Shopping for skincare can be difficult for anyone, even more so if you’re a licensed esthetician looking for products to sell at your business. You want to be sure you’re offering your clientele skincare products that align with their needs and ensure the brand you partner with is high-quality and effective enough to meet the needs of your clients.
Your spa clientele looks to you as a resource. They trust your knowledge and experience with skincare to know how to effectively address their concerns. More than that, however, they trust you to make recommendations for their at-home skincare routine. The products you use and recommend are a reflection of your business and the quality of the service you provide.
When it comes to choosing the best spa products for your business, you need to toe the line between doing what’s best for your customers and what’s best for your business.
The Importance of Having a Clear Mission
The spa industry can be incredibly competitive. In order to set yourself apart from the competition, you need to offer something your customers can’t get anywhere else. What it really comes down to, however, is creating a unique customer experience your clients are eager to repeat time and time again.
As a spa owner, it’s important to have a clear mission for your business. Having a clear message and philosophy is essential for building your brand and it gives you a foundation you can fall back on when making important decisions about your business. Think of your spa’s mission as a navigational tool to utilize when planning for the future.
Just about every decision you make as a spa owner can be related back to your business’ mission – the purpose driving your work. From the way you treat your customers to the services you offer, it’s all related. You should even keep your mission in mind when picking the spa products you choose to carry.
What to Look for in a Professional Skincare Brand
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When you’re first opening a business, you need to think about all the details. Choosing a professional skincare brand to partner with and offer to your clients is no small detail, however, so you should be prepared to put some time and thought into it. Selecting a professional product line will help establish your spa at a higher level but that doesn’t mean you can choose just any brand as a partner.
Here are five key factors to consider when selecting a skincare brand:
- Clean Ingredients – Choose a skincare brand you are proud to use that aligns with your business mission. Look for clean ingredients with proven results and avoid brands that use a lot of unnecessary fillers and synthetic additives.
- Biocompatibility – Look for a skincare line that uses natural ingredients to ensure optimal biocompatibility. When a product is full of chemicals, the body has a harder time recognizing the molecular structure which inhibits utilization of the ingredients. Rather than delivering the intended benefit, the product may actually irritate the skin.
- Product Variety – The key to growth in any spa is to keep your menu up to date. You don’t necessarily have to overhaul your menu every six months but stay abreast of changing trends and choose a product line that does the same. It’s also important to choose a product line that offers a variety of products for different skin types and skin concerns.
- Level of Efficacy – There’s no point choosing a product line if it doesn’t deliver results. It’s important to check the active ingredients as well as their concentration to be sure the products you’re using will deliver the desired result. This is one of the most important reasons to choose professional skincare products rather than over-the-counter options.
- Pricing and Packaging – You want to give your customers the best products possible, but product pricing affects your profit margins and how much you’re able to charge. Consider both the wholesale and retail prices for the product line to make sure it’s affordable for your clients and for your business use. Check the packaging as well to make sure it represents the quality, look, and feel you want to create with your business.
Choosing a product partner is not a decision to be made lightly. If you’re looking for a partner you can trust to have the best interests of your business, your customers, and the planet in mind, be sure to do your research as thoroughly as possible.
Tips for Promoting Your Spa Product Line
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Once you’ve chosen the perfect spa product line, the next step is to incorporate those products into your spa services and to make them available for customer purchase.
Here are some simple tips for building customer confidence in the products you use in your spa and for driving sales to increase your revenue:
- Train your estheticians to communicate with clients about the products they’re using during treatments – link the product to the benefit it provides.
- Provide each customer with a list of the products used during their treatment and have your estheticians make recommendations for complimentary take-home products at the end of each service.
- Have plenty of product on hand to sell after services, ideally in a dedicated retail space – if you don’t have room, consider setting up a wall display behind the counter so it’s visible.
- Keep sample sizes handy and encourage estheticians to offer them to customers to try at home before their next service if they’re not ready to buy.
- Showcase products in special treatments and promotions – social media campaigns with giveaways are easy to run and have the potential to boost product knowledge and sales.
- Include luxury items (e.g. carrying pouches) in addition to your everyday products. They may not sell as often but it will set your spa apart by making premium products available for purchase.
Your success as a spa hinges on customer satisfaction. Hiring personable and professional estheticians goes a long way to creating a positive customer experience, but what your clients really want is results.