sectors from retail to taxi industries are now doing the same thing to supermarkets and restaurants.

"The expertise currently resides in-house (to cook, as it once did to produce a pair of trousers) could potentially be rendered immaterial, or the expertise might shrink to preparing breakfast or cups of tea, much like sewing has arguably shrunk to basic clothing repairs carried out at home. ... We could be at the first stage of industrializing meal production and delivery."

Why? Thanks to factors including a readily available and cheap labor pool in the gig economy, "dark kitchens" making restaurant food just for delivery, robots flipping burgers or making salads, and drones delivering food, the report said the total cost of production of a "professionally cooked and delivered meal could approach the cost of home-cooked food, or beat it when time is factored in."

If that happens on a mass scale, supermarkets and others in the traditional food retail spaces could be hurt, along with packaged food producers including Kraft Heinz, General Mills, Nestle and Unilever, the report said. If kitchens become increasingly "underutilized," the bigger implications could even include more homes being designed without kitchens, or with much smaller ones. Meanwhile, more apartments and living arrangements such as WeWork's WeLive could expand to respond to the desires of millennials who want to live alone but also benefit from shared accommodations and services such as a communal kitchen.

"For the 25% plus of single-person households in the U.S. and U.K., the economic benefits of sharing rather than owning an underutilized kitchen are likely to become more and more apparent," UBS said.

That would also mean bad news for appliance sales. Commercial real estate market may also be affected if more restaurants opt to build more dark kitchens off prime real estate locations to satisfy growing delivery demand instead of opening more full-service locations, according to the report.
Are Cost and Time Enough To Negate The Experience of Cooking?
But to what degree is that scenario likely to come true? UBS acknowledges "uncertainty," citing factors including the rise of meal kits, smart appliances and cooking apps that could reverse the trend of decline in home cooking.

Indeed, while the cost of restaurant food delivery may be low enough to make it an easy decision for consumers to decide not to cook, plenty of other studies show consumers, including millennials, are spending more time at home - and they are actually cooking as part of the personalized "experience" that some then brag about on social media. That's not to mention the growing trend to eat and cook healthy and fresh food, and consumers' desires to control that.

As a case in point, food subscription boxes remain one of the biggest categories in the crowded subscription box industry, and meal-kit companies Blue Apron and Hello Fresh were ranked among the top five most visited subscription box sites in the U.S. in April, driving more than three million visits each, according to a Hitwise study.
Related on Forbes: The Subscription Box Industry Is Getting More Crowded Than Ever
A Mintel study showed the number of U.S. adults who are considered "cooking enthusiasts" rose each year from 2014 to 2017, to about 115 million, from 98 million. Almost four-fifths of Americans overall said they cooked from scratch one to two times per week in 2017, compared with 70% in 2015. As for millennials, Mintel said its study showed 80% cooked from scratch at least occasionally in 2017, up from 67% in 2015.

"Millennial consumers are more attracted than their elders to cooking at home, ordering delivery from restaurants and eating quickly, in fast-casual or quick-serve restaurants," Sally Smith said in a May 2017 letter to shareholders before the company announced she would be stepping down as Buffalo Wild Wings president and CEO.
Related on Forbes: Americans' Appetite for Ordered Food Has Grown Way Beyond Pizza and Chinese
A separate study from NPD Group found that millennials, whom it defines as those between 21 and 36, see dinner as an experience. About a third of their dinner occasions include at least one homemade item, despite the fact that some have generously defined homemade to include making a salad or taking something already prepared and "doctoring" it up, according to NPD.

Even though they want more convenience and are willing to let go of the more time-consuming meal prep, NPD says that as these millennials start their own households and have kids, they're still interested in fresh food and want some sort of food prep involvement.

The Mintel study also echoed the point that what qualifies as cooking a meal varies among consumers. More men and younger adults, for instance, feel like they've cooked a meal when they've used a microwave or a toaster oven, Mintel said.

Yes, time and convenience are key deciding factors in driving increased delivery sales, but are those things enough on their own to replace the experience of a kitchen and a home-cooked meal?

That's the big question.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Millennials Are Ordering More Food Delivery, But Are They Killing The Kitchen, Too?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Time-starved and convenience-seeking consumers yes, again led by millennials - are showing a growing appetite for having food delivered at home, a bright spot in an otherwise lackluster restaurant industry. But could this behavior sound the death knell for home-cooked meals and kitchens? In an 82-page report published last week titled "Is the Kitchen Dead?"

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The multi-channel retailer of healthier snacks,graze.com, is reported to be outselling leading confectionary brands in shops since launching into stores one year ago.

FIve thousand plus stores, including Boots, WHSmith Travel, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose, now stock graze snacks and graze says it has sold more than 12m to date. This stellar success over its chocolatey competitors has seen graze experience unprecedented growth in distribution, and take up into retailers nationwide.

graze's success in retail stores can be traced to its origins as a direct to consumer online business. In this model it takes a "fail fast" approach using super-fast innovation methodology, which can launch a product in 48 hours. It has used this to build a constantly changing range of over 400 skus online. This along with receiving over 15,000 ratings back from its grazers every hour means it can choose when to bring the most relevant products to market in retail stores. This gives graze an advantage over more traditional players in the market, the company reports.

Another new innovation from the team has been the six product 'sharing bags' that have already boosted graze's sales and added a further 25-50% retail sale value to Ocado, WHSmith Travel and Waitrose within a few weeks of launch. Further feedback from stores such as Boots is that graze snacks are the third largest food brand in Boots (apart from Boots own brand) and describe graze as 'The Future of Food'.

Commenting on the success so far, CEO Anthony Fletcher, said: " There's two reasons for our success - one is that health is major trend that is gathering pace. Secondly, technology gives us an ability to respond rapidly to these changes. By plugging that void at the tills, graze is getting one step closer to achieving our vision of becoming the number one healthier snacking brand in the UK. It is brilliant that graze snacks are now outselling leading chocolate bars in many stores."

graze has a proven track record with revenues of £68m in its latest released accounts. This is underpinned by industry leading margins, driven by their unique ability to build a loyal and engaged consumer base. Selling in store, alongside the original subscription and online options, has opened up a further significant revenue opportunity and has allowed graze to meet the demand of both existing and new consumers who want to have multiple activation points for purchase.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Healthy snacks brand, graze, says it is outselling chocolate competitors

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The multi-channel retailer of healthier snacks,graze.com, is reported to be outselling leading confectionary brands in shops since launching into stores one year ago. FIve thousand plus stores, including Boots, WHSmith Travel, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose, now stock graze snacks and graze says it has sold more than 12m to date.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Here at graze we select the healthy foods that actually taste good and handpick your very own snack box, delivered to any UK address.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Market Landscape

S. Filoteo

Whether you've bought a subscription box or not, you've likely heard of two big players in the space: Birchbox and Dollar Shave Club.

The former, launched in 2010, sends a box full of makeup and beauty product samples to customers each month, while the latter sends razors and shaving supplies. Both have raised hundreds of millions in VC funding, and last year, Unilever acquired Dollar Shave Club for $1 billion.

They both essentially carved a new market out of the concept of recurring delivery of a niche product. Now, whether it's apparel, dog treats, or meal components, there's a subscription box business to deliver those products regularly to your door.

But clearly, all is not well in the land of subscription boxes. The market is saturated. Venture capital in the space has dropped off dramatically, and Birchbox has had at least two rounds of layoffs.

At Quid, we wanted to take a closer look at subscription boxes in both news and funding data, to see how this trendy space is changing.

Subscription boxes focused on apparel, styling services, and interior design dominate the public conversation, which we see in news data between May 2016-May 2017.

A Quid network shows 2,111 news stories from global sources between May 22 2016 - May 22, 2017, colored by clusters or main topics.

Then we mapped the top companies mentioned in the data, and Unilever's acquisition of Dollar Shave Club dominates. But interestingly, traditional brick-and-mortar retailer Nordstrom lands at third in the list - mainly due to the success of its high-end styling service, Trunk Club.

As Walmart and other brick-and-mortar giants gobble up hip online brands, will we see a trend toward other large retailers acquiring niche boxes?

Next we mapped the top individuals in the market.

Michael Dubin is the CEO of Dollar Shave Club and Katia Beauchamp is CEO of Birchbox. Kate Hudson is founder of Fabletics. But Stacie Vaughan runs the lifestyle blog Simply Stacie, and Michelle Phan is an ex-YouTube personality who focuses on make-up demonstration.

In Quid, we can also see which stories about subscription boxes are gaining the most traction online. The most interesting find? A women-focused blog community, HelloGiggles, ran with this headline: "There's a monthly 'Gilmore Girls' subscription box, and please take all our money." The story was only published once, but shared more than 25,730 times. This specific article was the most shared across the entire conversation.

The second-most-shared article also comes from HelloGiggles, targeting "witchy goddesses" - a Goddess Provisions box catering to women looking to "connect with our divine feminine and grow our spiritual practices." The article was shared 16,932 times.

The popularity of such stories, combined with the idea's general traction among Millennials, suggests we could see a crop of new boxes catering that demographic and their interests.

Another company with big social traction: Stitch Fix, a clothing subscription service that uses stylists and data science to make picks. The service disclosed record sales of $730 million for its 2016 fiscal year.

We ran a second analysis on the companies in this industry and their financing, filtering to include a field of consumer-focused subscription boxes.

From the data, investment in subscription boxes appears to be tapering off. The industry became quickly saturated between 2014-2015, with the largest tally of total investments and highest dollar amounts invested happening in those years.

In 2016, investment amounts dropped by two thirds, while the number of investments remained relatively high. This tells us investors are still interested, but being much more cautious.

In the heatmap below, you can see significant growth in investments within food and beverage subscription boxes, with a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 146.5%, but we're also seeing a reduction in apparel-focused subscription boxes, at a -66.4% CAGR.

Subscription Meal Services (95.8% CAGR) and Animal products (85.1% CAGR) are second and third in growing investments.

So what's next in subscription boxes? A savvy entrepreneur would likely tailor any new subscription box to a Millennial crowd, and one that played on some aspect of pop culture. Other notable trends: niche box products focused on healthy activities, food, or pet supplies. Perhaps the next big subscription box will combine them all: wine and chocolate for the young mom, a yoga mat or a water bottle, plus treats for the dog.

The above represents a summary of our findings about subscription boxes. To see more, please contact sfiloteo@quid.com.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Beyond Dollar Shave Club: why the subscription box craze may fade

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Market Landscape Whether you've bought a subscription box or not, you've likely heard of two big players in the space: Birchbox and Dollar Shave Club. The former, launched in 2010, sends a box full of makeup and beauty product samples to customers each month, while the latter sends razors and shaving supplies.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The subscription box market has boomed in the last couple of years, and in doing so created a viable corner of the market for a number of brands which have grown to become household names. These businesses combine convenience with great branding and products and include the likes of Birchbox, Glossybox, Graze, HelloFresh, Gousto, Pact Coffee and Cornerstone, to name a few. But equally, this new business model has given a platform for unique and interesting business ideas which have not fared so well - cheese toasties in the post, anyone?

Oliver Bridge, founder & CEO of Cornerstone, a razor blade subscription company, agrees. "There was a wave of hype and novelty and there were some crazy businesses sold on subscription - baby toys, LPs which also sent you a flavoured tea to drink while listening to the record. We did hit peak novelty subscription.

"But what has remained are businesses who provide a genuinely useful or cool experience for the customer," said Bridge, who founded Cornerstone mid-2014 and has since amassed 170,000 UK customers.

According to a report from Royal Mail the value of the subscription box market is forecast to grow 72%, from £583 million in 2017 to £1 billion by 2022. Royal Mail says 27% of UK customers have already signed up to a subscription box service, with boxes being most popular with under 35s, while more than half of 25-35 year olds are signed up to at least one service. Meanwhile 40% of consumers said they will join more schemes in the future.

Stealing market share

There's also good news for Cornerstone, Royal Mail sees male grooming and beauty subscriptions as the biggest growth area, with predictions of an additional two million members in this category by 2022.

And while this area of subscription is already getting a little crowded - Unilever's Dollar Shave Club made its UK debut in early 2018 and there are a number of other brands edging in on the male grooming market - Bridge believes his competition is in fact retailers, and in particular Boots.

"We're going head-to-head with Boots and stealing market share from them," he says. "But in reality millions of people a year still go through its doors to buy toiletries."

Bridge says the subscription market is providing consumers with more choice, while businesses can test the waters of their brand online and potentially even move into traditional retail - just look at Birchbox's pop-up and Bloom & Wild's move away from subscription into gifting. "It's a great way to get awareness," admits Bridge.

From subscription to on-demand

And while subscription is still the main focus for his business, Bridge and his team are working on some clever technology to provide on-demand fulfilment for Cornerstone customers, taking inspiration from Amazon's Dash buttons.

"I have a range of products in my bathroom - say 15 products - but I don't want 15 Dash Buttons in my bathroom. Add my wife into the mix and then we'll have about 35 Dash Buttons."

Bridge says Cornerstone is currently working on a product that has all the benefits of a Dash Button without the need for multiple buttons per product. When you consider Cornerstone sells razors, blades, shaving cream and associated toiletries, this mounts up to a number of different products a customer may need to replenish.

When the Cornerstone's solution launches early next year, Bridge says the business will "move towards a hybrid of subscription and immediate on-demand" which will help it do battle with the likes of Amazon and Boots.

Fulfilment tipping point

According to Bridge, subscription companies could soon face a tipping point in the next couple of years when access to same-day courier services become commoditised thanks to the launch of off-the-shelf solutions. He believes it will only take Royal Mail, Uber, or even a new player to develop an on-demand service for retailers and brands to level the playing field. This will mean the subscription market will become less focused on a regular delivery of a product you are loyal to, and give consumers the option to buy products on-demand.

"There are half a million Uber drivers out there, and when you think about it, it's not much more effort to have something else in the back of their boot which they can deliver on the way to their destination," says Bridge.

Forrester analyst, Lily Varon warns that once the novelty of a subscription box wears off consumers like to be in control of their purchases and the frequency of deliveries. She also believes consumer demand for faster delivery times could work in favour of the subscription market if businesses identify the need.

"But I think same-day and next-day fulfilment is also a threat to subscription businesses hinging on auto-replenishment," she tells Essential Retail. "Especially if your products are available from another retailer who can support same-day or next-day delivery while you can't."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Analysis: The rise of subscription boxes

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The subscription box market has boomed in the last couple of years, and in doing so created a viable corner of the market for a number of brands which have grown to become household names. These businesses combine convenience with great branding and products and include the likes of Birchbox, Glossybox, Graze, HelloFresh, Gousto, Pact Coffee and Cornerstone, to name a few.

# data[].attributes.body
All the consumers in this markets are able to go on this website when they are ordering the boxes of their choices and pick the exact products that they want through their likes and dislikes. Therefore, the boxes are tailored for their tastes and choices which is would allow them to have the competitive success they need to survive in this competitive industry.

# data[].attributes.body
Product differentiation is key to a business in this industry because if each of the businesses aren't tailoring their products to the needs and trends within the consumer base then they will lose sales and customers because the items in the subscription boxes will not support their lifestyle changes.

# data[].attributes.body
This source shows Blue Apron was the leading food box site in 2017 compared to the other subscription box brands and they had an increase in site visitors by 44%.

# data[].attributes.body
Blue Apron is the leading food subscription box, known in every household around the world.  Their boxes content home-delivery meal kits and recipes are predicted to have an annual growth rate of 25% to 30% within the next 5 years. This would make them into a $2.2 billion business.

# data[].attributes.body
To compete effectively with their competitors, Blue Apron pursued product differentiation where they created Blue Apron Market which is a merchandise, cookbook and cookware store. They also created another subscription service, Blue Apron Wine, which delivers 6 bottles of wine to users each month. This meant that with their subscription services they were able to cater for a whole meal for their customers. This makes their product range unlike any other subscription service.

# data[].attributes.body
Hello Fresh is quite a substantial subscription box within its market, where it is ranked at 316. They supply recipe boxes in which customers can plan their weekly menu and get the ingredients and recipes necessary to create them. The fresh ingredients are then delivered to your home so that you can enjoy cooking new dishes in the comfort of your own home. This box is beneficial for customers because they can get the fresh foods they need to cook delivered right to their houses, instead of going to different supermarkets and wasting time.

# data[].attributes.body
Hello Fresh was able to find success in US market in 2017 where their customer base grew to 1.5 million globally. They also surpassed their biggest competitor Blue Apron.

# data[].attributes.body
Compared to their competitors, Graze that have a global ranking of 24,514,  Hello Fresh has a global rank of 74,050. Also, the total visits shows that Graze 's website is visited more than 1 million times then the Hello Fresh one had been. Therefore, this shows that Graze is a strong competitor for Hello Fresh which would cause them problems in gaining and retaining customers.

# data[].attributes.body
The boxes are created in a unique way to the other where it is slim therefore, even if the consumers are not in their homes, the boxes can be put through the letter box. Graze is not only outselling its competitors in the same market, but also outselling its chocolate competitors. Once these products came into the retail stores like Tesco, Waitrose and Sainsbury's they sold more than 12m products to date. Therefore, unlike any of their competitors they are building stronger foundations and customer relations in stores.

# data[].attributes.body
Graze has quite a different product range compares to the other competing subscription boxes in the market. Unlike the other brands that supply recipes and ingredients for meals, Graze includes healthier, lighter and wholesome snacks. They are aimed towards the busier consumers who don't have a lot of time to go out and buy snacks for themselves, therefore, the box will deliver the snacks to their front door.

# data[].attributes.body
This graphs shows the competitive success of Graze as they are the second highest brand to have an increase in their site traffic by 115% compared to any of the other subscription boxes.

# data[].attributes.body
Online:
- Millennials are placing orders online for day-to-day items and food by apps or websites because it's a lot more convenient.
- Online food ordering sales and delivery sales could have an annual average rise of more than 20% to $365 billion around the world from the current $35 billion.

Stores:
- Well-known supermarkets like Tesco, Sainsbury, Walmart and Target have now started to place these products in their supermarkets so that other potential customers have the opportunity to explore those markets.

# data[].attributes.body
The food subscription sector takes a place in the food market between supermarkets, fast food and restaurants. The products in the subscription boxes include a variety of snacks but also ingredients and recipes to create full meals. Therefore, creating restaurant style home-made meals but with all the supermarket ingredient dropped right outside your house, allowing convenient cooking.

# data[].attributes.body
- Consumers of all age demographics say that they would pay more for the healthier foods that is GMO-free or doesn't contain artificial colouring/flavours.
- Audience of Sub Boxes are young millennials aged between 18-24 and are likely to be try newer things. Therefore, they are interested in purchasing and trying new foods through these subscription boxes.

# data[].attributes.body
- Consumers are now working to adapt their lifestyles to live healthier lives. This was proven in 2017, the global sales of healthy food products had been estimated to have reached $1 trillion.
- Statistics show that 88% of the people polled are willing to pay more for healthier foods that can help boost health and weight loss. Therefore, they would be interested in the subscription boxes promoting healthier eating and snacking.

# data[].attributes.body
For a lot of the consumers who have busier lifestyle at work, studying at college or aren't as good at cooking, a food subscription box matches their needs perfectly. Therefore, receiving meal plans or snack through the mail make it convenient for the consumers and a lot less stressful.

# data[].attributes.body
Consumers enjoy subscription boxes as they like to be in control of their purchases and how frequently the products are being delivered to them. However, it's believed that consumer trends will change as they will then demand faster delivery times. This could also be better for the business if they need business identity.

# data[].attributes.body
Blue Apron, Home Chef and Hello Fresh are three food subscription services that are in the top site visits in 2017.

# data[].attributes.body
This graphs shows that the food subscription boxes have the 2nd largest site visits with 33%.

# data[].attributes.body
Current Market Size:
- 27% of UK consumers have joined subscription services.
- This service is most common with consumers under 35.
- More than half of 25-35 year olds in the UK have joined at least 1 subscription service.

Expected Market Size:
- In the future, 40% of UK consumers have stated that they would join more subscription schemes in the future.

# data[].attributes.body
Profitability:
- The UK market is forecasted to grow from £583 million in 2017 to £1 billion by 2022
- The Asia-Pacific Meal Kit Subscription Boxes Market is forecasted to grow to be worth $78.24m by 2022.

# data[].attributes.body
Current Growth Rate:
- Between 2013 and 2016 the compound annual growth rate of the food and beverage subscription boxes has increased by 146.5%.
- The meal services has increased by 95.8%.

Expected Growth Rate:
-  Forecasted to grow to 72% by 2022.

# data[].attributes.body
The food subscriptions market is a specialised market which is creating its place in many households as a regular brand.

# data[].attributes.body
Great branding and product ideas are used to create great unique and interesting businesses. Their products range from snacks to ingredients to make main course meals.

# data[].attributes.body
This market derives from the immense food industry which is chaotically competitive and targeted at large amounts of potential customers.