PSA - Love Shellac Directory Expiry

[Trinity]

Hi Geeks,

I've been contemplating posting this for a few days and decided if I didn't know the possibly other techs may not be aware so it is useful information... (this is not a rant or complaint, just information)

Be aware that if you are registered on the Love Shellac salon locator (why wouldn't you be? it's a great tool to advertise your genuine Shellac services) your entry will expire if you do not purchase Shellac items every 60 days.

I wasn't aware of this and when I placed my last order I happened to click on the 'manage locator addresses' link and noticed it said 'you may not be showing in the Shellac locator as we do not have a record of you purchasing Shellac'

I emailed S2 to check why I wasn't showing as I've been using Shellac since it's launch and following the closure of Ketan's London Acadamy I only ever purchase from S2 so was a little confused.

S2 replied saying

Your details are not incorrect they will have stayed the same, with the shellac locator you need to be purchasing shellac items every 60 days for your details to show up. If you purchase a bottle of shellac on the first of the month, your details will be shown for 60 days after these 60 days if you do not purchase a shellac product the locator will automatically knock you off until you make another purchase

I'm a little frustrated at this as I'm a very small business, I manage my stock carefully, taking advantage of bulk buying and trends within my business making sure I only order when necessary to save on delivery costs, etc.

This 60 day cut off period means I need to place an order every 60 days, this is roughly a minimum £20 purchase to keep my place in the directory. Not a lot you may argue, but it is when I'm trying to keep costs down.

I love the fact that S2 are keeping the directory 'policed' and that someone can't just buy once and be added to the directory unchecked, but maybe a sliding scale is possible? If the directory is linked to purchases on the S2 database then I'm fairly sure a sliding scale of purchase turnover to expiry date could be implemented.

This may open a whole can of worms, which isn't my intention, but I thought it might be worth mentioning the 60 day cut of period in case anyone wasn't aware like me.

 

[Evaperk]

Even if you buy one bottle of topcoat plus the shipping cost I feel this is a small price to pay for a listing on the shellac locator. I wouldn't look at it as a product purchase but as an advertising cost. I don't know about you but I pay more for my middle of the range yell.com advert than a bottle of topcoat every 3 months!

 

[BuffyFileSlayer]

Thanks for sharing Trinity - I wasn't aware of that x

 

[izzidoll]

I was aware, however I'm not even on it yet as they haven't quite got around to sorting out those of us who purchase at their sub distributors like The Centre here in Scotland. I am sure it will be sorted soon though.
I too am a small business, and will try and buy in the most cost effective way, which is why I bought a package deal to start off with.
However I will work out my stock levels to now buy some Shellac every 2 months to make sure I stay on the Locator....once I finally get on it :wink2:

At the moment it is a bit frustrating as I support my scottish distributor but the girl down the road buys online from S2 and she is on the locator and I am not.
However as I said I know this will get remedied, and until then my big banner in the window showing I use The real deal CND Shellac will need to suffice.

 

[The Geek]

Hey Izzy, we have more than got around to supporting them... they have been "feeding" the locator for over a month now.

There is no perfect system and loveshellac.com is no exception.

I appreciate the suggestions on the sliding scale, but the reality is I am afraid I'll have more false positives than not. Not everyone offers Shellac as core to their business, some offer loads. Ultimately we had to draw a criteria line SOMEWHERE in the sand and based on the data, the overwhelming majority days reordered within 30 days so we doubled it to be safe. This covers more than 95% those regularly applying Shellac.

We WANT to send as many customers out as possible to those actually performing Shellac services regularly. A small top coat gives ~20 services and (IIRC) a large 35... I think 20-35 services over 60 days is fair (or fairly close to it). Further out and we are referring consumers to professionals who perform Shellac services infrequently.

Saying that, look at it this way:

As soon as your details pop up... that is 60 days of advertising. If you go 65 days before your next purchase (which qualifies you for another 60 days), that is only 5 days out of 125 days that you weren't shown.

Its not too bad (I hope!).

PS - on this note.... we have updated the page you manage your details on to display the date you will be shown up to. We have also added support for Vinylux and some other changes that will be shown at The Event.

 

[Trinity]

Hey Izzy, we have more than got around to supporting them... they have been "feeding" the locator for over a month now.

There is no perfect system and loveshellac.com is no exception.

I appreciate the suggestions on the sliding scale, but the reality is I am afraid I'll have more false positives than not. Not everyone offers Shellac as core to their business, some offer loads. Ultimately we had to draw a criteria line SOMEWHERE in the sand and based on the data, the overwhelming majority days reordered within 30 days so we doubled it to be safe. This covers more than 95% those regularly applying Shellac.

We WANT to send as many customers out as possible to those actually performing Shellac services regularly. A small top coat gives ~20 services and (IIRC) a large 35... I think 20-35 services over 60 days is fair (or fairly close to it). Further out and we are referring consumers to professionals who perform Shellac services infrequently.

Saying that, look at it this way:

As soon as your details pop up... that is 60 days of advertising. If you go 65 days before your next purchase (which qualifies you for another 60 days), that is only 5 days out of 125 days that you weren't shown.

Its not too bad (I hope!).

PS - on this note.... we have updated the page you manage your details on to display the date you will be shown up to. We have also added support for Vinylux and some other changes that will be shown at The Event.

Thanks for the response GMG, I appreciate you taking the time to respond.

I hear what you're saying and understand, like I said, it wasn't really a rant/moan, it was more a surprise in the first instance as I wasn't aware of any expiry period, and thought others may not be aware too

You set these great things up and all they seem to do is make you more work :lol:

 

[izzidoll]

I'm with Trinny the Brush Slayer here Sam, and do appreciate the free advertising, after all that is what Loveshellac.com is.
I am patient and know I will be appearing on there anytime now.

I think 60 days is a fair estimate of when people should be reordering, most larger salons will probably be ordering on a monthly basis, but smaller concerns like myself who do tend to order as and when, will still benefit from being a little more organised to keep within the 60 day limit and still benefit from the free advertising this gives us.

 

[Arty*Rox]

ehem ... I purchased Shellac from S2 on 9th April and I'm not showing! Will this be sorted soon? I'm thinking somethings out of whack since you added peeps to it at the event with the Vinylux release? I always make sure I sort my purchasing of Shellac within the 60 days so I stay on it.

Miffed geek :cry:

 

[angelina221]

It's worth bearing in mind that most clients won't use the shellac finder.
Clients will use google and type in 'shellac' with the town name so it's worth making sure you have your services on as many free sites as you can get.
I am on the salon locator but when I checked on google, I wasn't even showing up on at least the first 10 pages ( I gave up after that!) on the salon finder but my website and free listings were all over the first 2 pages

 

[squidgernetball]

I must admit, I wondered how many clients would actually find me on this. Whenever I have a new client, I ask how they got my details, and it can vary from typing 'beauty salons' with the local town, to 'Shellac' and the local town. It's never been the Shellac finder. I would imagine this works better for some therapists than others, but often seems to be just us checking out another salon to see if what they're offering is genuinely shellac - which it might be, they just might not have bought it from S2, so won't be on the Shellac finder!