Buying Office and Trend Direction Blog Announcement from Spa Advisors, Inc.

Blog Announcement

On March 12th, 2017, a new blog dedicated to day spas, salons, resort spas, medical spas and small boutiques will launch. This blog will be focused on fashion, unique items, fabulous lines and profitability within retail assortments. Move your clock forward an hour that day then turn on your computer to read about our first featured unique line.

Sneak Peek: Think fun aromatherapy.

My name is Kathryn Moroz and my experience in the spa industry began over twenty years ago, when I moved from department store retail buying office operations to become a VP for the largest prestige salon and spa chain in the United States. Over the past twenty years, the beauty industry has seen explosive growth. The predominance of this growth has been fueled by small-single door operators. These operators often cannot afford to attend multiple trade shows to discover new lines. Usually they attend one regional show per year. Here they focus on vendor education and take in as much as they can in the limited time they have. Many do not have the time to compare a variety to like vendors to determine which will be best for them. By introducing hundreds of salons, spas, medical spas and boutiques to unique insight from highly experienced spa veterans, we hope to assist the smaller operator make sound, informed decisions about the lines they select and, how to select the perfect line for their environment.

Cecilia Hercik, another contributor to this new blog, also has extensive experience in high-end resort operations and retail alike. She has spent over twenty years developing strong brands in some of the most prestigious resorts across the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Each contributor comes with a unique perspective. Together we will develop strong and meaningful articles, designed to help you navigate the hundreds of brands out there. We take no financial compensation from vendors.

Over the next year, we will compile a library of data that will allow you to make sound product decisions for your facility with tried and tested vendors. In addition to Cecilia and myself, other guest contributors will share their unique insight. This unbiased information is being presented simply to help you to understand the components in putting together a sound assortment plan, with few redundancies and a meaningful message for your guest. New spa retail lines. New spa opportunities.

We attend at least fifteen trade shows each year. These trade shows allow us to connect with vendors we have known for years and, to meet and learn about new vendors. We find new and unique items and categories each time. We will use this forum to exposure you to them. To participate, we have asked each vendor to offer spas and retailers who discovered them via our blog, an incentive of some sort. Every vendor highlighted will have a special offering for you. You will communicate with them directly. In addition to introducing you to some unique unknown or new lines, we will highlight strengths and new line extensions of many you may be familiar with already.

Before the housing bubble in 2006, the spa industry was the largest it had ever been. Post bubble, it contracted, but not as much as other industries. Why? Because spas have become a necessity, not just a nicety to many. With a healthier, more robust economy, we hope this information allows spas and salons the ability to find new vendors with little to no effort and know they are sound picks.

Would you believe selling products in salons and spas relates significantly to the products you use in services? Well of course you knew that. There are many other factors that drive retail sales besides this. What are they? That question will be answered in one of the articles we will publish over the next few months. In addition, here are a few more articles in should watch for over the next few months. They include:

Aromatherapy: How to drive sales, creatively merchandise and build a meaningful assortment.
Aromatherapy Skincare: Key players and products.
Aromatherapy: Developing your custom scent then delivering on it.
The perfect skincare line: How to figure out what is best for your spa.
Retail merchandising: Low to make a little look amazing!
Gift cards: A must for successful operators. How to drive them in your environment.
Item businesses: How to create an item purchasing frenzy within your facility.
Changing it up: The rules big retailers use to continually expose newness.
Community Marketing: How this simple concept is so often overlooked in strategic marketing plans.
Green: How important is this concept in your spa, salon or practice? How to move that direction.
Athleisure: The hottest category in spa and fitness apparel taken to the next level. Here are five lines your facility must consider!
Retailing skincare: Can you be all things to all people? How not to miss a sale without carrying every product in a line.
Are books a thing of the past? No. No. No. Focused literary assortments for spas.
Makeup: The overwhelming reality of carrying makeup lines.
Make no excuses: You can compete with on-line retailers in skincare.
The bare facts of hair removal: How to make this category a retail opportunity.
Is your facility good, better or best? Honing in on the right, at the right price point, with the right message.
A taste of spa: Amazing and healthful foods, teas and snacks made for any retail assortment.
Pareto’s Principal: Why is it so important to understand this concept in both your service and retail assortments.
The eyes have it! If you haven’t jumped on this category, it isn’t over yet!
What should I carry? Developing an effective retail assortment plan.
High level customer service: The great divide between Boomers and Millennials
Body Treatments: How to drive this category your service and retail assortment.
Never underestimate the power of looped video. Using I pads and other means to educate your guest.
Selecting a skincare line(s): The ten important factors you should research about each line you consider.
Home Fragrance: How to drive this category in a salon or spa environment.
Service menu development: The math and science behind effective menu development and how Pareto’s Principal ALWAYS applies.
Robes, robes and more robes: What you need to consider and who are the top vendors for your service linen assortments.