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How to Start a Subscription Box Service (Infographic) A quick and dirty roadmap to launching a curated subscription box service in seven steps.

By Kim Lachance Shandrow

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The Carnivore Club | Facebook

Birchbox. BroBox. BarkBox. Dollar Shave Club. Ipsy. By now you've probably heard about successful curated subscription box-based startups like these. The product sampling and subscription business model they're built on is arguably the hottest trend in ecommerce right now, delivering recurring revenues to entrepreneurs from all kinds of industries at relatively low costs as often as they deliver cool, new stuff to subscribers.

Tim Ray, founder a gourmet charcuterie subscription service called Carnivore Club, said he entered the budding market mainly he because was attracted to the benefit of low-risk recurring revenue. But he was also lured by the overall logistical simplicity of running a monthly subscription box operation. "From a business perspective, it's the most efficient, flexible and easy to operate business model in ecommerce," he told The Financial Post last year.

Related: How Ipsy, Michelle Phan's Million-Member Sampling Service, Is Giving Birchbox a Run For Its Money

Perhaps you'd like to take the leap like Ray but aren't quite sure how. Lucky for you, it's easier now than ever for aspiring ecommerce entrepreneurs to launch, manage and grow their own subscription box startups. The process has become relatively simple since the days of the first online subscriptions boxes only a couple of years ago. There are even startups to help you start up your subscription box startup, like Cratejoy and Subbly, so you don't have to deal with the headache of handling online storefront website coding, hosting and billing.

For a quick overview of the steps involved with starting your own subscription box service, check out the helpful infographic from Cratejoy below.

Click to Enlarge

How to Start a Subscription Box Service (Infographic)

Related: 10 Subscription Companies to Start Now

Kim Lachance Shandrow

Former West Coast Editor

Kim Lachance Shandrow is the former West Coast editor at Entrepreneur.com. Previously, she was a commerce columnist at Los Angeles CityBeat, a news producer at MSNBC and KNBC in Los Angeles and a frequent contributor to the Los Angeles Times. She has also written for Government Technology magazine, LA Yoga magazine, the Lowell Sun newspaper, HealthCentral.com, PsychCentral.com and the former U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. C. Everett Coop. Follow her on Twitter at @Lashandrow. You can also follow her on Facebook here

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