This month, I’ve made some (hopefully) useful changes in my Google Trends report for subscription boxes. Notably:

1. No more images. I’m embedding graphs directly into these posts — so play with them!
2. Precise time frames. I’m narrowing our search query from 2010 onward, primarily because this is the period most interesting for our purposes.
3. Cities. Quick reference and notes now included.
4. Better organization. Headlines now start each section you’d find on Google Trends

Alright. Let’s dive in!

Interest Over Time ‘Subscription Box’ and ‘Subscription Boxes’:

What’s going on here with the spike? Two big news pieces: TechCrunch ran a piece on NEA and Upfront Ventures investing $3.5M in FabFitFun and in mid-September, Mashable ran a piece on Essence Magazine Launching a Beauty Subscription Box.

Regional Interest of ‘Subscription Box’ and ‘Subscription Boxes’:

Term: Subscription Box

Here, we can see the US and UK still topping the charts. We’ll use this for our basis for future analysis.

San Diego and Austin are at the top. We’ll use this for our basis for future analysis. Term: Subscription Boxes
Pretty interesting here, when compared to the term ‘Subscription Box.’ Canada has much higher search volumes for ‘Subscription Boxes’ than the UK, for example, despite the UK having generally higher search volume for the primary term, ‘Subscription Box.’ Key learning: if you’re in Canada, focus on the term ‘Subscription Boxes’ as well!

Very interesting to see Portland top the list here (it’s not even listed under the ‘Subscription Box’). Generally, these cities rank lower across the board, when compared to the above.

Related Searches to ‘Subscription Box’ and ‘Subscription Boxes’:

This is always a helpful section. If you’re optimizing for these keywords, knowing the related searches can inform you which other keywords are most important.  

This is pretty expected, with our #2 term appearing first and followed by ‘monthly box subscription’ and ‘beauty box subscription’ (thanks, Birchbox & Ipsy!).

I find that they keywords are so much different from the related terms to ‘Subscription Box.’ It definitely seems like there’s an entirely different lexicon used depending on the search user. When compared to geographical data, it looks like the further north you are, the more likely you are to use the #2 term, and in turn, these slightly different search terms.

Potential for next update: drilling in on cities. Which of our related terms are used in which cities? What ties can we find to geography and search usage? What industries also relate (I’m wondering, does everyone in Santa Monica search for Beauty Subscription Box while everyone in Portland is searching for Healthy Subscription Box?)?

More questions you’d like answered? Post them below.