Dutch Personal Shopping Service for Kids Measures Up

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

Hey, hey, what's up? Welcome back. This is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School. I have a story for you today that comes to us from the Netherlands where someone has started a different kind of subscription box. Now we have talked about the subscription box model a few times, most popularly in episode 101, the subscription box service that delivers candy from Japan.

Pretty awesome. I actually went and ordered from them myself after recording that. Well, today's subscription box is a bit different. In fact, the founder doesn't call it a subscription. She calls it a personal shopping service for kids or at least a service that delivers kids clothing ordered by parents.

These kinds of projects are sometimes hard to get off the ground, but this one just started two months ago and it's already profitable. When I heard about that, I thought that's interesting. I would love to know more. This whole story about how a Dutch personal shopping service for kids measures up is coming straight to your earbuds, headphones, car speaker, or however you listen to the show right after this. [Music]

Nelly Yaludar is originally from Denmark, but now lives in the Netherlands and works as a customer loyalty manager at a watch company in the heart of Amsterdam.

She's in charge of customer service, updating the website, and supporting operations. Her side hustle, at least her main one, is a personal shopping service for children. It's called Bundle Boone, and Nelly's goal is to change the way a parent shop for their kids. The theory is shopping is time consuming and parents are busy, so why not receive a box of outfits uniquely styled based on your child's personality and size? And the concept works like this.

Parents complete a style quiz on the Bundle Boone website. Then a box of two complete outfits will be shipped to their door. Parents can keep the box for 10 days free of charge. They then pick out the items they wish to keep and send the rest back to Bundle Boone. And those parents will only be charged for the items they choose to keep.

Nelly is a woman of many projects. In addition to Bundle Boone and her day job, she has another side hustle she began with friends at Amsterdam Startup Weekend. She's also part of the organizing team for another startup weekend coming up in the nearby city of Utrecht. She says she's fortunate to work for business owners who have encouraged her side income efforts, and they've even served as mentors and advisors along the way. For the Bundle Boone hustle, she gets the clothes from a big retailer in the Netherlands, specializing in children's clothing.

Naturally, she's able to purchase the clothes at a discount wholesale price, and then sells them for a more normal retail price, which is where her profit comes from. Each box she ships out contains an average of 150 to 400 euros worth of clothes, and most people who order end up keeping several items. They also receive a feedback form where they can note what they didn't like about the items they're sending back. And Nelly will try to keep those notes in mind when putting together the next month's box. Right now, the service is just for children up to eight years old.

Based on the market research and surveys she did before starting, she decided that it was best to focus on that age range and not go any higher. Naturally, this project is not just a hobby, even though it's a lot of fun, it's also a money-making endeavor. It just began a couple months ago, and the revenue since that launch date in June is just under 6,000 euros, which is about $7,000, and her total startup costs were only 2,000 euros, or about $2,350. So in a short time, she's already profitable. After launching, Nelly celebrated by inviting her friends and supporters to a dinner, which included a customized Bundle Boone cake.

Now, if you're a parent and think this is pretty cool, keep in mind that for now, Nelly only ships to the Netherlands and her native Denmark. She does plan to eventually expand to the rest of Europe and perhaps elsewhere. She's also redeveloping the website to update the style quiz and include a how it works video. It's usually hard to get a service like this going because you need a good-sized customer base for it to work over time. But so far, Bundle Boone seems, well, tailored to win.

[Music]

Hey, did you hear about the clown who decided to retire? He wanted to hand over the business to his son, and his son said, "I don't know, Dad. Those are big shoes to fill." Well, with that as the context, I took a quick look at the Bundle Boone website, which looks great. She's already working on the second iteration, but the first one is pretty good. And something I noticed right away is that the marketing copy on the site focuses on the benefits to parents.

And one of the things it says immediately about the service is shipping is on the house. You never have to waste another minute in crowded shops and department stores. Let us do that for you. So front and center, you kind of see the benefit of the service. And I also imagine some skepticism about this.

Like if you hear the idea, you think, "Well, that's really cool, but will I actually get clothes that I like, that my kid likes?" And so that's why the free shipping provides reassurance. I think it's actually free shipping both ways. Like you get a prepaid return label to send back the items you don't want. So obviously you're taking a bit of a bet there in the sense that you have to incorporate those shipping costs into your profit model, make sure that you're still gonna be able to make enough money to make it worth it. But it definitely makes it much easier for prospective parents to say yes and be willing to give it a try.

And as I mentioned, these types of projects really do need to scale a bit or at least achieve a minimum base of subscribers to be worth it in the longterm. And that's why starting well is so important. So Nellie was able to start well in this case. She's done a bunch of other projects and some of them have failed, just like some of my projects or just like it is for pretty much anyone who's ever started anything in their lives. But fortunately, those experiences and that knowledge that she's gained along with identifying this clear need is setting her up really well in this one.

And with that, I take my hat off to you, Side Hustle School listeners. It might be a close-knit competition, but you too are tailor-made to win. In fact, it's a shoe-in, you will measure up, but only if you work for it. As always, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. Today's show notes are online at sidehustleschool.com/216.

That's 216. You can always leave a comment or question for the show on the Hustle Hotline, 8449 Hustle. Thank you for listening. I'm Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School. [Music]