11 tips to maximise your Christmas retail

“Retail is a great way to grow your average bill and your income” says our joint managing director Andy Campling. Here he shares  his 11 top tips on merchandising & retail to maximise your sales this Christmas season.

Hot spots! Find the “hot spots” in your salon and place your hero retail products there. Display your best-selling products and minis on the retail desk, think impulse purchases! Brushes are also great here. Look at your retail shelves and make sure products are visible at eye level, easy for clients to pick up and read more about and keep those stock levels up, no one wants to pick up the last tin of beans in the supermarket! Consider your waiting area too and put out leaflets and tester products so clients can start thinking retail before they even get to your chair.

Don’t sell, Recommend and Educate your clients about what products you’re using in their hair and why you’re using them. This builds a positive rapport and trust with your clients, meaning they may not buy from you the first or second time you do their hair, but they probably will on the 3rd or 4th! Consistency and persistence is the key to generating regular sales.

Make your clients famous! Encourage clients to share photos of themselves with their favourite ELEVEN Australia products.  Make it a competition, get them to post a pic of themselves with their fresh hair and one of the ELEVEN Australia Trio pack. Have a prize for the best photo (you get your followers to vote on your insta account), it could be an ELEVEN Australia HOLIDAY TRIO or salon service of their choice. User  generated content makes your clients feel like they are part of something special and supports word of mouth marketing.

Use data to add value. If you have a salon software programme where you can access each clients purchase history you can be prepared with the best holiday packs for that client, for example Sarah is booked in for her usual cut and colour and she has purchased ELEVEN Australia Smooth Me Now Shampoo and Conditioner in her last  few visits, the stylist should have the SMOOTH TRIO at the station to  show it to Sarah when she comes in. This shows your client that you know what they like and have taken the time to set it aside for them, the client feels valued that you have thought about them before they have arrived in the salon.

Start a retail chat! During your consultation ask your client what products they are using at home and whether they are happy with them? If they are happy with them, you should still present the appropriate products for their hair that you stock in your salon and say “Unfortunately we don’t stock those products here, but these are the products I will be using on your today.”
Ask your client questions about their hair. If you can get your client to open to you about their hair issues, then you have an open pathway to solve the clients’ issues with the appropriate retail products.

Put a price on it! Clients are often scared to ask the price of products and stylists are equally nervous to say. Putting the price on the products you are using gets over this issue and the client can make up their own mind if they can afford the product. More often than not they will be pleasantly surprised by the price. We also provide pricelists for all our holiday packs so make sure these are not just on your retail shelves but also at styling stations, let the clients see the value!

Go digital & grow sales ↗ To celebrate the launch of our Limited-Edition Australian Landscapes Holiday collection, we have created social media content for you to share on your digital platforms. We also have an EDM (electronic direct mail) and blog you can use to keep your clients up to date on 2024’s hottest Christmas packs. Ask your Wonderful Brands Account Manager to share these assets with you.

Talk to clients about Christmas Presents. Stylists should ask clients if they have Christmas gifts to buy, naturally the answer will be ‘yes’ which gives them the opportunity to suggest the ELEVEN Australia Trio Packs, or maybe a Limited Edition Miracle Hair Treatment. There are so many gifts to buy every year, secret santa at the office, gifts for the kids teachers, something for the postie and that’s before you start to think about the family so if you can make your clients gift shopping easier they will be forever in your debt!

Incentivise your team to sell Christmas packs! We have created a simple incentive sheet for you, for every pack a team member sells they simply write their name on one of the boxes, Once all the boxes are completed play a game of “pin the tail on the donkey” to pick a lucky winner! The more packs they sell the more chances of winning a prize! Ask your rep about incentive prize ideas.

Stylists product of the week. Each week get one of your team to pick their favourite product and then tell all your clients about it! You could place that product on the reception desk with a hand written postcard from the stylist saying why they love this product. A great way to build social media is to get your team talking about their fav products, so a quick vertical film shot on your phone each week with the chosen team member talking about their product of the week is always a winner, not only is great for social engagement it also builds the teams product knowledge as it gets them talking about products. Check out ELEVEN Australia salon Ruby Lane’s Instagram for some great inspo on this.

Have a team retail training session. Its important to keep reviewing what you are doing to grow retail in the salon and no matter how good you are a training session can just kick things up a notch. All of the Wonderful Brands team are able to deliver sessions for your salon but if you don’t have the time to book out the team then I would urge you to watch our recent YouTube Live on RETAIL EXCELLENCE with Mastermynd Beauty, its a packed of top tips and retail inspiration.

SHOP ELEVEN Australia’s HOLIDAY PACKS: