In 2020, Michelle Scerbo and Carrie Weiner founded The Little Black Box® to make meaningful gifting easy for all while giving back to the communities around us. The vision of The Little Black Box® is to redefine the gifting industry by ingraining giving into gift giving while providing the highest level of quality of products and services. Unlike other gifting companies, The Little Black Box® is a truly bespoke service, really elevating what it means to give a meaningful gift. “The Little Black Box® places uplifting other women and small businesses at the center of everything we do, sourcing primarily products that cannot be found via large distributors and donating a portion of each purchase to Alternatives for Girls. However, as The Little Black Box®’s brand grew, it was paramount that our community impact grew along with us. To widen this impact, we created Citizen Society – our sister brand and product line – to further the philanthropic arm of our company. Through Citizen Society, we work with unique grassroots nonprofits around the country, like The LEWIS Registry and The Trevor Project, not only through donations but also through active engagement with the causes they bring to light.”
“Our ultimate vision for the Citizen Society brand is to become a larger hub of meaningful conversation across many diverse communities, promoting engagement and involvement with key issues, and making giving back to others the norm in the context of a society that tends to value consumerism more than activism.”
What led to your partnership and launch of The Little Black Box?
In 2020, what started as a passion project between two moms with autistic sons, has turned into a growing business with our sights on becoming a force in the customer/employee loyalty space. We founded The Little Black Box® to make meaningful gifting easy for all while giving back to the communities around us. The vision of The Little Black Box® is to redefine the gifting industry by ingraining giving into gift giving while providing the highest level of quality of products and services.
Can we build our own boxes?
We recently launched our Build Your Own Box (BYOB) to give each customer the ability to tap into their creative side and build a custom box for a loved one or to treat themself by selecting from our amazing bespoke products to create their very own Little Black Box®, and then we will make it gift-ready for you.
You’ve experienced significant growth since your launch. What is your secret to success?
In almost two years, the business has more than doubled, and we are expecting that upward trajectory to continue with the addition of our VIP Gifting Services which is the most exclusive, custom-tailored box we offer. Each one of these luxury boxes is curated by one of our white-glove Concierge shoppers to make the perfect gift or extravagant party favor. Full of only the most elegant, indulgent items – think that limited edition Hermes scarf, those initialed Baccarat crystal whiskey glasses, that La Mer face cream, or that new iPad Pro – these boxes take personal shopping to the next level. Each box is delivered with unique, custom packaging and a note of your choice, and our Concierge can even order unique wrappings personalized to your company, event, or individual. We offer VIP boxes in three sure-to-impress tiers: Diamond, Platinum, and Centurion. As with all of our boxes, a portion of your purchase will be donated to charity In addition to scaling with the explosion of corporate gifting programs and remote events, LBB continues to service an increasing demand for gifting that is both convenient and customizable without sacrificing quality while helping the client focusing on employee retention and customer loyalty with gifts that creates an emotional connection between their brand and the recipient.
One of the secrets to our success has been to listen to our customers and provide them with the most exquisite and fun shopping experiences without ever having to leave their homes or office. The other secret is to curate boxes containing products that specifically encourage relaxation and a healthy work/life balance (blankets, books, bath, body, etc). As single moms, both Carrie and I continuously struggled with finding that balance so we found it so beneficial to be able to speak firsthand to our corporate clients on the importance of giving these boxes to their employees. They, as a company, are making an explicit statement that work/life balance matters to them (as it should) during a time when it is increasingly difficult to separate home life and work life, a statement we are proud to encourage.
Share your top-selling boxes for Men, Home, and Kids.
There are so many incredible pre-curated boxes that we offer but there are a few standouts that are customer favorites! For men, the All about Dad Box, the Men’s Travel Kit Box, and the Ultimate Men’s Spa Box. For Women/Home, The Girl’s Night In Box, The Ultimate Spa Box, and the Savory Box. For kids, the Perfect Baby Shower Box and the Bon Voyage (kid’s edition) Box.
Are you ready for the holidays? Tell us about the customized gift boxes for corporate and events.
We are already starting the pre-preparations for the holiday gift-giving season. Our approach is quite simple: we help our clients create bespoke, meaningful, purposeful, and story-driven gift boxes to move the hearts and minds of those customers and employees that deserve to be recognized, increasing loyalty and motivation in the process. Whether it’s a holiday event or client/employee gifting, our Concierge shoppers will work with you to choose from one of our pre-curated gift collections, or collaborate with you to design a custom gift – either way, we will go the extra mile to make the holidays extra special. We are also able to incorporate your color themes, logo, or that unique luxury product that will be sure to elevate your guests’ experience.
Your Citizen Society Monthly Book Club is getting rave reviews. How is it promoting positive change in communities?
The Little Black Box® created our monthly Citizen Society book club to promote conversation around important topics such as how to foster positive change in your community and become a better ally within your community which is in line with our sister company, Citizen Society’s mission to inspire the power of community and encourage public discourse around meaningful issues. We feel it is so important to bring reading back into the home and read together with our kids and have these conversations.
What do you love the most about The Little Black Box?
What we both love the most about The Little Black Box® is that we are able to offer a truly bespoke service, really elevating what it means to give a meaningful gift. We place uplifting other women and the small businesses we work with at the center of everything we do, sourcing primarily products that cannot be found via large distributors and donating a portion of each purchase to Alternatives for Girls. It’s so important to us both that we use our platform as a place of positivity and encouragement for other women entrepreneurs.
IG – @the_littleblackbox
Twitter – @CitizenSociety4
LinkedIn – http://www.linkedin.com.company/the-little-black-box/
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/LittleBlackBoxLLC
