2) Bring out the salient aspects of the Boxed leadership’s approach to its customer appeal and

growth?

Boxed is earning $100 million annually with the help of 160 employees. B2B customers became the
fastest growing segment for the company. Typical customer of Boxed fell in the range of age group
25 to 44 years who were online buyers and not a member of brick and mortar wholesale club. All of
its leadership’s growth strategy was focused on every stakeholder involved : customers, producers,
vendors and employees.

Boxed leadership focused on three characteristics: convenience, branding and pricing. Keeping in
mind the needs of younger generation in terms of convenience and value products, boxed came up
with a shipping service that deliver products within two days. This was also suited for rural
customers who didn’t have access to local wholesale clubs.

Boxed tried to be price competitive with other retailers like Amazon and Target by offering limited
product assortment, bulk packaging, and more items per order. It had no membership fees unlike
Amazon prime service and also had the facility of the free delivery for all the orders above $49.

Not only in terms of business, boxed made an effort to have a positive social impact by standing
against Pink Tax, a tax imposed on feminine hygiene products and reduced the cost of certain female
products which were bit expensive than those of male counterparts. They even donated supplies
and clothing to women shelters in New York to support the social mission. This was done to use its
branding to have a positive impact on the society while at the same time raise awareness about the
company and its products.

Company preferred to keep limited edition of stock and any updation in inventory was based on
seasonality, launch of new products and also changing needs of customers preferences. Items
available in fulfillment center were subject to customization pattern depending on the needs of
customers in that particular region.

Boxed tried replicating the shopping experience of brick and mortar store by encouraging
browsing, as opposed to just filtering and selecting a single item. The mobile application and website
suggested items to customers to be added to their cart based on previous and current buying
patterns. The only thing he planned on incorporating was to provide world class shopping
experience while eliminating cost of travelling to and from store and time spent on navigating
through aisles.

When the system detected that there was enough space remaining in current cart, it would come up
with the suggestions of impulse products like fidget spinner or any item which is similar to products
which are kept at the checkout counter in physical stores. Cost of all such recommended products
were below $2, thus it was a tactic to increase the revenue growth of the company.

In terms of growth, boxed launched new line of private label products, Prince & Spring in order to
bring the loyalty for the brand and also enable leverage in negotiations with other consumers brands
especially with the ones which have refused to sell their products to Boxed.

Company has been innovative in its relationship not only with the customers but producers as well.
They enabled vendors to advertise on the packaging boxes. Box takeover, an initiative where
vendors paid monthly fees to have their advertisement placed on air pillow helped them earn an
additional revenue of 10-20 cents. Custom branding served as low cost advertisement after the
products were delivered to residential areas and office spaces.
Manufacturers, were not left behind in this space. Boxed helped them provide data regarding
buying pattern of the consumers. They agreed on performance benchmark for sales and in case,
target was not met they would ask for rebates. This served as an alternative to catalogues and flyers
since manufacturers competed against each other for promotional space for their products.

Employees of the company received several welfare benefits which inculcated the healthy work
culture. Employees at all level received equity in the company along with funding of their life altering
events like children tuition fees or wedding expenses. It avoided the lay off any worker rather
preferred training existing workers on how to operate heavy machinery and allowing them to learn
the marketing skills. The company launched an initiative to make all new employees spend one full
day at the fulfillment center picking and packing actual customer orders. This was done to ensure
that employees learn the value and cost of offering high quality customer experience from early in
their careers.