Innovation in the Salon Industry
On a global scale, the salon industry is one of those sectors to have encountered firsthand the hindrances and challenges that lockdown and social distancing brought along with it. To say that the epidemic shook up this industry would be an understatement. For a while, the salon industry was stunted with beauty and care taking a backseat in the minds of customers and health and safety becoming their primary concern. Although any woman would agree that their beauty and care regime is an indispensable part of life, one that is impossible to disassociate with. In light of this continued demand, a lot of salons found their ray of hope.
One of the biggest takeaways that came out of this market disruption for all of us was that customer expectations have transcended and the only way to survive is by exploring the resilient path of innovating and staying in touch with customer expectations. Even before the pandemic, brands had faced the pressure to meet rising customer expectations and overhaul their innovation pipeline but this time, the deal was sealed. There was no running away from the inevitable; following where the customers were headed became the only way to survive. If the customers aren’t coming to you, you go to the customers.
A sizable segment of the target audience is surfing social media channels for a considerable part of their day. Direct ordering and social selling is emerging as a trend that is catching up with salons who were so far counting on customers to visit their physical store. But now with COVID-19 restrictions and whatnot, customers are treating social media channels as more than just a social network; they are perceiving social media platforms as a marketspace where they can buy their favourite products or engage with brands that they haven’t yet experienced.
Today, having a digital brand presence is rudimentary to your brand’s journey and there is no other way around it.
Leading by Example
With the epidemic looming, the road ahead seemed rocky and uncertain but we quickly turned this opportunity in our favour and found our own path to success. In a bid to empower brands as they treaded on their direct online journey, we left our mark across the entire lifestyle spectrum.
When the pandemic first hit, a lot of salon businesses were dislodged and some had to even shut shop overnight. But soon after, brands found themselves entering the digital playground and strategizing their game plan from an innovative stance.
One such brand that we added to our thriving network from the beauty and salon industry was Kérastase Institute Dubai. At the beginning of what was established as a long-term collaboration, we dipped our toes into the salon industry and found these prominent gaps:
- There was a growing demand for do-it-yourself beauty and hair-care products, now that customers were unable to visit physical retail stores and salons and brands were grappling with the creation of a direct selling platform between themselves and the customers.
- With dependency on in-store engagement, beauty brands and salons were unable to generate growth and revenue without a solid social strategy.
- In the digital arena, there was a lot of ground to cover and most beauty and care brands were seeking support to navigate effortlessly in the absence of physical interactions.
- Chalking out a good customer experience for customers meant that beauty and salon brands had to be on top of all the touchpoints across the customer journey and with little data to leverage, this was proving to be a challenge in the industry.
By recalibrating the pace of their innovation through quicker response to market stimuli, our team at Lyve triggered social selling success for Kérastase Institute Dubai. Based on our learnings and understanding of the market, we built a solid transactional experience, enhanced cataloguing, top-notch fulfillment logistics and systematic workflows to fill in the blanks that eventually underlined their social selling and direct ordering victory.
In the current day scenario, salons are readily inclining themselves towards customer expectations by walking down the social selling route.
At Lyve, we have mobilized a number of brands across a multitude of industries on their digital journey by reimagining how they sell directly to their customers and continue to grow our footprint in the social selling landscape.
