Dollar Shave Club Business Model | Business Model Navigator

Overview:

Dollar Shave Club is a Venice, California-based company that delivers razors and other personal grooming products to customers by mail. It delivers razor blades on a monthly basis and offers additional grooming products for home delivery. Dollar Shave Club was founded by Mark Levine and Michael Dubin. The pair met at a party and spoke of their frustrations with the cost of razor blades. With their own money and investments from start-up incubator Science Inc., they began operations in January 2011 and launched their website in April 2011. On July 19, 2016, Dollar Shave Club was acquired by Unilever for a reported $1 billion in cash.

Industries:

Information Technology

E-Commerce

Similar firms (based on pattern co-occurrence):

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4 shared patterns

2 shared patterns

3 shared patterns

2 shared patterns

3 shared patterns

2 shared patterns

Business Model Patterns:

Affiliation

How they do it: Dollar Shave Club offers websites the possibility to earn a commission through every subscription which is sold through an individualized link which tracks through which websites the customer comes to the Dollar Shave Club store.

Cross Selling

How they do it: After starting with razors and razorblades, Dollar Shave Club now offers all kinds of products from adjacent product categories such as grooming cosmetics.

Direct Selling

How they do it: Dollar Shave Club only sells through its website, eliminating vendor margins, allowing to bring cost savings directly to the customer.

E-commerce

How they do it: Dollar Shave Club is only availabe online through its website, eliminating the need for physical stores, in-person sales staff and paying vendor margins.

Experience Selling

How they do it: Dollar Shave Club has a distinct brand image focusing on the bearded man. By focusing on the manliness also in its advertising campaigns it allows the customers to identify themselves with the brand.

Subscription

How they do it: Dollar Shave Club sells subscriptions for their razorblades. Through this, the product is characterized as a consumable and offers the customer a simplification as he doesn’t have to reorder the product every time he needs it.

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