Dec 2019, Spa

Back Bar Beauty

December 1, 2019 | by Barbara Brock

Serene Organizing in your Salon or Spa

As consumers continue to focus on wellness, salons and spas are benefiting from their rising expenditure on health and beauty luxuries. As these guests venture to the spa and salon for relaxation and a brief escape for hectic lifestyles, they have certain expectations. Primarily, they are seeking a sense of serenity in the actual environment from the waiting area to the retail area to the actual treatment rooms. The last thing salon/spa owners or estheticians want to do upon their arrival is to ruin the mood with clutter everywhere.

The simplest of tips to help organize skin care and beauty products in your retail areas and treatment rooms can ensure and bolster the “Zen” feel each customer experiences. Personally, when I go to a spa or facial specialist, the first thing I notice and determine is how clean the whole place is. In fact, I have actually walked out when I did not feel that cleanliness was next to godliness so to speak.

“Have a sample area to hold products to give away in the treatment room.”

First impressions of the treatment room translate into the initial mood for their experience. As a customer, I immediately notice if the spa area is comfortable and soothing. I also hone in on the treatment table – is it properly tidy with super clean towels. I also observe if my esthetician washed their hands. I realize that once the customer is in the treatment area, you have a captive audience, but the reason we are here is for relaxation – not to hear a sales pitch. I do appreciate learning about the products being used, but that is all.

Since spas and salons typically use back bar size products, they might be a bit more cumbersome to organize. One organizing trick is to use circular displays in the room – trust me, this creates good Feng Shui. Don’t forget to use your wall space to organize products too – vertical displays help you leverage often unused space. Be sure the wall display has the shelves at eye level. Incorporating stacked shelving on your counters also is a good idea to keep random jars/bottles from being astray. I recently was in a treatment room and noticed that the products being used were on a rolling cart, which was another way to easily reach and organize the products for that customer.

Think of materials too when selecting shelving or organizing systems. Wooden, bamboo structures denote health and wellness.

Even in the treatment room, displaying the back bar products in a well-displayed, organized and goal-oriented fashion in their grouping will be more appealing.

Since your clients often will desire to recreate the perfect facial or other treatment at home, they might be intrigued to purchase the products you actually used. Leveraging samples is a great way to finish their experience and ensure a return visit will happen too. Have a sample area to hold products to give away in the treatment room. Integrating product samples to give out in the treatment room makes them them feel special. Upon check out, if a client purchases a full-size product then providing samples of a complementary product is a way of encouraging add-on sales.

Also important is to ensure the front retail area is well lit and easy to shop. And for your repeat customers, think about a change up of your display of retail products to provide new opportunities for them to take something home!

It is best to analyze your sales to understand the most popular products and those should have a designated space that is easy to shop. Be sure to create a space for new or seasonally appropriate products. Above all, keep it easy to shop and simple to understand – you only have the consumers attention for a short amount of time.

A few tips or draw your customer’s eye in your retail area include:

• Contrasting color displays are a good way to draw in a consumer’s eye.

• Coordinating colors for better display so that the packaging pops and creates eye catching displays

• Place emphasis on a special display

• Have displays that you can walk around – primarily round, not square to keep the flow moving. There are a few ways to organize your retail area including by routine, skin type and ingredients.

• By Routine: Organize your beauty products as what do you do first in your beauty routine i.e. 1) cleansing products, scrubs, soaps, 2) masks, mud, peels, injections; 3) toners; and ending with 4) creams, serums, oils.

• By Skin Type: This way the customer doesn’t have to search for what works for them or what they are looking for based on their individual needs.

• By Ingredients: People are looking for clean products today, so create an area that is “clean” only. Or maybe a Vitamin C section or essential oils area.

When organizing, you don’t have to focus on display systems. What is most important is that the entire area be eye appealing—lighting, product placement, customer flow, and color are the basic premises for design. Yet, if the retail shelving fits into the overall plan, then use that (to save money); if not, then selecting your own display is the way to go.

Remember that clients are coming to you not just for the expertise your salon or spa offers, but for the actual environment. You can have the most talented stylists, estheticians, or massage therapists, but if your space does not match up to the same level of expertise, then clients will be lost. Do everything you can to create a space free of clutter, dirt or non-functional areas to give your customers the oasis they are seeking.