Friction Free Shaving

Idea

Introduction

To our knowledge, we are the only razor delivery service in the UK designed exclusively for women. We deliver razors and replacement blades through customers' letterboxes each month in return for a modest monthly subscription. The blades arrive via Royal Mail and P&P is built into the sale price.

The flexibility of the service enables customers to cancel or pause the subscription at any time, which has given us a customer retention rate of over 90%. Customers can choose from three types of razors and blades, paying £3, £5 or £7 per month. The prices reflect the number of blades per cartridge and handle type. Payment is by Direct Debit or Credit Card.

When a customer signs up she receives a high quality metal handle and four replacement blades – enough for a fresh one each week. She’ll then receive four new blades a month plus a complimentary new handle every year. Our cleverly designed, discrete boxes fit through any letterbox - so never need to be signed for.

Our most popular razor: the rose gold “Samantha” model (£7 per month):

Intended impact

Recent press coverage highlighted the unfair costs of women’s razors. A major retail brand was found to charge women twice as much as men for a pack of 10 disposable razors with the only apparent difference being that they were pink! High street chemists have had to respond to “sexist pricing” by changing their razor prices, resulting in considerable negative publicity for these traditional routes to market.

We help women to have an affordable, clean shave with a sharp razor whenever they want. Whilst a branded pack of four razor refills retails on the high street for as much as £12.99, Friction Free Shaving starts at just £3 per month. For this the customer receives a handle plus four fresh cartridges - sent directly to their door. That’s less than the price of a large cappuccino!

All our razors are made of metal, rather than plastic – so have a heavyweight and quality feel to them, as well as being contoured for a better grip. These features have been widely commented on by customers, and compare favorably with the high street, where women’s razors tend to be made out of plastic. Ours also come in a range of colours, rather than just pink – something many women now find uninspiring and predictable.

Our "Faye" model (£3 per month):

Research has shown that 75% of women experience irritation on their legs, underarms or bikini after shaving. Blunt blades cause razor burn/rash because they require more pressure than a sharp blade. But expensive and over-complicated high street brands put many women off changing their blades as often as they should.

We make it easy and affordable for women to get that clean feeling from shaving with a new razor every time they shave. Our razors have Aloe Vera lubricating strips, wide rubber guard bars and stainless steel blades. But we cut out the middle man by sending direct to their door, so not only do our customers notice a difference in quality, they also notice the difference in price

"Frankie" model (£5 per month):

Substantial accomplishments to date

Since launching in November 2015, Friction Free Shaving has:

• Over 150 active paying customers, with fewer than 10% cancellations.

• Currently developing a shave cream to sell later this year.

• Purchased the memorable domain www.ffs.co.uk.

• Made bespoke branded boxes slim enough to fit through any letterbox.

• Purchased 8k branded metal razor handles and 14k packs of blades.

• Set up a logistics operation and back office to fulfill orders.

• Sent our first customer e-newsletter which had an ‘open rate’ of 60%.

• Had positive reviews from many beauty bloggers.

• Been featured in Stylist magazine and the Sun newspaper

We are now looking to quickly grow the brand and subscriber numbers with the spring and summer months around the corner, aiming for 2120 subscribers by December 2016 with a year 1 growth rate of 32%. This will enable us to make the most of our first mover advantage as, to the best of our knowledge, the UK's only monthly razor subscription service designed exclusively for women.

Monetisation strategy

– Subscription model –

We make a profit from every customer, every month, on each of the three razors. The profit margin will increase significantly from month two onwards, when we are only posting out blades and not a handle. Since sign-ups are only by recurring payment, the income stream each month is recurring and predictable, with fewer than 10% cancellations to date. As numbers are expected to grow each month, this leads to a ‘snowball’ effect, as last month’s customers roll over to the next month, with new advertising and customer referrals then further growing the subscriber numbers.

– Additional products –

We plan to develop and ‘up-sell’ related cosmetic products. We believe the most profitable way to do this is to develop them ourselves from scratch, rather than sell other brands. We have already begun the development of the first of these, which is a ladies shave cream containing Manuka honey, Shea butter and coconut oil. This is being independently developed in the UK and will be ready to add to our customers boxes this summer. We feel the shave cream will perfectly complement our razors, and provide a further revenue stream for the business. We are also looking at developing further products, including an after shave balm/moisturiser and an anti-aging cream, and a portion of the funds from this crowdfunding campaign will help towards their development costs.

– Advertisement –

We also predict a further revenue stream from placing adverts for other products in our boxes; for example, a female beauty brand may wish to place a discount voucher for their product in our boxes, which they know will go directly into the homes of many thousands of beauty conscious women. This will be a passive revenue stream once we reach several thousand customers. We are also actively pursuing a joint venture with another female monthly subscription box, which would allow us to market to their significant customer base.

Use of proceeds

£50k Founder investment has paid for initial stock, creation of the brand and development of the website. Therefore, this crowdfunding investment will be used for three important activities:

• A referral program, to encourage and reward existing customers for getting their friends and family to sign up.

• A marketing, advertising and communications campaign, primarily through social media, where our cost per customer acquisition is low.

• A PR campaign to ensure our brand is featured in women’s magazines and the national press.

These activities should help us to build our brand as an asset as well as to enable the company to work better over time, ultimately making us more efficient.

Investor perk: