Retail 360° in Spas & Salons to Increase Retail Sales
Throughout my career, having worked for key commercial brands like Clinique, Clarins, L’Occitane or Steiner, I realized that the retail sales were down to a team effort, not just the therapist. You can have a good consultation and sale in the room but when the customer leaves that environment, they tend to forget about what was said. I can give you a countless amount of times where the sale was clearly impossible as there were so many barriers for it to be successful. In one of the latest mystery shopping that I conducted, I was given several pieces of paper with the recommended retail which ended up in my robe as I was told: “go to reception and they will show you the products”. I went, but they were too busy discussing their weekends rather than even acknowledging me.
Every business strategy & modules that I create is around the detail of the customer’s journey. The clearer the customer’s journey, the easier it is to make the customer feel good, trust you and enjoy their experience. The customer’s journey is simply the heart of your success when it comes to retail sales.
Be more than a business, be an experience.
For those who know my work, I have created this character called Flossy - a made up person - living daily scenarios.
Let’s look at all of the excuses Flossy gave me throughout my career:
I am only a therapist, I don’t know how to sell, I have no time, it’s cheaper online, the customer wants to relax, the customer already spends £60 on her treatment, I am hungry, I am going home, she has everything at home, she doesn’t speak English, she is old, he is a man he won’t buy, she buys everything in Boots, she has no time to use anything, I haven’t been trained, I have tried, customers don’t buy on Saturday…
Ring any bells? I am sure you can find more of them, or perhaps you even said something similar one time or another!
The point is that we can find a lot of excuses as to why the customer won’t buy anything. It is of course true that retail training is a must and I encourage you to experience more than brand training.
However, Retail sales will happen because of 2 key elements: The Mindset and the System.
Here, I will be instructing you with a different way of thinking about retail sales by applying a 360° approach in retail selling. I believe that each of these 6 key factors play an important role in increasing your retail sales year on year by influencing each steps of the customer’s journey and destroying all of the excuses we give ourselves:
1. The Customer
The customer habits have changed, they are far more impulsive than ever before, and although there is more choice as to where they can purchase their products, they are craving for expertise and wellness. As a business, we have had to adapt our mentality: “Your opinion matters” as we want the customer to feel listened to and important. Customers are looking for transparency and clear business value and the more they feel relaxed about your business, the more they will value what you offer, including retail products.
TO DO: Define your clientele. Who are they and what do they want? Are your products relevant? When was the last time you did a survey to understand what your customers want?
2. The Manager
The manager has a lot to do when it comes to retail sales. From Stock management to motivation, the core of the retail sales revenue comes from the mindset of the manager. If they think, live and love retail, the team will too. When I am sold something, only to find it’s out of stock when I try to buy it, everyone is responsible: the therapist should have checked before her day started, a list of out of stock from the manager would prevented her from trying to retail something out of stock to begin with, reception should have alerted the manager... The role of the manager is to make their team fall in love with retail and generate a strong year on year strategy.
TO DO: Analyze the customer journey in extreme detail, from the bookings in your salon to the customer leaving and even once at home. How do you ensure the communication is constant and engaging? When is retail present?
3. The Therapist
I have often observed therapists that can sell and what makes them different from the others. Firstly, they get the consultation right, but also, they simply try to retail to everyone. They give the opportunity to better skin & wellbeing to every single person they see. There is no magic, simply the law of averages: “the more I try and sell, the more I will sell”. Their mindset is full of expertise not excuses!
TO DO: Create a performance related target. There is no point to ask Flossy to generate £2000 worth of products a month when she rarely sells. Talk her language: sell 1 product per week for the next 4 weeks, then 2 products, then 3 etc. We want to lead them & fall in love with retail, view it as part of their role rather than something they must do.
4. The Reception
The heart of your success happens at reception as it is the place where the sale is finished. The customer’s journey is made of details that will increase your chances in retail sales, and what happens at the reception has a huge part to play in that.
TO DO: Usually, the commission becomes a fight between the therapists and the reception team. Ensure your reception team receives a bonus if they achieve the total retail sale. That way, they encourage every sale and it’s in their interest to close the sale for the therapist.
5. The Marketing
Marketing means bringing a buzz to your retail products to generate interest. Have you thought of videos to bring the retail alive? What about your website, are the brands represented?
TO DO: a marketing strategy to ensure you bring the buzz back in retail. Work on it quarterly so you don’t feel overwhelmed by the whole strategy.
6. The Merchandising
The most impactful of them all, merchandising can make or break your sales. Merchandising at reception, for example, is always where the sale happens: what does that look like to you right now? Too many messages kill the communication: how many can you see? I know of a salon where every month the owner highlights just 1 product. She sells out every time simply, she tells me, because the message is clear.
TO DO: create impulse buys at reception with products no more than £15, change them at least twice a month and create an incentive for the reception team to sell them.
With this fresh & impactful approach, the Retail 360° in Spas & Salons© increases retail sales as every aspects of the customer’s journey is looked into. Motivation start from within, so start with writing your why: why did you choose these brands? Why do you want to increase your retail sales?
Simply, fall in love with your retail again, and everyone around you will love it too.