Instagram-famous entreprenuer Iyia Liu sells Celebration Box

Tuesday, 10 September 2019

E-commerce 'boss babe' Iyia Liu has sold her dessert box company Celebration Box.

Celebration Box sells gift boxes online, filled with packaged and loose confectionery and doughnuts, priced between $40 and nearly $100.

In a post to her 47.6k Instagram followers, Liu said Celebration Box changed hands last week after one year in operation.

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Liu's business partner Briar Howard was reached for comment but refused to reveal any details about the sale.

But in her Instagram post Liu said Celebration Box started out of Howard's home kitchen with $4000, $2000 from each of the duo.

'Who would have thought that we would grow to a team of 14 and outgrow our work space within the first few weeks,' Liu said.

The company was investigated by the Commerce Commission following complaints about 'misleading representations'. The commission chose not to take legal action, but found Celebration Box may have breached the Fair Trading Act by providing boxes which differed significantly from what was advertised and including a clause in its terms and conditions which may have misled consumers.

Just weeks into the new business, Celebration Box garnered media attention after disgruntled customers complained about late deliveries, deliveries not showing up at all, poor communication and getting blocked on social media for complaining.

Following the debacle, Iyia told Stuff it was a difficult time for her. 

'It was a stressful period of time, the business itself was really stressful and the media on top was overwhelming. I really didn't know what to do.'

'It's a bit frustrating, because it's all speculation. Celebration Box did rectify our bad orders by refunding, but people turned it into this big thing and dragging everything it. I feel like it just sucks for me.'

View this post on Instagram

SURPRISE! @celebrationbox_nz is in new hands as of today!! Take a swipe through these snaps to see our growth and journey! Briar and I started this business with the 2 of us out of her registered home kitchen with $2000 investment each (2nd pic), who would have thought that we would grow to a team of 14 and outgrow our work space within the first few weeks. It was organised chaos at the time, in order to keep up we had to hire a new staff member every few days, we had no space to the point of having to store stock up Briar’s staircase, we filled up Briar’s living room to the brim, our suppliers didn’t have enough stock for us because we needed so much so quickly, we encountered logistical issues and had to work out the most reliable delivery company, best delivery service and what types of addresses we could and couldn’t send to, the list goes on. Our team worked consecutive 60+ hour working weeks in the beginning, to try and keep up and I’m just so proud and grateful for everyone who contributed. We were able to move into our warehouse around 8 weeks after we launched, and worked on continuously improving every element of the business over the upcoming months. 1 year on and 30,000+ gift boxes sent out later we have built up an awesome database and amazing business, but we have decided to let go and move on, with Briar moving overseas, and myself with a bun in the oven, so today we change hands! What a fulfilling and interesting year it’s been. It’s so fun looking through the photos to see the progression, if anyone is interested in starting their own business or just some digital marketing techniques to grow their existing business, make sure you come along to one of our @girlsinbusiness_official events or I have an online course on my website with some of my strategies of how I have started all of my businesses, sourced products, set up the website, and my marketing techniques etc. ❤️ I hope everyone in this lifetime gets to do something really challenging that they love, because it’s just so rewarding in the end! ☺️

A post shared by Iyia Liu 🌹 (@iyialiu) on Sep 1, 2019 at 12:24pm PDT

Despite the high-profile mis-steps, Liu said Celebration Box had sold 30,000 gift boxes since it was started.

In her Instagram post announcing the sale of the business Liu described that period as 'organised chaos'.

'In order to keep up we had to hire a new staff member every few days, we had no space to the point of having to store stock up Briar's staircase, we filled up Briar's living room to the brim.'

She said her staff worked more than 60-hour working weeks in the beginning to keep up with growing demand.

Liu, who was 18-weeks pregnant, said she would share her entrepreneurial insights at her networking and coaching events about how to start and when to sell a business.

This year the social media entrepreneur, who rose to fame for paying Kylie Jenner $300,000 to promote her first creation Waist Trainer, has also become a reality television star. 

When Liu sold the business that put her on the map, Waist Trainer, she claimed she made enough to build a $3 million mansion.

Liu previously also owned Luxe Fitness, a protein powder company which she sold.

Howard said in a post on her Instagram account she was moving overseas.

* This story has been updated to reflect Lui didn't hold a 'white soiree' at a home she owned