Add Wheels To Your Salon And Get Rolling

With On-Demand business model transforming the way every business works, beauty industry which stands at $250 billion market value, is among the top industries that is undergoing this rapid shift. Glamsquad has established itself as the Uber for beauty in a short period of time. There are other players that tried to join the league but ended up failing terribly. 50% of the times, it is because of the wrong tech solution. Beauticians know their job the best which is to beautify a person. However, they are not aware how they can leverage technology in their business to generate more revenues.

To understand the Uber for Beauty model better, let us look at the different models that you can use to take your beauty services online.

THE AGGREGATOR MODEL

It is a common marketplace where freelance beauticians register themselves and offer their services to different customers. A matching algorithm is implemented based on which the right stylists or beauticians are assigned to the customers. In Uber, your ride is booked with a suitable driver automatically on the basis of location and availability. In case of scheduled rides, you make a booking in advance. The Uber for Beauty also works on the same lines. From finding the nearest beautician to booking an appointment in advance with the preferred beautician, beauty app does it all.

Automatic Matching

Glamsquad matches its beauticians to customers automatically. The platforms picks up the customer’s location and the customer selects the service he/she wants to avail. Based upon these factors, a beautician is assigned to the customer and the booking is confirmed from the beautician’s end. As soon as the booking is confirmed, customer is notified about the ETA and beautician’s contact details.

Manual Matching

In case of manual matching, you let your customers choose beauticians manually and then book an appointment with the selected one. Beauticians can add their service offerings and maintain their profiles on the app. Based upon the quality of profiles and ratings, the customers decide which one to book. This method enables beauticians to have full control as they can add their services, set prices and mark availability as per their preference.

ON ROLL BEAUTICIAN MODEL

For big salon chains who have permanent employees adopt for this model. It is designed and developed to manage beauticians enrolled with the organization. Though the flow is more or less the same as the Aggregator Model, here the organization holds all the rights to its employee’s service offerings and prices. The customers prefer to have quality services so this model is successful for well established beauty enterprises. Adopting the on-demand culture, such organizations are able to enhance productivity of their employees and analyse performance. In this model also, matching of beauticians with customers can be automatic or manual. Customers book appointments and salons send their employees to fulfill the requirement at customer’s doorsteps.

Are these models sustainable?

Revolution of on-demand startups has brought a lot of unique on-demand platforms. Mobile Beauty Services is a lucrative on-demand niche that is being adopted at a large scale. Before getting your business online, you need to ensure the sustainability of your tech solution. For a sustainable model, unit economics is the biggest challenge. Ticket size of services such as threading, waxing, blow dry etc. cannot be increased. People are not willing to pay extra for these basic services which questions the profitability of beauty salons. Moreover, the salon ambience and premium service that can be experienced in a salon can never be the same at home. While many startups are exploring to find a sustainable model for on-demand beauty, some are burning cash to build a loyal customer base on the basis of quality services. This highly promising industry is just on its threshold and has a great future ahead. For beauticians and beauty salon owners, this is the right time to take first mover advantage that will ensure an edge over your competition.

To learn about Beauty App flow, read our previous blog,  From Salon to Customer’s Doorsteps.

In the next blog in Uber for Beauty series, we will explain the challenges that on-demand beauty startups face and how you can cope with them.