Rising trend

The fourth episode of the Royal Mail Podcast is out now. This time round, the podcast looks at the role subscription boxes play in gifting and self-gifting.

Gifting is responsible for more than a quarter of spending on subscription box products, equating to £160 million. A further £423 million is spent on self-gifting subscription boxes. The gifting market is a key avenue for subscription businesses, including shoppers who gift to their friends and family as well as the growing trend for self-gifting.

On the podcast, we hear from a number of businesses in the subscription box industry, including Alexis Hughes from craft kits subscription business Mila and Pheebs, and Camilla Bourquin from luxury lifestyle subscription business Moi-Même. We also spoke to Prita Das from Allsubscriptionboxes.co.uk, the website that offers a comprehensive library of subscription boxes.

Our report found that when it comes to purchasing on behalf of somebody else, refer and recommendation is key for discovery, with 54% purchasing after being recommended by someone, and 44% after reading good reviews.

The growing influence of subscription boxes as gifts is reflected by the 36% who felt their purchase was a thoughtful gift to buy someone. For gift recipients, their feedback was that it was good to try something new (32%), they appreciated the gift (29%) and liked the subscription model (27%).

Click here to listen to the podcast now. You can also use any of the major podcasting platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Acast.