Kim Roxie was in no rush as she perused the aisles, greeted sales reps and checked out the lunch buffet at SubSummit on Wednesday.
The Tulsa resident, who runs the vegan makeup line LAMIK Beauty, was exactly where brands wanted her to be: comfortable and ready to chat.
That’s because she’s one of 400 hosted buyers who were personally invited to the recurring revenue conference, where tickets start at $2,499.
For an event with a 2,500 head count, that’s about 16 percent of attendees whose tickets were comped in the hopes that they’ll sign a contract with one of the 60 exhibitors in attendance.
“I kind of want to immerse myself in this community today,” Roxie said as she picked at her meal on the trade show floor. “They want customers. It gives me an opportunity, because it’s almost like a try-and-buy, you know?”
For the past few months, guests have been encouraged to fill out online profiles so they can be paired for meetings. Organizers have said the one-on-ones, which take over the second floor of the conference space at the Sheraton Dallas, have become the “heartbeat” of the conference.
On Wednesday, Roxie had two such sit-downs with Walmart Marketplace for retail and a fulfillment provider for shipping and storage.
“We just brought our fulfillment in-house in Tulsa…so I don’t know if I’m looking for a fulfillment partner, but as a business owner, I’m always comparing notes,” she said.
As a hosted attendee, Roxie says the SubSummit team went above and beyond for her, scheduling meetings, covering travel expenses and following up every step of the way.
It’s all part of the mutually beneficial relationship between conference organizers and hosted buyers. The conference gets a brand with potential value for exhibitors, and brands get a pampered prospective client who has no problem sitting through an elevator pitch.
For SubSummit CMO Jennifer Cline, the hosted buyers program is all about “intentionality.”
“These are highly qualified decision-makers, primarily from subscription, membership, and loyalty-based brands, who are actively seeking solutions to grow and level up their businesses,” Cline told Vendelux. “Alongside general attendees, hosted merchants come in with specific goals and purchasing power, which leads to more productive meetings and partnerships on the floor.”
“I appreciate that,” Roxie said of the program. “I love all of that.”
Left unsaid is that LAMIK’s presence also allows SubSummit to flex some social capital. The woman-owned small business is all-natural and catered to “multicultural women,” according to its website—not exactly a bad look for the conference.
LAMIK is on shelves at Target, JCPenney and Ulta, as well as on sale direct-to-consumer via their website.
Roxie is considering a subscription option after a series of videos led her to realize people were keeping their makeup way too long.
On a recent afternoon, Roxie went live on TikTok from a customer’s home. She and her daughter were helping the woman clean out her makeup collection when Roxie started pointing out that many of the products were expired.
“And I was showing her, and everybody online was like, ‘So how long are you supposed to keep mascara? I was like, ‘No more than three months!’ They were like, ‘What?’”
For the next few minutes, Roxie went over the average expiration date for each product.
“And so that’s when I told my team, we’ve got to do subscriptions,” she said.
Roxie says most people don’t realize makeup is like food: it goes bad. A subscription service could not only boost her company’s revenue, it could provide an educational opportunity for customers who are keeping their concealers far beyond their lifespan.
And there’s no better place to explore subscriptions than SubSummit, where companies offer everything from international shipping solutions to subscription management softwares.
She already works with Recharge, whom she caught up with on the way to her meetings. Other than that, AI solutions are the biggest thing on her mind at the moment.
“AI tools, I’m very into right now,” she said. “Customer support through AI is something that I’m looking for.”
At least one such company, Palo Alto-based LiveX AI, was on site providing that service.
While she noticed a few things she would improve (longer lunch hours to avoid lines, more hydration stations), she remained impressed with the conference overall.
“I loved the little—did you see the tunnel where we walked in with the neon lights and stuff? I thought that was cute. Try to give a little vibe. I like the way they have it laid out. And I like the way that the booths look really interactive. I could tell that people put in, you know, some effort,” she said.
