Little Lace Box Subscriptions Ending

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Little Lace Box has notified us of their closing. They are beginning to process refunds for subscribers.  We will certainly miss them – thanks for all the fabulous discoveries!

Dear LLB Subscribers,

For the past few years we’ve truly enjoyed having the opportunity to curate boxes for all of you. Few things came close to the rush we felt when we put out a box that seemed to find a place in your hearts. We received feedback almost immediately and it was like we had given a complete stranger a gift and that gift was returned in the form of a smile or kind word that totally made our day. The subscription box business is one that requires an immense amount of planning. In order to find the right new product and get it at the right price to make the bottom-line work, we had to be working on boxes eight to ten months out. With planning also came the capital investment to secure those contracts so far into the future. Venture capital would be essential to success, and as female founders, we knew securing venture capital would be difficult to do but we tried anyway because we believed in our business. But, unfortunately, as reported by Fortune.com, only just over 6% of all U.S. venture capital funding allocated in 2016 went to female founded companies (heavy sigh). Maybe our concept wasn’t unique enough, or maybe our consumers weren’t a desirable enough consumer segment (women are the most valuable consumers in the world), or maybe this female founded company was just, well, too female.

Ladies, we’re deeply saddened that we were unable to secure the capital needed to continue our mission to connect all of you with the wonderful women entrepreneurs who are building amazing businesses across the U.S. We held on to hope as long as we could, maybe too long, but at some point we had to ask ourselves if our tenacious desire to succeed was really sustaining life or just prolonging death. We knew the answer would guide our plan for the future. It is with that as our backdrop that we decided it was time to leave the subscription box business and wish for the other more capable business leaders in this category to win for all of us.

There is a reason why a woman wants a surprise gift every month, even if she purchases the gift for herself. And for one brief shinning moment, we were one of those monthly gifts, and I think we made a difference. I hope the others in this category go right on making a difference for women who love and need these little gifts. A small gesture can mean a lot to someone.

As of today, we have already begun to process refunds for subscribers and we will work to finish all of those in the coming weeks. We can’t leave without also saying thank you to the amazing women who have been kind enough to review our boxes on their websites and blogs. Without all of you providing the service that you provide, we would have gone nowhere. You told us what you liked about our products and called us out when we didn’t meet expectations. We’d like to say thank you to (in alphabetical order): HelloSubscription.com, MySubscriptionAddiction.com, Ramblingsofasuburbanmom.com, SubscriptionBoxMom.com and TheBoxQueen.com, just to name a few.

We feel so blessed to have developed relationships with many of you. You’ve inspired us in so many ways and we’ve loved your life stories, cried with some of you, laughed with some of you and celebrated with many of you. We’re emotionally invested in LLB so this is particularly difficult for us. And to borrow someone else’s quote and make it our own, “forgive me if I tend to romanticize our significance to some of our subscribers, not every one of our boxes was perfect, but I remember each of them that way because our heart was in them and that was LLB at its best.”

LLB Team

I miss Serendipity already! What boxes are you thinking of to fill the Little Lace Box & Serendipity slot in your roster?

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  • Starlet
    03.30.17

    So sad to see this and to find out I will not receive my Serendipity it was truly a bright spot for me and something to look forward to.

  • Virginia
    03.28.17

    I subscribed to Serendipity and it cannot be replaced. I was not impressed with Globein Club. It is awfully expensive but Luxor has a “mini” box and I might try that.

  • kate
    03.28.17

    Well, I’m not sad or surprised. After I got the face wash with the microbeads I wrote them a polite note explaining the problems with the microbeads and a link to an article. I never head anything and when I heard other people had been offered a replacement, I was going to email them again but when I tried to log into my account I found that they had cancelled my subscription and I couldn’t even access my account anymore. Not called for. And even this cancellation email blames other people.

  • Shiree Shaffer
    03.28.17

    I concur with what Tricia wrote! So sad to see that they are going and I’m sad that this is happening to them.

  • Tricia
    03.28.17

    There letter truly brought tears to my eyes. I love LLB and their customer service AND the boxes and products I received. I found myself writing them after every package telling them how much I loved my items and thank you, thank you, thank you. It really breaks my heart they have had the struggles they’ve had. I really hate to see them go.

  • PA Anna
    03.28.17

    I believe that subscribers are unaware of how many subscription boxes use venture capital funds. How would anyone know about the funding when subscription boxes do not discuss it? I found out by accident when looking for additional information on Bare Bliss Box (when it was shutting down) a few years back and stumbled across an angel venture website. I was surprised by the number of boxes listed there.

    Little Lace Box is the second company that has admitted that venture capital is needed to keep the company running. Birchbox is the first company.

    I have subscribed to the majority of LLB boxes (and later Serenpidity) since October 2014. I loved the curation in the earlier years of 2014-2015. I appreciated the personal touches that their customer service provided me during my years of subscribing until the end of 2016.

    I remembered the excitement when the box first appeared in the subscription box world, the controversies throughout the years, and the innovations such as going bimonthly (I think they were the first box to go bimonthly) along with customizations. I will miss Serenpidity and LLB. I hope the refunding goes smoothly. It is always sad when a subscription box company closes.