So, this year it has fallen on Friday 23rd November, slightly earlier than last year but it still gives you a good week and a half from now to get organised if you haven’t yet done so. Get advertising, shout about your deals as early as you want because as the day is renowned for the discounts, all your customers are going to be doing their research early to see which of your products are in the deal. I know normally we don’t shout about you guys giving discount, as we feel there are other more valuable ways to attract customers and keep your business value reputable. Black Friday however is an exception, this is the day to discount and flog all of your stock the best you can.
However, there are some little tricks of the trade, to ensure your sales and profits are boosted a little bit further throughout this event. Some businesses for example, may just discount all of their stock by a certain percent, which if they only offer a few products or services then this may be the best way. However, for salons, if you think of how many treatments you have to offer and the amount of retail products you sell, an across-the-board discount may not be the best or only way for you.
Do you monitor your best and worst sellers frequently? Both with services and retail products? As this can be extremely important and useful information to you when you are planning a day of discounting. Why? Because you may not need to take as much money off as you first thought. Think of it like this, if you have a service that your calendar is constantly booked up with, this means that your clients are already more than willing to pay for this at full price. So, to keep in tradition with Black Friday, still offer a discount but maybe you only need to offer a smaller % off, such as 10% rather than the usual 30. Then, similarly to look at this the other way around, if you have a certain service that is a poorer seller and you have lots of service stock relating to this service, it may be in your interest to use Black Friday to discount this package significantly. In an aim to hopefully improve the sales of this certain treatment that you may not make as much money from on a normal day.
The exact same method applies to your retail products. You’ll know which of your items fly off the shelf and which gather dust in the stock room! So, use a similar technique here and use a higher discount for your least-selling products and only give a minimal discount off your best-sellers. At the end of the day, a discount is a discount so if a client always usually buys a particular product anyway, they’ll appreciate any sort of money-off!
And the tricks don’t stop there. There are other little ways that you can make a bit of extra money during the Black Friday weekend. The majority of your clients purchasing from you are either going to be getting discounted treatments for themselves, or purchasing vouchers and retail products as Christmas gifts for family and friends. So, how about offering a little gift-wrapping service? It could be as little as £1.50 - £2.00 but can actually save your clients a job and equally make your salon seem to be offering a more professional service in the process. You can get hold of bulk tissue paper and small gift bags online or at arts and crafts shops for quite a low price and therefore you should still make a little profit by offering this extra add-on. Something to think about!
Another thing, how do you display your retail products? Because this can be a big player in how much your clients spend with you. Ever thought about doing a gift table? Cover it with loads of Christmas decorations and accessories first, then place all of your retail products on the table with little advertising labels, letting your clients know what the discount is this Black Friday. Plus, even when the event is over you can still use the present table for the entire lead up to Christmas, as product placement will help to boost sales even when the discount period is over.
Speaking of aesthetics, your salon decorations play a big part in the mood of your clients throughout the Christmas period and we all know happy clients=happy shopping, more profit for you! So, throughout the Black Friday weekend make sure that you have clearly advertised your discounts, to make sure you are promoting this loudly but also, have dressed the salon up all Christmas-themed, to get your clients fully in to the Christmas spirit!
On the topic of promotion, you really need to actively promote what you’re going to be offering! Start talking about it now, post everyday as you want to get as much social media advertising coverage as your competitors are, because you are likely to all be sharing the same news feed. Post exciting imagery to attract new clients and think of what could make your salon stand out from the rest. Whether it be free samples, complimentary drinks and snacks; think of a few ideas that you can use to promote your Black Friday event in a different way. Do you even maybe begin your discounts early? A few businesses begin on the Thursday before and especially with a lot of salons doing late-night, could this work for you and maybe you could have a bit of a launch event to kick-off the big weekend?
And, just to quickly mention, we’ll be taking part in the event too! We are offering up to 30% off all of our hardware bundles/products and the first 3 months of any software subscription at 30% off too! A nice little helper for over the Christmas period, as we all know that this is a time when we’re all a bit strapped for cash, so hopefully we can help you to manage your salon during peak season at a little bit of a discounted rate.
We’re excited to hear how you all get on! Send us all your pics of your fabulously dressed up salons; and if you need any more tips, as always, our sales and marketing specialists are on hand to help you every step of the way so just give us a shout! Hope you have a fab Black Friday event, to kick-start your salon countdown to Christmas successfully!
Salon Tracker x
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