How Lovevery became new parents’ go-to subscription box

And because today’s curious parents find themselves at the receiving end of an information firehose, Lovevery’s role is curatorial too. “We did the research so you don’t have to,” is one of the company’s taglines.

Despite this, Lovevery’s lifetime sales per customer are more than double that of KiwiCo’s, according to an analysis by Bloomberg Second Measure. (And at around $700 after 24 months, more than enough to justify spending on customer acquisition.)

Lovevery supplies different, internal numbers for subscribers: At 12 months, it says it has 79% subscriber revenue retention and 69% subscriber retention.

During the pandemic, when daycares shut and nannies stayed home, many parents found themselves suddenly alone with their children — all day, every day. So perhaps it should come as no surprise that two winning subscription categories over the past year were toys and — wait for it — wine.

Today, the Play Kits represent around three quarters of Lovevery’s business, which the company says is on a $120 million revenue run rate, based on March figures. The company expects subscription revenue to double this year, after growing annual recurring subscription revenue 5x in 2020.