The industry is welcoming another e-commerce platform into the mix, and this time it’s specifically designed for salons. Aveda, the plant-based hair, skin, and beauty products brand, has announced the launch of Salon A-Commerce, a new business solution available exclusively to its global network of salons.
“Aveda salon owners have a strong and keen focus for offering their guests the best experiences in and out of the salon chair,” says Barbara De Laere, global general manager of Aveda. “It is our duty to give them modern, innovative business tools so they can continue to run successful salons in an effortless fashion; Salon A-Commerce helps to do just this.”
The platform is designed for Aveda’s salon partners to service guests both in salon and online while growing their business in the process. While the customer-facing interface is salon branded, Aveda handles the backend fulfillment and related costs for all orders placed through the platform, including shipping and handling, promotional offers and samples, inventory, credit card processing fees, diversion control, and the Pure Privilege loyalty program. Participating salons will earn a flat commission rate on sales to participating salons, in addition to backend reporting on all purchases.
“We saw our online sales double during our test of the Salon A-Commerce platform in our upper west side salon,” says Scott Buchanan, owner of Scott J Aveda Salons, which has five locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn. “And these were incremental sales; they had no effect on in-salon purchases. After seeing the sales lift, we have encouraged all of our stylists to help drive their guests to our website to make online purchases in between visits.”
The interface allows salon owners to easily set up an e-commerce webpage that easily integrates with their existing website. The platform, which is accessed via a custom URL or through the salon’s homepage, comes with a full suite of customizable options including artist pages with bios; images and shoppable “stylists’ favorites;” easily interchangeable embedded how-to videos; an Instagram feed which can be curated based on hashtag and offers a “shop this look” feature; and dedicated sections for salon offerings and event listings.
An initial test of the platform was run among five salons of varying sizes and locations proved that Salon A-Commerce provides power to grow incremental sales. On average, the test salons saw a 49 percent increase in online sales over the previous year; a 73 percent increase in the total number of items purchased over the year; a 50 percent increase in total number of guests making retail purchases over the previous year; and a 75 percent increase of purchasing guests who had not purchased in the last year.
Salon A-Commerce is rolling out across the global Aveda network over the next two years, beginning this summer with the Aveda Lifestyle and Concept salons across North America.
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