How to sell more salon retail during the holidays
This Christmas, the average American plans to spend a massive $907 on Christmas gifts. That's more than any other year for the past 2 decades! (source) Considering this big boom of a holiday shopping extravaganza, your salon will want to get in on it as well. Whether it's promoting salon gift cards, putting together fun beauty stocking stuffers, or creating gift guides, now it the time to think about selling more services and products.
For this article, I've teamed up with Trish Pariseau, owner of The Local Bombshell hair and spray tan studio, and founder of Bombshell Business Coaching. Trish teaches salon owners how to rock their salon retail, based on her own success story.
Trish has lots of useful tips for how to promote sales during the holidays for shoppers who want to treat themselves, their friends and family.
In this article I'll be integrating her tips with examples from some of the largest beauty brands on Facebook and Instagram. You'll get tons of beautiful, creative, fun ideas to promote your Christmas sales. Get ready to get inspired!
From salon foreclosure to selling 95% retail: Trish's story
Trish Pariseau is an amazing firecracker of a lady, with limitless energy and a passion for selling through educating. From a small town in Iowa, Trish built The Local Bombshell, a hair and spray tan studio, from the ground up.
The struggles of growing too fast and taking on too much caught up with Trish and she was forced into foreclosure. However, Trish's resilience won, and within a few years time she'd created a self-sustaining salon.
What's Trish's secret to success? Not only providing spectacular service, but her "sales through education" technique that has consistently helped her achieve something amazing: Her retail to service percentage is consistently at 95%. She currently helps other beauty business do the same through her salon coaching program: Bombshell Business Coaching.
I knew I had to ask Trish for her thoughts about selling more products around the holidays.
First thing's first: get your staff on board
"To get employees excited about retail, show them on paper how much money they could be making if they reach their goals," Trish explains. "Then break it down for them, how many items per guest they would need to sell to reach that goal. Also, remind them they are the expert and they aren't really selling, they are actually just educating: They're creating solutions to their guests' problems."
Trish suggests creating a friendly staff competition for retail sales to encourage them. "Come up with a fun gift or experience that if you meet the goal together everyone will earn gift cards, or a party of some sort. Just be sure you are recognizing and appreciating your team's efforts, too!"
The Big Fish: Christmas gift cards
The most important products you can promote this holiday season are gift cards.
"Gift cards are big around the holidays: Be sure to promote that you offer them," says Trish. She says that a major motivator is adding a bonus onto gift cards. "Getting a free amount added onto them has been a big driver in my salon. For example: Get $20 added to your card when you purchase $100. We also give the option to add it on to the card, or to keep it for themselves! People buy a lot of them for themselves, too."
Ideas for promoting Christmas gift cards on social media
If your salon's gift cards are beautiful and Instagram-worthy (I hope they are!), try making a Boomerang video like Spaaah Shop & Day Spa:
Or try a bright, fresh image of your gift card next to something pretty in your salon. It speaks for itself like this pic from The Remedy Day Spa:
Product box sets: This Christmas' major seller
"Box sets and duos are popular this time of year, but you have to talk about them," Trish explains. "You can't let them sit on your shelf and expect them to sell themselves!"
If you don't have box sets available (although most product companies do have them this time of year), Trish suggests creating your own set. "Pair a popular product and a not so popular product together for a discount in order to move some of the less popular products. People want to feel like their getting a deal, that's why this works so well."
How the top beauty brands are promoting their box sets on Facebook
If you've got a fun holiday gift pack in your salon, take a merry Christmas pic of your staff looking cozy with it, like Dry Bar (bonus points if you can sneak in your branding colour, like they do with yellow):
Here's another fun idea from Biosilk: Get some sparkly wrapping paper and lay your gift set on top of it. Make sure the lighting is good and snap a beautiful picture to share on Facebook:
12 days of Christmas sales
On the days leading up to Christmas, it's a great idea to promote something new every day. Enter the 12 days of Christmas sales.
"We use the 12 days of Christmas to drive engagement to our social media and also gain sales," says Trish. "We offer a deal each day plus a fun giveaway."
The Local Bombshell, Trish's salon, offers on the first day 20% off all tools plus a giveaway for a free round brush. "All they have to do to enter is answer a question about Christmas," she explains. "Anyone that answers will be entered, then we draw the winner the next day when we announce Day 2's deal and question."
How beauty brands are celebrating the 12 days of Christmas
Always a favourite, Dry Bar is giving away some massive Christmas gifts on their Instagram. Try doing your own holiday giveaway and get your followers to bring their friends into the fun, too:
OPI is doing a twist on Christmas promos and instead have 12 days of beautiful nail art inspired by the season. Nail salons could try something like this, and even have your fans cast votes for the next nail art to show off:
Put together a visual holiday gift guide with stocking stuffers
I love how Lush has found some of their favourite lower-priced items and put them into a visual gift guide on Facebook:
Feeling inspired? Wrap some small gifts, place them flat beside your beauty stocking stuffer products on a nice looking surface (the wood they've used looks cozy) and take some flat-lay pictures. When posting your gift guide on Facebook or Instagram, write a short description about who would love this product.
You could also take your favourite smaller products and place them into one bright, fun photo like Birchbox does:
Share holiday hair how-tos featuring best-selling products
Ulta beauty shared this super-simple 30-second video showing a how-to for a festive pony tail for Christmas parties. Not only do your fans love watching informative videos, but you can also share which products you've used to achieve the look:
Living Proof does a similar Christmas hairstyle tutorial, showing of course the products used. I love the glittery background here. If you've got something shiny and festive in your salon, try doing your videos in front of it:
Ask holiday questions to encourage engagement and comments
People love talking about their Christmas traditions, events, and gifts! Whether you're promoting a gift set or just trying to get more engagement on your Facebook page, try asking people a question in your posts and you'll be surprised how much engagement you can rack up. Just look at how Philosophy asks about their fans' favourite holiday cookies:
And then there is Soap & Glory that asks the popular question: which type of tree decorator are you?
Showcase your products in Christmassy scenes
Instead of just taking boring pictures of your products on the shelf, how about dressing them up in festive attire? You can place your products on a bright background and adorn them with ribbons and decorations like Tarte Cosmetics does:
Or how about simply placing your favourite items in your tree and snapping a pic, like Bumble and Bumble:
Finally, if you can place some small items into Christmas scenes, try it out like OPI:
3 motivators to sell more Christmas retail
Trish has these 3 last pieces of advice for salon owners and their staff to remember when selling:
Be there now: "In a world of instant gratification, if you want to sell it, be sure to have it on hand," says Trish. "People will only buy if you have the product there for them, otherwise they are more likely to order online or go down the street."
Make sales a conversation: "Anything that you're showing your guests, always give few specific reasons for why and how it will help their problems. Make sales a conversation and don't be pushy. Just remember that you're the expert."
Only sell what you honestly love: Finally, Trish has this to say about sales: " Just be honest and be excited about what you're showing. If you're genuinely excited and believe in the product, your guest will, too."
In conclusion
I hope that this post has been useful to spark some colorful, fun ideas for promoting salon retail sales this holiday season. We've still got several weeks left, so there is time to get started now if you need to catch up.
Since we're already chatting about social media promotion, I thought I'd mention my eBook "The Top Salons Killing It on Instagram", where I look at some of the best promoted salons in the world and what they're doing right on Insta. If you're looking for more social media inspiration, download my free eBook below!