Surprise! A loot crate appeared at your doorstep.

Photo: Loot Crate

Every month, you will receive a black box. It’s from Loot Crate, and it’s full of surprises that anybody who enjoys delving into fantasy worlds would want.

Firstly, there’s a package, somewhat reminiscent of a crate containing looted items. But it’s not a chest and it does not hide stolen goods. It’s an ordinary black box, containing a surprise. Its contents were carefully chosen. Despite that, it’s called a loot crate.

Loot Crate aims to closely-bind a community of fantasy fans through a good user experience, by keeping them in suspense for the whole month.

It’s intended for guys and girls, gentlemen and kids, or anyone in between who is interested in the fantasy world of elves, wizards, supernatural beings, anime, or witty comedy. Anything that inspires imagination while strongly emphasising knowledge and cognition.

It's aimed at geeks. We all know who geeks are: introverted individuals, potentially highly intelligent, who foster a passion for many intriguing things.   

Photo: Andrew Santellan/Unsplash

When Loot Crate is preparing the monthly surprise boxes, it's catering to the geeks. As a subscriber, you first pick the theme and size of the package, then simply wait for the postman to ring the doorbell and deliver the famous black box.

One of the latest shipments of the smallest box variety contained a plushie Godzilla, a black bag with a picture of Ghostbusters, a small Hulk poster, a special dinosaur badge, as well as a blue t-shirt featuring scenes from Jurassic Park.

The company uses online influencers, who spread the good reputation of its services to entice over 650,000 monthly subscribers.

The basic crate, containing at least 45 »retail« dollars’ worth of loot, and costing a subscriber 20 American bucks, always includes a t-shirt or another clothing item, as well as several collectors’ pieces that usually cannot be bought elsewhere. The most expensive 50-dollar crate (not including shipping) contains items worth 75 dollars. It can be sent anywhere in the USA, as well as many other countries. Slovenia is unfortunately not on the list yet.

At the beginning of autumn 2018, Crate Box subscribers were excited to hear the announcement of new crates containing video games. From November onwards, customers can subscribe to a package of five video games for 10 dollars a month.

When the black crate finds itself at your doorstep, you can open it in the privacy of your own home, but some Looters, as members of the Loot Crate community are known, will record and comment on the ceremonious activity, sharing it with the visitors of their YouTube channel. For example, one of the vlogger-looters has four million YouTube followers.

Loot Crate is using these online influencers, who successfully replaced the efforts of classic advertising marketing, to build its reputation. For now, they’re counting on the good word of mouth to do the job. 

It seems to be working; the company, which perfected the concept of the subscription economy, now has over 650,000 monthly subscribers. The American magazine Inc. crowned Loot Crate as America’s fastest growing private company in 2016.  

The people behind Loot Crate are convinced that they acquired so many subscribers by establishing a business model that aims to closely bind a community of fantasy fans through a good user experience, by keeping them in suspense for the whole month. Looters know everything about their favourite topics, but they will never really know what is hidden in their loot crate until the postman delivers it on the long-awaited day of the month.