Guide, Oct 2019

Boost Holiday Sales

October 1, 2019 | by Aurora Solis

Five Steps for Increased Holiday Revenue

The holiday season is just around the corner! Most spa owners look forward to selling many gift cards, and it is no wonder — according to a recent study, more than $100 billion is spent on gift cards annually and 93 percent of U.S. consumers purchase or receive a gift card. While you should definitely take advantage of this opportunity during the holidays, don’t limit yourself to gift cards this season —maximize your gift giving options to generate more revenue with a strategy to combine and offer retail gifts with the purchase of gift cards. Here are five essential steps you can take to implement this strategy into your spa and Ho, Ho, Ho all the way to the bank!

1 Determining your price point is crucial to maximizing your sales this season.

The best way to determine your prices is to run price point reports from the previous year. Identify the most popular price points your clientele paid last year on average. Select a high, medium and low price point promotion to accommodate a wide range of clients and their various budgets. Set new goals to maximize your price elasticity, include a growth percentage you would like to increase, and use those dollar ranges to create three or four different holiday promotions for clients to choose from.

“Identify the most popular price points your clientele paid last year on average.”

2 Select Your Promotions and Packaging

Your promotions should include both retail and a gift card. Now that you have your price points, divide the amount of each level by 70/30. Seventy percent should be the gift card amount and 30 percent can be a retail product. Remember that you want to combine gift cards and retail products within your promotion. This strategy helps you offer unique promotions beyond your typical gift card. You are offering appealing options that help your clients give someone they love a gift with both the card and the retail products, and increasing your overall sales of both.
Price Point Structure Example

Promotion name:
Time to Rejuvenate
Price $250
Your clients receive:

$175 gift card (representing the 70 percent portion of the promotion)
$75 body scrub and moisturizer (representing 30 percent of the promotion)
Bonus: This is the added value clients receive for purchasing this package, in the form of a bonus gift for purchasing this high-end holiday package.
A “Gift with Purchase” valued of $25 (representing a 10 percent value)
Bonus giveaways. Choose items such as body brushes, loofahs and essential oil. These small offerings should equal 10 percent of the total price point. In reality this gift with purchase is only costing you five percent, but you are showing a value of 10 percent.

Select three or four different promotions for each price point using the same formula.

Packaging:

To ensure mega sales, your presentation of the packages must be attractive and easy to gift. Choose attractive packaging. Pre-wrap promotions and make it easy for your clients to grab and go.

By offering these promotions you are changing gift card giving. Your clients are able to buy gift cards, retail gifts AND receive a bonus. This package makes you competitive with department stores, and offers innovative promotions that are easy to buy for the gift giver and exciting for the recipient.

3 Merchandise Your Promotions

Holiday promotions should be offered for a minimum of 45 days. Stimulate sales by merchandising them in a very festive way. Display your promotions and products in a high traffic area, and use frames to describe each one of the promotions with a focus on the gift, the gift card and the bonus or the gift with purchase. Also, include in your displays a visual of how the promotions look when giftwrapped. And finally, generate excitement and make gift giving fun by decorating your spa for the holidays.

4 Marketing Strategies

To ensure mega sales, you need a marketing plan to sell your spa’s holiday promotions. Here are several effective strategies:

Update your website. Place your promotions on your home page slider with a “Learn more” button to take them to a landing page where they can view all your promotions and purchase them online.
Create an email blast to be sent several times to your database.
Create a video featuring all of your promotions and use the video throughout your social media platforms and on your site.
Host a fun, interactive holiday event where you present and offer all of your promotions for the season.
Design and print postcards or flyers to hand out to all guests.
Distribute flyers to businesses in close proximity to you who have a large number of employees. This can increase your sales exponentially.
Use posters and/or electronic frames throughout the spa to advertise your promotions.
Have team members wear buttons with a message like, “Get a FREE gift! Ask me how!”
Include details of all your promotions in your newsletter.
Place printed posters advertising the promotions throughout the spa.

5 Train and reward your team

A successful season requires effort from everyone on the team. Therefore, the leader must set targets and goals for every team member. In addition to setting goals for service, retail and gift card package sales, invest time to train everyone on how to present the promotions. Provide them with a script and get them excited about the opportunities they have to earn additional income this holiday season.

To generate excitement, have the team wear something festive, such as Santa hats, elf costumes or anything else that reminds everyone that your spa has gifts and it’s the season for giving. Make sure to have fun! After all, it’s the season to be jolly.

Finally, don’t forget about how important the team is. While many spas host an event to recognize clients, it’s a great idea to host a team appreciation party also. Do something special to let them know how much you value their contribution and commitment to success.

So what are you waiting for? Don’t procrastinate — go ahead and get started! Be productive by scheduling time into your calendar to work on these tips, and you and your team will enjoy a great holiday season!