Dollar Shave Club creating quite a lather in razor wars

CLEVELAND - A startup Internet company is creating quite a lather in the shaving industry.

It's called Dollar Shave Club and its sales pitch is simple. Simply sign up for a subscription and razors will be delivered to your mailbox each month for a fee.

Dollar Shave Club opened its e-commerce doors in April and more than 12,000 subscribers joined in the first 48 hours. The marketing approach is to hawk razors and blades for less than $10 per month.

The founder and chief executive officer is Michael Dubin and he didn't have some elaborate advertising campaign or budget. He advertised on YouTube and his commercial has been viewed nearly 5 million times. His tiny Santa Monica, California, company employs only five full-time people to handle the backlog of online orders.

Here's how the pricing works. At the Dollar Shave Club, customers sign up for one of three plans that give them a razor and a supply of blades every month. The twin-blade plan costs $1 a month plus $2 in shipping. For $6 a month, users can get a four-bladed razor and four cartridges a month. The "Executive" plan, at $9 a month, brings a six-bladed razor and three cartridges a month.

So is there really a difference in how these razors cut through the stubble and does the monthly subscription concept really work? NewsChannel5 Consumer Advocate Jenn Strathman put the Dollar Shave Club razors in a head-to-head test with Gillette and Schick. Both of those brands are market leaders in the $13 billion shaving industry.

Strathman selected three men from the Cleveland area to use the razors. One man shaves his head on a regular basis and wears a goatee. The other two men shave daily. Two use disposable razors, the other an electric one.

See the results of the test and who "cheeked" out the win tonight on NewsChannel5 at 11.