Ray Cao (BASc ’09) is giving beauty-product junkies across the nation a new way to indulge their addictions.
For a nominal subscription fee Cao’s company, Luxe Box, provides customers with a deluxe collection of high-end sample beauty products delivered to their doors every three months. This allows shoppers to avoid the awkwardness of asking for product samples at beauty counters.
During his second year in Waterloo’s Systems Design Engineering program, Cao joined Impact, the largest Canadian entrepreneurship group aimed at helping youth pursue their passion for building companies. He decided he would one day be the founder of a company.
“During my last few years at Impact, and before graduation, I knew I wasn’t going to be accepting job offers,” Cao says. “I had the entrepreneurial bug. I felt that I had to build something of my own and always knew I wanted it to be in the e-commerce space.
“I didn’t know anything about the beauty industry but I just asked the women I knew about purchasing beauty products and learned that sampling was a huge part of it.”
Luxe Box’s mission is “to help consumers better discover, try and purchase quality beauty and lifestyle products through a unique experience,” and has a dedicated clientele of industry leading brand partners, including L’Oréal, Kiehl’s, and Clinique.
After customers test the products at home, they can enter product reviews on the Luxe Box website.
“Ninety-nine per cent of women take beauty samples they get in stores and use them at home, so we wanted to make it easier for them and deliver the samples they choose — or ones we recommend for them — right to their door,” Cao says.
With Luxe Box continuing to grow as the leader in beauty membership services across the country, Cao and his team decided to expand and launch Exact Media.
Exact Media uses online shopping distribution channels, such as Amazon, to get samples to customers based on their orders.
“We are providing customers with what we call complimentary sampling, with their online purchases,” Cao says. “If you buy a shirt, you will have to wash your shirt, so you would be provided with a sample of laundry detergent with your order. Or if you purchased shaving cream, you would receive a complimentary razor to try out.
“It is all about understanding what customers want.”
Luxe Box and Exact Media currently have offices in Cincinnati, New York, and Toronto. Cao plans to expand to Singapore and the U.K. this year.
