A HUGE issue I have is going to the boxychaarm “drop shop” and seeing some items at GREAT prices, then within the same month, or even week, I see the EXACT SAME items from the BC sale on Ipsy‘s website… and they’re listed for twice as much. Now, even at that higher price, I’m sure a lot of people think it’s a decent deal, Especially if it’s an item that you really like or have had your eye on; however, it just seems unethical and leaves a bad taste in my mouth that Ipsy would sell the same 1-2 ur old makeup item on two different websites at significantly different prices within a week or two.
I do think Ipsy’s made some good business choices in the past couple years (except for “Refreshments” which is a HARD pass), especially considering they have over 4 million members. I mean, their logistics and organization, operations, buyers, quality control, etc. must be ON POINT, because (in the recent past, atleast) there’s hasnt really been any of these huge rows I can remember about shipping problems or recalled products or issues you see going on with other subs half their size- we just don’t hear from A significant segment of the population of customers that they’re upset and fuming bc they were bamboozled or exploited etc. like we’ve seen with almost every other major sub box company at some point in past 1-2 yrs.
And the fact that boxy charm has gone EVEN FURTHER DOWNHILL than it was when Ipsy bought it isn’t exactly surprising, but it was unimaginable to me that it could get worse, or the co. would have the gall to make it worse… which reflects horribly on Ipsy/BC bc it’s just plain greedy and exploitative. They seemingly shove some overstock from well known brands in with just the right amount of private label box fillers for whatever remaining subs they have to be satisfied enough to forget to unsubscribe.
And unfortunately, Ipsy has started rotating in even more of the same types of private label, shady products now- but they have a trick…
We know ipsy has a brand incubator affiliated with the company, so these in-house brands aka those we see appear repeatedly in the sub can serve multiple purposes as they can plan to fill the glam bags with them, but also manufacture them to the right specifics at low cost… but in the meantime they can also test the response that people have to the make up and skin care products that are coming out of the brands that they’re trying to build up and create…
Things like Item beauty and Saint luxe and complex culture, Tresluce… they’re all companies that they’ve created but want to hide their relationship with. (Google it-There’s articles where they’ve bragged about their brand incubator & very own in-house brands and private labeled cruddy makeup,& while some of thes brands’ products may possibly perhaps could not be private labeled, theyre essentially all made to be the cheapest & most low quality that is possible to still be categorized as the beauty product that’s on their label.
Moreover consider this- the data collected from subscribers over the years, has ALLLLL helped inform their in-house brands & product development and tailored marketing and sub box ploys… Oh and an effort to attract & please all types of a diverse ppl… & the data from our product reviews and preference quizzes and purchase patterns has informed Ipsy abt how to appeal to the societal segments they want to target, and to curate products these ppl will want, and develop an interface and sales tactics online that drive ppl to buy things even when they don’t have the money- bc our susceptibility is in the data we’ve freely given over the yrs. They can target/appeal to various age groups and certain ZIP Codes/income levels, ethnicities, geographic regions, and even personality types, etc. bc they’ve got data points which theoretically enable them to put certain things on the computer screen that will sell to the ppl they target them to, and put items in the subscription which are satisfactory to a certain person- things that are cheap and JUST GOOD ENOUGH, because they know what “just good enough” translates to in terms of product diversity and expectations and how to achieve subscriber satisfaction whike spending the least amount of money.
I love that they put the items people actually want in the add on sales like jerks (because that’s where all their money really comes from) which is designed to pull on the impulsivity strings ppl feel when they think they’re going to get a good deal. They got really lucky because they were poised to answer the demands/needs people felt throughout Covid, bc especially in these times where we’ve been isolated, many ppl want the short-lived rush & satisfaction of retail therapy, whether they can afford it or not. Ipsy preys on that compulsion, which is sad.
They’ve not only gained a monopoly on the market, they smartly realized that if they got big enough, they could create their own box products and not have to curate them from around the beauty sphere… they coukd just throw in their own filler items…
However, it’s clear that the larger goal of the brand incubator was to create a beauty brand that wasn’t obviously attached to Ipsy w/ which they could put the data they’ve gathered over all these years to the test and create an algorithm that sells, creating products and brands that check all the boxes that consumers want (bc their subscribers have told them the answers to these questions already).
The modern trick to kick start that algorithm is perhaps to attach a famous influencer to the brand and give them some type of creative title that implies they impacted the development and direction of the brand in some way which is totally fictitious and just sells enough to those that are gullible, and inexperienced, or unwise when it comes to make up and beauty products, so that they’ll fall for the marketing ploys and traps i.e. Addison Rae has a beauty brand, or the people that believe the “influencer“ Ipsy pays to “curate” the glam bag x actually picks the products they feature in it,😑.
The fact that item beauty is in Sephora ABSOLUTELY blows my mind because it’s backed by Ipsy, and it’s backed by years of their data mining and interpreting what people like abt different products and expect from them… and now, they can put them in the subscription box for a few months to test them and see what feedback comes in (like a focus group, but without the informed consent.) I hear people talk as if these things are not obvious to them which really shocks me, but it helps makes sense as to why Ipsy is so successful.
I think boxy charm would be able to support a monthly box and maybe quarterly box and focus on targeting a different segment of the market; and it makes sense that Ipsy would be able to support having multiple subscription levels because theyre large enough- they just have to define what type of person/beauty buyer they’re creating it for. And some of the items are going to be private labeled and/or in-house brands which is fine (ugh)… Just As long as they work and are decent quality, or do what they claim and contain what’s on the label, bc I don’t like receiving total crud as if I’m being taken advantage of.
I’d like to see ipsy get a little more into home goods in the X, in terms of bathroom and bedroom and jewelry and accessories as well as small decor and fashion items. There’s a big hole in the market and a lot of diverse & eclectic ppl that would pay good money for just good enough items that are curated thoughtfully and not obviously cheap/ trashy.
OK , off my soapbox…
Sorry not sorry, but I am kinda interested to see how they’re going to market & curate this new plus bag because being the “Boxycharm bag” DEEEEFINITELY isn’t going to cut it.
Call FC‘s market place/shop has been underutilized and awkward from the beginning so it would be nice to see them use their leverage in the marketplace to bring some really economic items into the fold.
(Meanwhile, I’ll just keep subbing to BC when I have a 50% off coupon to shop the sales)
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