Wrapping his interview with Birchbox founders Hayley Barna and Katia Beauchamp, Chris Dixon tosses out some interesting statistics.
Roughly “92% of commerce is still offline and actually Amazon only has 6% of the online.” Dixon says it appears the first online wave of commerce revolved around hard goods (tickets, books and dvd players) and we are potentially entering a second wave where soft goods (beauty products) have an opportunity to claim more of the space.
Barna agrees there is an opportunity for soft goods and tells Dixon that Amazon presents their items “in a nice catalog way” but “being able to bring the content and put it next to the products I think enables new things to be sold.” Beauchamp then compares Birchbox to the retail experience of brick and mortar stores and adds, “we try and take you there.”
In the below video Dixon asks Beauchamp and Barna what has surprised them since starting their company – before asking the two to offer advice to entrepreneurs. Barna delivers the first words of wisdom with, “figure out how to test it.”
Make sure to watch the entire video for additional insights, along with episode I and episode II of this interview.
Past episodes of Founder Stories featuring Ben Lerer, Kevin Ryan and Soraya Darabi are here.
Launched in 2010, Birchbox is the discovery commerce platform redefining the retail process by offering consumers a personalized way to discover, sample, shop and learn about the best products and brands available. Birchbox members have first-touch experiences with products each month and access to educational content to help them get the most out of their products. Top brands like Kiehl’s, Benefit, Deborah Lippmann and Stila have partnered with Birchbox. To learn more about Birchbox, visit www.birchbox.com.
Katia Beauchamp is the Co-Founder of Birchbox, the discovery commerce company changing the way women shop for beauty and lifestyle products. Through its multi-channel platform, the Birchbox experience features personalized sampling, informative editorial content and a hand-picked online store. Katia began her career as an entrepreneur after graduating from Harvard Business School in 2010, where she met Hayley Barna, her Birchbox Co-founder. Their connection grew into friendship and the pair’s collaborative idea for Birchbox inspired the company’s debut in...
Chris Dixon is a Partner at and co-founder of Founder’s Collective. He is also a contributing writer for TechCrunch. He previously was the CEO and Co-founder of SiteAdvisor, which was acquired by McAfee, and Hunch, which was acquired by eBay. In addition to his work with Founder’s Collective, Chris is a personal investor in early-stage technology companies, including Skype, TrialPay, DocVerse, Invite Media, Gerson Lehrman Group, ScanScout, OMGPOP, BillShrink, Oddcast, Panjiva, Knewton, and a handful of other startups that...
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