Liberty Beauty Drop Subscription Box Spoiler Part 6

[Housewife2010]

Shiny new thread

A theory

Subscription services tend to increase the value of a company and boost its share price. It’s a valuable thing to do and profitable at the back end even if not at the consumer end.
Liberty may be trying to make it profitable at the consumer end, now it’s had the original boost in value.*

*don’t ask me to expand- DH’s theory and he knows a bit about this but not in the retail sector. It’s also entirely possible I’ve misunderstood!

I’m definitely waiting for the next box, I don’t let my credit build up (am too magpie like with new things) and it rarely gets above £60 before I spend it. If I don’t feel I’m getting value for money then I’ll cancel later in the year. I joined at the start, and it probably grew too quickly, hopefully it gets better and they have a clearer vision of how to make it work now.

What I don't understand is at the start they claimed it was an exclusive scheme, limited membership, sign up now or lose it forever bla bla, I didn't believe them but saw it was a useful ruse to encourage people to join and feel special.

But recently they bascially said it's open to anyone, why don't you all climb on board.

Why do that and then immediately change the terms? Did not enough people climb on board? Did they hope everyone would jump on and then not mind a fee hike of 25%?

@CinnamonCoffee Thank you, I’ve just ordered that. It looks great and I’ve been keen to try the eye serum.

Thank you! I've just ordered this.

I’ve been in the scheme since October last year (so only had two boxes). I didn’t know it had been going for a couple of years.

I found out about it because I happened to be buying my Suqqu brow pens from Liberty online (still only available from there and Selfridges afaIk) and there was a tiny sign up link at checkout. I’ve never seen any advertising for BD but I don’t go into the store (living in Northern Scotland) and didn’t get email newsletters until recently.

I’d have thought they would have tried to control membership along the way if there was a problem with it exploding. Are they still taking new members now? I can’t seem to find an ad for it.

I'm still undecided, I'll probably wait until the next box then see how I feel. It's not even so much about the money, it's more that the way they've gone about it feels really dishonest.

I still have £60 credit which I need to spend. The items I bought earlier this week came v quickly, and so far I'm happy with them. I'm pretty keen to spend the remainder on makeup as I've been wearing the same stuff forever!

I've seen the Suqqu eyebrow pencils recommended - are those worth it? I've used the Benefit ones forever and I do love them. I've also seen Lisa Eldridge mentioned. I've never had anything from that range, but I'm looking at the highlighter and tinted moisturiser. Possibly a mascara too.

I'm an accountant and if I worked at Liberty I'd be nagging the sales team every month to find out what they're launching. I'd be hoping for a successful kit to encourage people to spend their credit and clear the liability on the balance sheet. Moreso at year end to be able to boost revenue for the year too.

@Lightenuppeople I agree there was probably a lot of Marketing value associated with the Beauty Drop. For me personally, Liberty was just never on my radar until BD as the clothes etc aren't my style (or budget!) at all. I really went for it though...one of my purchases has been a small bottle (100ml I think) of Olverum bath oil for over £40! So they've lost my custom now but I'm not sure if they care. I genuinely have no idea of the logic behind the extra £5 or why they thought anyone would be happy to pay it!

I'll stick with it a while to see the quality of the next box as I've been really pleased with some of the new discoveries I'd otherwise not have made. Often the items are out of stock as others say though and I've ended up with £200 credit I can't spend.

@Pigtailsandall I love the Suqqu brow pen in khaki no1, (its not a pencil, they do pencils but I haven’t tried them).

The fine brush and translucent ink lets me just fill in a single hair here and there and its completely invisible. If you want to fill in actual gaps, boost the volume of your brows or use a stencil it would be no good.

I’m getting my first Lisa Eldridge lipstick delivered tomorrow (Lucent Lip Colour in Rosy Shell). So looking forward to it, its been an awful week, DH coming down with Covid at last being a highlight.

I’ll be cancelling and have £300 credit built up with nothing I particularly want to buy. I mundanely use kiehls products every day but I ended up always still buying direct from kiehls due to 3 for 2 etc. Studying the brands they have 4 pairs of cubitts sunglasses on the website. I do get my prescription glassses from cubitts and wondering if anyone knows if they have more in store (even better if access to prescription lenses). I’d decided this is the year of varifocal sunglasses as hate the constant cycling through glasses on holiday so would be great if I could use some or all the credit to that.

Beautydrop no longer accepting new members? Sounds suspicious?

Oh shit, really? In that case I'm going to spend my credit tomorrow.

You can still register your interest on the website, which is how it all began tbh.

Just spend my bday fiver and beauty amount on a byredo perfume that is nearly ending. Don’t like much the latest news but they’re not seeing benefit from the bd, taking into account half the time the products aren’t available …

Possibly no more than the initial news did. I think we all knew the way this was going on Monday. It does prove that the scale of the thing was way out of hand. And I think it actually sounds quite hopeful for those that are staying that they are actively controlling membership now after ‘the exodus’ this week - if you’re in the market for a beauty box sub its still better value than a lot of the others after all, if you don’t count the £20 enforced saving plan as part of the expense.

I wouldn’t panic that they’re closed to new members. They want to reduce the numbers, and know that adding a service charge will undoubtedly do that. I think they’re waiting for the dust to settle before allowing new members assuming they ever will.

I’m sure the beauty drop team are in a right mess this week and beyond closing to new memberships they haven’t a clue what they’re going to do yet.

I guess maybe they could be closed to new members temporarily because the staff are overwhelmed with managing cancellations and have no capacity to set them up.

Presumably they are busy with cancellations and trying to get a handle on how many of the April box they need to put together? I wouldn’t read that much doom and gloom into it!

I was in store yesterday and the staff are so lovely. One of the colleagues remembered me from a previous shopping trip in early Jan. I hope for their sakes that things are ok.

Looking at the cancellations, they are going to have lots of excess product in April. I'm going to wait for the April box then cancel. I wanted to swap to Haeckels annual subscription but it's OOS.

I'm going to hold on for April
I have a decent amount saved so hoping for a decent gwp soon too
April's box will be telling though

I'm also holding on until April ( which is my birthday month and I think I remember receiving a voucher last year).
But I have spent my bd balance on the latest beauty kit. I couldn't find anything else to spend my balance on!