The Jilly Box is expanding its online marketplace with the introduction of digital gift cards while preparing to release its latest seasonal subscription box, as the Canadian lifestyle brand looks to encourage holiday shoppers to support independent businesses.
Founded by Jillian Harris, The Jilly Box and its online marketplace, The Market by The Jilly Box, are highlighting Canadian-owned, women-owned and purpose-driven businesses through a collection of products spanning beauty, fashion, home, food and wellness.
The new digital gift cards, available for the first time through The Market, allow recipients to select their own products from the marketplace rather than receiving a predetermined selection. The marketplace also enables shoppers to browse businesses based on their values.
The move comes as the company introduces its Winter Jilly Box, a seasonal collection that combines products for the home, wardrobe and personal care.
Winter box features seven products
The Winter Jilly Box, themed Timeless Style Meets Farmhouse Charm, is priced at $199 and contains seven surprise items with a stated combined value of more than $450.
The collection features tartan patterns, chocolate-brown tones and farmhouse-inspired products, with an emphasis on items intended for use beyond the holiday season.
The box is curated by Harris and her team. Previous editions have sold out in as little as 24 hours, according to the company.
Members of The Jilly Box Insiders Club are scheduled to receive first access to the Winter Box on Oct. 22. Canadians can join the club for an opportunity to be selected to purchase the box, as well as access to exclusive promotions and offers.
The company is also offering additional products at special prices to customers purchasing the Winter Box.
Among the add-ons are the return of LauB Holiday Crackers, which the company says sold thousands of sets within hours of being released last year. Other available products include a BKind Nail Polish Trio, a custom Harman Tree Skirt, a Line Change Fleece Pullover and Brunette the Label’s Blair Sweater in two custom colours.
Marketplace focuses on independent businesses
The company’s marketplace strategy centres on connecting consumers with independent brands, particularly Canadian-owned and women-owned businesses.
Julia Freeman, CEO of The Jilly Box,, said the holiday shopping period represents an important sales opportunity for smaller companies.
“Behind every small business is someone who has taken a chance on an idea, invested in their community and worked incredibly hard to bring something to life,” said Freeman. “The holiday season is such an important time for these businesses, and we want to make it easier for Canadians to discover incredible products while knowing their purchases are making a meaningful difference right here at home.”
The Jilly Box Inc. was founded by Harris in 2019 as a quarterly subscription-box business. It has since expanded into a national direct-to-consumer marketplace supporting businesses through storytelling, community engagement and online commerce.
According to the company, it has supported more than 500 small businesses and donated more than $1 million to community organizations, with a focus on women and families.
The company is a certified B Corporation. Harris was named one of BCBusiness Magazine’s Women of the Year in 2026 and received the Retail Council of Canada’s Independent Retailer Ambassador of the Year recognition.
The Market’s digital gift cards, Winter Jilly Box purchases and Insiders Club memberships are available through the company’s website.
In an interview with Retail Insider, Freeman talks about the brand.
How has The Jilly Box evolved from a quarterly subscription box into a national marketplace, and what are your priorities for the next stage of growth?
The Jilly Box started in 2019 with one simple idea: bring joy to people’s homes while introducing them to small, values-led brands they might never have found on their own. Nearly 30 seasonal boxes later, our community kept telling us the same thing: they wanted to shop those brands all year, not just four times a year. That’s what The Market by The Jilly Box is. It takes the trust and curation behind every box and opens it up to every Canadian, every day, with no subscription required.
The Market celebrated its first anniversary this month, and our priority for the next stage is “better before bigger.” We’re not trying to be the everything store. We want to be the place Canadians come to for home, wellness, beauty and for every celebration worth marking. We are focused on deeper assortments in the categories our customers love, more exclusives and collaborations with Canadian makers, and clearer ways to shop by values, like Made in Canada, Canadian-owned and women-owned.
What prompted the launch of digital gift cards for The Market, and how do you expect them to influence holiday sales and customer engagement?
From the beginning, The Market was built to be a destination for celebration and gifting. Our customers come to us for holiday gifts, but also for birthdays, weddings and bridal parties, baby showers, Mother’s Day, teacher gifts and simple thank-yous. Gift cards were always a priority for our business.
A Jilly Box gift card isn’t a generic gift. It’s an invitation to discover. The person who receives one gets to browse hundreds of thoughtfully curated products from Canadian, women-led and equity-deserving businesses and choose something that feels personal to them. The giver gets to say “I thought of you” and “I support small businesses” in the same gesture.
For the holidays specifically, gift cards solve a real problem. A meaningful share of December shoppers come to us after our shipping cut-off, and until now we couldn’t help them. Digital gift cards are delivered instantly, so we can be there for those late shoppers right up to the last minute. Every card redeemed in January also introduces a new customer to The Market and to the makers behind it, which extends the season well past December 25.
With more than 500 small businesses supported, how do you select Canadian brands, and what criteria guide your decisions?
Every product on The Market has been vetted by Jillian and our team. We sell trust, so curation is the whole job. We start with values. We hold ourselves to a public scorecard, and today more than 75 per cent of our selection comes from Canadian-owned and women-owned businesses, with over 25 per cent made in Canada. We also seek out BIPOC-owned, 2SLGBTQIA+-owned, B Corp-certified and plastic-waste-free brands, and customers can shop by each of those values on our site.
Values get a brand in the door, but the product has to earn its place. We look for quality, beautiful design and great value. Our assortment ethos is based on the idea that premium doesn’t mean overpriced. We want a founder story worth telling, and something our community can’t easily find elsewhere. We also ask whether a product fits a moment our customers are shopping for: hosting, cozying up at home, self-care or gifting. Many of our strongest partnerships began as an item in a Jilly Box. Once our subscribers fall in love with a brand, The Market lets us keep supporting it year-round through line extensions, new colours, and repeat orders.
The $199 Winter Jilly Box includes seven items valued at more than $450, and previous editions have sold out quickly. What trends are shaping this season’s assortment, and how do you manage demand and inventory?
The biggest trend we’re seeing is intentional shopping. Our customers, mostly women 35 and up, want fewer, better things, and they want to know who they’re supporting. There’s real fatigue with endless scrolling and anonymous marketplaces.
The Buy Canadian movement is real too, but it comes with friction. Canadians want to choose local but often don’t know where to look. Or they love a Made in Canada deodorant, a small-batch skincare line and a local candy maker, but each one is its own website with its own free shipping threshold. So they abandon the cart. We remove that friction by bringing those brands together in one place, under one cart and one shipping threshold. Our customers are buying an average of five items per order, which tells us they’re using The Market the way we hoped: to take care of the whole gift list, or a whole routine, in one trip.
This season, that shows up as cozy, elevated pieces for the home, beautiful things for hosting the holidays, and self-care that feels like a treat. These are items as lovely to give as they are to keep, and they’re easy to pick up together.
We’ve also built our model around demand. Subscribers are guaranteed a box every season, and Insiders get access on a lottery basis during a launch window. We track sell-through live on launch day against years of historical data, which helps us forecast and pace inventory. Anyone who misses out can still shop The Market year-round, with some of the same brands and some new brands, so no one walks away empty-handed.
With Canadians facing competing demands on holiday budgets, how do you measure the marketplace’s economic impact on small businesses, and what role do you see The Jilly Box playing in encouraging Canadians to shop Canadian year-round?
We measure impact in a few ways. The first is the makeup of our assortment: we track the share of products from Canadian-owned, women-owned, made-in-Canada and equity-deserving businesses against our targets. Our goals are that 75% of our assortment is Canadian-owned, 75% woman-owned, 25% from historially marginalized groups, and 25% Made in Canada.
The second, and the one we care about most, is what happens after the first order. When a small brand sells through and we come back for a reorder, a new colourway or an exclusive collaboration, that’s growth they can plan around. That’s someone’s next production run and someone’s paycheque.
We also know where that money goes. According to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, about 66 cents of every dollar spent at a Canadian small business stays in the provincial economy. That’s a real ripple effect on our Canadian economy that we’re proud of. Beyond the marketplace, The Jilly Box has donated nearly $1 million to community causes, with focus on children, women’s health and women’s entrepreneurship, and we’re a certified B Corp.
We want shopping Canadian to feel easy and joyful. Holiday budgets are tight, so value matters. The Jilly Box has always been about getting more than you pay for. But we believe Canadians want their gift-giving to mean something. Whether it’s a holiday gift, a wedding present or a gift card for someone who loves to choose for themselves, every purchase on The Market is a vote for the small businesses that make this country special. Our goal is to be the first place Canadians think of for every celebration, all year long.
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