SUMMER SKIN: How to boost your seasonal skincare revenue

As summer approaches, now is the perfect time to plan your spa’s seasonal skincare strategy. We speak to leading industry experts who reveal their top tips for success

REPORT BY MARK SMITH

As the seasons change and summer draws near, spa guests will be thinking about renewing and refreshing their skin and bodycare regimes. With thoughts turning to holidays, your spa marketing and sales strategy should incorporate the essentials, such as nails, tanning and lashes, but also focus on treatments that present additional retail opportunities, such as rejuvenating and lifting facials, and exfoliating and slimming body treatments.

Post-holidays, skin can be dehydrated, sun-damaged or suffering from dry patches and inflammation, so professional advice and care from trained skin therapists is essential to help relieve and remedy these issues. Spas need to position themselves as experts in the delivery of professional skincare regimes, both in-spa and at home, to ensure clients choose your business over another location to redress the imbalances in their skin.

A time for teamwork

Now is the time to educate your team about the importance of booking clients on courses of treatments, not only to enhance the benefits for guests, but to increase revenue and add additional opportunities to boost retail-to-treatment revenue.

Germaine de Capuccini’s Anti-Fatigue Treatment with Vitamin C aims to restore luminousity

Working closely with your therapy team, take this opportunity to sharpen up pre- and post-treatment consultation techniques as these are the cornerstone of establishing a rapport with clients. Savvy spa directors will also be striving to ensure the team’s product and treatment knowledge is completely up to date.

Spa reception members should be focused on the main merchandising points within retail areas, perhaps working with product partners to create engaging point-of-sale material. Many brands run seasonal promotions and offer gifts with purchases, so ensure that these are fully maximised and promoted via all channels.

Summer also brings the opportunity to introduce new treatments, and with guest expectations increasing, high-tech facials and machine-driven technology can offer the instant results that are now often expected.

Seasonal facials, a recent innovation from some brands, have also become increasingly popular. These offer the chance to excite and engage customers in new conversations, and can form the basis of wider campaigns through email marketing, social media and themed workshops in the spa.

Facials for summer

From limited-edition seasonal offerings to high-tech treatments, facial skincare should be at the top of your sales and marketing agenda for 2022

As summer approaches, skincare routines must be adapted and updated to meet the demands of clients’ skin. Summer is one of the most vital times as pre-holiday skin can be renewed and refreshed with high-tech hydrating solutions that prepare clients for long days in the sun. Post-holiday, the focus shifts to repair and revitalisation courtesy of deeply hydrating formulas and results-driven treatments.

Synergy+ from CACI is an ideal pre-holiday skincare option

“Our skin changes during different seasons, and in the summer months it must adapt,” explains Clare Bradley, trainer EMEA at HydraFacial. “As it starts to adjust to warmer air and humidity this can lead to more oil getting trapped on the surface. Because of this some people may notice their skin feels heavier and experience more breakouts and congestion.”

High-tech solutions

Summer skin requires different approaches, technologies and ingredients. “When it comes to the summer months the skin experiences changes in texture and complexion,” says Krystina Dwyer, head of treatment and onboard development at Elemis. “We need to work on hydrating, helping minimise clogged pores and ensuring we have a radiant glowing complexion fit for summer.”

Offering a comprehensive approach that draws on various modalities, the Elemis Biotec 2.0 system combines a range of technologically advanced skin concepts into one machine. Harnessing the power of advanced cold therapy with subzero CryO2 therapy, advanced light therapy, microcurrent, an ultrasonic peel and galvanic infusions, the updated machine offers cutting-edge treatments that deliver clinically proven results.

DermaOrganic offers active non-invasive treatments

Its Pro-Glow Facial menu delivers a range of benefits including lifting and firming, resurfacing, brightening, blemish reduction, skin-soothing, hydration and nourishment in one facial. CACI recently introduced its Synergy+, which combines S.P.E.D quad probes, LED micro probes, a wrinkle comb, an ultrasonic actuator, an orbital abrader as well as ETR and LED hydratone face rollers. This unique antiageing lifting facial is ideal for guests before their holidays.

Elsewhere, HydraFacial uses patented technology to cleanse, extract, and hydrate with super serums made from nourishing ingredients to leave skin hydrated and glowing.

DermaOrganic has introduced a new range of non-invasive, active treatments in the UK this year, combining transdermalporation technology with the brand’s highly concentrated active products to deliver long-lasting results after a single treatment.

Thalgo adds a sense of ritual to summer skincare routines

High-touch seasonality In the spa, Decléor offers its Face Workout, a hands-on massage concept that is a good option pre-holiday, offering a lifting, sculpting and facial-contouring style of massage that can be tailored to the guest’s needs.

Meanwhile, targeting dehydrated and stressed skin, Germaine de Capuccini’s Anti-Fatigue Treatment with Vitamin C draws on the ingredients from four products to restore luminosity in dull and stressed skin.

French skincare brand Sothys was one of the first to pioneer seasonal facials and continues to offer new innovations twice a year. In 2022, its facial is designed to oxygenate, protect and revitalise the skin with kiwi and pineapple.

Esse’s Rewild Your Skincare Challenge encourages clients to go back to basics

Natural Spa Factory has also offered is spa partners seasonal treatments, from facials to body therapies, based on ingredients and protocols to help renew and rejuvenate.

Esse Skincare has adopted an innovative approach to engage clients with its skincare concept, which is suitable for a summer skin reset. The brand’s 30-Day Rewild Your Skincare Challenge focuses on taking the skin back to basics, undoing the impact of ‘astringent’ skincare products and restoring a lifestyle that reconnects people with their natural environment.

Elemis's products deliver a range of benefits

Upselling add-ons and courses

There are many simple and effective ways to upsell to clients by offering add-on services that address their needs.

“For summer bolt-on services, try a cooling touches menu,” says Gina Baker, training manager at Germaine de Capuccini. “This can feature extending a facial massage by including cold onyx stones or an iced GuaSha massage. Try adding a cooling leg massage to a facial. Use a product with ingredients such as mint and camphor, perfect for heavy tired legs on a warm day.”

Therapists play a vital role when it comes to facilitating skincare advice, but the whole team should be tasked with smart goals to upsell clients to courses.

“Talking to clients is key; understanding their lifestyle, needs and expectation of results – do not underestimate the power of a good consultation,” says Laura Miles, education manager for Decléor.

Taking a global view of the customer journey, Babor’s Fabienne Guichon-Lindholm adds: “Upselling a series of treatments should always be teamwork. It starts at booking while on the phone or online. If on the phone, the spa receptionist should tell a story to the guest about newness.”

The messaging should be consistent from arrival at reception through to pre- and postconsultation with the therapist, and again as the guest leaves.

Decléor's Face Workout is a hands-on massage concept that is a good option pre-holiday

Get ready to boost your retail

The founder of Jacqueline Ross Spa Consultancy offers seasonal sales advice

Change your mindset – Use different language to achieve better results. As the skincare expert, you recommend and introduce products, you don’t sell or retail.

Perfect your consultancy – An informed consultation with your client gives you key information to introduce a product to support them. For example, if they are lacking energy, recommend an exfoliator or bath salts.

Be confident in your product knowledge – Continue to take the initiative to update yourself on new product innovations, benefits and ingredients.

Be consistent in your efforts – Commit to carrying out a consultation on every client, every time.

Complete the circle – Recommend products your client needs, not what you have used in their treatment. Never give up recommending so that you give your clients the choice to buy.

www.jrspaconsultancy.co.uk

Elemental Herbology's Back, Scalp and Feet Retreat is a soothing experience

Beautiful bodycare

Targeted sales and marketing can elevate body treatments to the same level as massage, enabling greater opportunity for increasing retail to treatment revenue

Bodycare treatments are perfectly suited to the summer months as people prepare for a break in the sun. However, in the spa they can be overlooked by guests in favour of traditional massage. With clever marketing, strong communications and a clear sales strategy within the team, it can be easy to introduce more innovative treatments to guests so they can experience the soothing effects of massage with the additional wellbeing benefits of total body wellness.

“Promote the spa rituals as wellbeing experiences rather than just an alternative to massage,” says Thalgo’s lead trainer, Rachael Green. “Explain that the spa rituals or body treatments have specific massage movements that may be quite different to a Swedish massage.”

New products from Natura Bissé

Add-ons and expertise Spa menus should include body treatments as part of day packages to broaden guests’ experiences, with incentives for rebooking. It’s also possible to create promotions with some shorter taster treatments to introduce them.

“Educate the reception team to always ask ‘would you like to have an exfoliation before your massage?’,” says Gina Baker, training manager for Germaine de Capuccini. “Once the team gets used to offering add-ons it becomes second nature and begins to increase bookings overall.”

Babor body treatments deliver perfect holiday skin

To secure a sale it’s important to have testers available for guests to try after the experience. And ensure that product knowledge among the team is up to date. “Offer additional incentives focusing on the ritual ranges, such as a gift with a purchase or a mini-sized product to take away,” adds Green. “A return voucher for a retail purchase also works well.”

The allure of the new

New products are always sure to grab the attention of spa guests and this year Babor has launched energising oceanbased body-shaping treatments that take guests on a relaxing journey that fuses soothing massage techniques, gentle textures and aromatic fragrances.

Elemental Herbology has a 75-minute Back, Scalp & Feet Retreat to soothe the mind and melt tension, while Natura Bissé’s Diamond Well-Living combines textures, scent and unique gestures in a comprehensive body offering.

Thalgo’s Mers des Indes is an Ayurveda-inspired Marma therapy treatment with Hatha yoga stretching and meditative music, supported by four retail body products.

Thalgo offers spas revenue boosting results for the summer

A menu for summer success

OTO’s head of spa, Helen Cain, on boosting body treatment revenue

Add something extra – Upgrade a massage with a paraffin wax foot or hand treatment. Kept within the allotted massage time this is ideal to boost revenue.

Take-home treasures – Introduce manicures and pedicures where guests take the full-size nail polish home as part of the treatment, allowing for a refresh through the summer.

Find winning combinations – Devise a 60-minute massage and wrap combination that allows for shorter versions of both treatments, treating not only sore muscles but prepping the skin to be sun ready.

Treat the whole person – Create a top-to-toe spa day that includes three to four add-ons to a massage treatment, such as nail painting, paraffin wax, body scrub or wrap to enhance the massage experience.

Tantalise with treatments – Create a summer ‘aperitif’ menu with add-ons at the beginning of the full spa menu that can only be purchased if a full priced treatment is booked.

www.otocbd.com