Rock Your Retail

 

      Just this morning I got a text from a salon owner friend that had this question for me.
"Where can I get handbags and jewelry to retail? I'm short a stylist and would love to increase my income."
      Well. The first hurdle is already overcome understanding this is a great way to increase your income. I absolutely love retail. It shows up every day, ready for work with a great attitude. Needs a little tending, rearranging and promoting but no training, coddling or maternity leave. After giving my friend a few trusted websites I added a few marketing ideas to make sure she sells through the inventory.

      First off put a retail rewards program in place. I use a point system. Many salon software programs are equipped to track retail sales, if you don't have a program don't sweat it. Rewards programs are easy enough to keep track of with a good old fashioned ledger. Every dollar spent is worth one point. You can have clients get points for other things as well like 5-10 points for every client referred, 5-10 points for every gift card purchased over 100 dollars. You get the idea. Every January tally up the retail points and reward with gift cards. You can set up your system however you want. I do ten dollars for every 100 spent in retail capping at thirty dollars. Put together a special Retail Rewards event to give out your gift cards or certificates . Invite all your loyal retail buyers and put together an evening of mini services, wine and cheese and special incentives to use them that night towards retail, gift cards or services.

      When you get your new retail in, set up a trunk show like the fancy designers and invite your top buyers. Eighty percent of your retail dollars come from this top twenty percent. Offer them the first look at your new items with a fun night out and encourage them to bring a friend. We usually spend more with an accomplice. Put out a nice spread with wine or a salon-tini. A specialty drink unique to your salon. The purse strings tend to loosen up with the encouragement of an adult beverage. Don't forget to reward your staff with selling bonuses. I let top sellers go to the wholesale sites and pick the item of their choice, up to $50.00. These sites usually lower their prices the more you purchase so it is a win win.
      Location is everything. Where is your retail area? Make sure you place the items in a high traffic area. Make up signs with prices, on your computer, not on post-its. Keep it classy. Many people won't ask the price if there is not one on the item. They figure it is out of their range. If you get an exceptional deal on an item think about offering an extra percentage off for your retail rewards members. Put the offer right by the item so new clients that may not be aware of your program can ask about it. Have shelf talkers on every table and station, heck even on the wall of the bathroom. Things like have you seen our hot new bags? Also put signs around the salon that say Learn how to get free products or services. When clients ask how explain your retail rewards program and make sure to sign them up. Each member of your team needs to learn the question have you seen our new?...fill in the blank. One of my former staffers sold like crazy with this simple Oh my gosh have you seen this? We all love something new. Share your enthusiasm with your clients. Having a strong retail area alleviates the daily struggle for numbers. Think outside the bottle, don't just carry oil and polish. Your clients are buying boutique items, they need to be buying them from you. Plus when their friends see their new trendy items it gets you more word of mouth traffic. So consider becoming the go to place for the latest trends, because that's smart marketing.

What Gets Rewarded Gets What?

 

      My tip this week comes from a message from one of our loyal listeners. DanaLynn, or you may know her as FunFancy nails messaged me for some advice. She writes" I won a whole year supply of Tammy Taylor supplies and wanted to do something in return- kinda like paying it forward. I decided to give a free full-set of acrylic enhancements every month. I mentioned it to a client and the response I got was "well that doesn't help your current clients".
      For my current clients I have a loyalty program for them. After 10 stamps they receive $30 to be used towards any service. I also send them a $5 "D" dollars for their birthday and for their anniversary date with me. I think that's plenty! What are your thoughts? I messaged back I think that's plenty too..but I can see how they might feel left out of the "Tammy" gifts. Maybe your current clients can go in a pool and pick a winner once a quarter for a free fill...until you run out of product. So this conversation got me thinking about loyalty programs again. I know I have shared my thoughts about them before but they are worth revisiting with new data and research.

 

      It's been said what gets rewarded gets repeated. Are you rewarding your clients? Loyalty programs make your clients feel special and after all don't we all just want to feel special? According to Colloquy, a marketing firm specializing in loyalty programs, loyalty memberships exceeded 2 billion in the United states alone, that works out to about 18 per household through 2010, up 17% from 2008. They also estimate that an astounding $48 billion worth of rewards are handed out annually.
According to Belly, a national loyalty program,
88% Of businesses with loyalty programs are more profitable than competitors who do not.
65% Of customers say they would recommend a business because of a rewards program.
73% Of customers want a universal loyalty solution where they shop.
46% Of customers have increased frequency of visits for a business with a rewards program.

     Many solo nail businesses don't have the means to afford a high end loyalty rewards program or the technology to track it. So Keep It Simple Sweetie. A punch card works great and it's easy peasy. 10 punches gets a free polish change. or something like that. Never give away your bread and butter, to those that are already on board. Make the reward for a service you are trying to promote, or a person you are trying to build. Be on purpose with your rewards. Remember though the average margin for profit hovers around 10% when all is said and done and paid so make sure you are not giving away all your profits. If you are in a plaza you can have loyalty cards printed up and sold in each business. Try and get 100% participation from each business to encourage your clients to shop there more often.
     This Chicago based company called Belly is building huge loyalty program that you can earn points to other businesses as well. They provide all the technology, an Ipad for your business as well as a mobile app and have plans that range from 79-149 dollars per month to have a turn key mobile rewards program. It's kind of fourquare on shopping steroids. Check it our online and check out more about rewards programs on my blog, Adventures of a probeauty girl and of course my books now on Amazon.com because that's smart marketing!