Retail in a small business

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Beautyandme

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Hi, how many of you out there, that run a small treatment room/area/home based business/mobile, retail any products?

If you dont have much advertising shelf space/ or a big selection of products, how do you upsell?

thanks

And what are your most popular products?
 
Hi,
I've a small salon (1 treatment room and a nail station in the main reception) and I bought a wall display cabinet from Ikea. It's light wood with a glass door and doesn't take up valuable floor space. It holds nail polish (one of my main sellers) and cleanser, toner, moisturiser which usually sells after a facial. I also retail self tan towels, selftan lotion and some hard skin scrapers for feet, but these are all a bit slow.
On my window sill, I've got a selection of scented candles which look nice, smell great and sell all year round. If I've got one that's going a bit faded or not seasonal, I burn it myself in the salon and that stimulates interest.
People like to buy into the home-spa idea !
HTH
 
You don't need huge amounts of space to retail, you don;t even need the ability to sell. Just have faith in the products and never sell something the client doesn't need.

When I start a client on facials I tell her that for the first treatment I will talk her through it so she understands what is happening and that at the end I will show her the products I recommend to use at home. I say it's up to them if they want to take any, no pressure, but just so that they can see what I advise to get the best results as quickly as possible. It's very rare that a client doesn't buy something, even if it's jsut a cleanser and moisturiser.

When I do a full set I now just tell people that they have to buy a solar oil, and usually they do. If they don't want to then they tend to say they have one already, but even then usually buy one at the next appointment.

The one tip I will give is if you are serious about your business and serious about retailing then get a credit card facility. I had one in my home salon in the UK and my retail sales were really good. It really does make a big difference. Shop around though as you can often beat banks down for the best rate. I couldn't believe when I read in PB that one company is charging 5% commission, that's outrageous. You may pay a little more for one in a home salon, but nothing like that amount!
 
Great Advice, thankyou
 
You don't need huge amounts of space to retail, you don;t even need the ability to sell. Just have faith in the products and never sell something the client doesn't need.

When I start a client on facials I tell her that for the first treatment I will talk her through it so she understands what is happening and that at the end I will show her the products I recommend to use at home. I say it's up to them if they want to take any, no pressure, but just so that they can see what I advise to get the best results as quickly as possible. It's very rare that a client doesn't buy something, even if it's jsut a cleanser and moisturiser.

When I do a full set I now just tell people that they have to buy a solar oil, and usually they do. If they don't want to then they tend to say they have one already, but even then usually buy one at the next appointment.

The one tip I will give is if you are serious about your business and serious about retailing then get a credit card facility. I had one in my home salon in the UK and my retail sales were really good. It really does make a big difference. Shop around though as you can often beat banks down for the best rate. I couldn't believe when I read in PB that one company is charging 5% commission, that's outrageous. You may pay a little more for one in a home salon, but nothing like that amount!


I too find the way Sass described to sell retail products really easy to do.

I also agree with the card payment facility - having this in the salon has gained me so many extra treatment and retail sales that it has paid for itself 10 times over.

like the new photo Sass - a good resemblance I recon. :lol:
 
HI, who have you gone with for your credit card terminal?

thanks very much
 
Hi,

I only have a small room in a detached building next to my house and I have 4 shelf's on the wall with a small selection of products from each range from my skincare company. I just maximise the impact of the display by mixing in some of the marketing materials that they send me e.g. leaflets. If the client can't read the box on the top shelf they can see the leaflet with 'SLIM 7' on it! I find that I sell a lot of my retail products this way. Also, I give my clients some details on the products used in their treatments so if they like them they can buy them. Again, as I only have a small retail area I only have a small selection of retail products in stock. I only keep the bset sellers in but can order anything in for the client within 1 week. I am gradually building up my stocks but it takes time/money!

I agree with getting a credit card facility which I will look into in the new year. Having worked in finance before I retrained I know that to get the best deal contact all the 'Acquiring Banks'. Just google this to get a list but is generally HSBC, Natwest (streamline), Barclays, BOS, Lloyds, all the big boys. Some will charge you monthly termial rental, some will charge a one off fee. In addition credit cards have a % charge of around 2-5% and debit cards have a flat fee of around 20p-50p per transaction. If you are a member of BABTAC they have a deal with BOS but I haven't looked into it yet?

Hope this helps!
 
I think its important to be able to retail skincare products if you are offering facials, and also maintenance products if you are doing nails.
 
and it is right about having a credit card facility as when I go for treatments I quite often impulse buy as I'm about to pay.

can you not get one of those plastic swipe machines where you put the carbon paper in, place the credit card on and then swipe it over to leave an imprint. they still have those as I saw one at a recent mind, body and spirit fair. Do you get charged for using one of those?

I rarely carry cash around with me so expect to pay for everything by card. I personally accept cash or cheque, and its only new clients that get caught out and try and pay with a card.
 
and it is right about having a credit card facility as when I go for treatments I quite often impulse buy as I'm about to pay.

can you not get one of those plastic swipe machines where you put the carbon paper in, place the credit card on and then swipe it over to leave an imprint. they still have those as I saw one at a recent mind, body and spirit fair. Do you get charged for using one of those?

I rarely carry cash around with me so expect to pay for everything by card. I personally accept cash or cheque, and its only new clients that get caught out and try and pay with a card.

All retailers are also issued the manual carbon paper machines that you speak of for when there is a major fault on the on-line card processing system. We still get charged the same as the on-line sysem for using the carbonised manual paper transactions.
 
oh bummer! thought it would have been a cheaper way of doing it.:cry:
 

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