Retail sales can improve your bottom line and satisfy client appetite.

Promote retail products alongside complementary services

While selling retail products may not be the bread and butter of your beauty business, it's a smart way to earn an extra buck without investing the time and energy it takes for a service.

Retail products — think shampoos or skin treatments — are often sold at a profit margin of up to 48%, while service sales have an average profit margin of 36–40%. You can earn even more by selling complementary retail products alongside the stellar services you're already offering clients.

Providing the best possible service remains the top priority, but clients are often looking for product recommendations to keep up with their treatments or services at home. Sixty-three percent of consumers reported purchasing a retail item from a beauty business this year alone, according to the 2024 Square Future of Customers report. On average, these consumers made purchases between one and three times, while 12% made them 10 or more times this past year alone.

Whether you're promoting retail products yourself or incentivizing your staff to do so by offering commissions on products sold, it's an effective way to generate incremental revenue for the business.

PRO TIP

Using Square Payroll and Square Appointments, you can easily keep track of product sale commissions by employee. Plus, those commissions will be automatically imported into employees' pay to save time on administrative tasks.

Sell the products clients want that will earn you the most

Want to master your retail strategy? First, determine the products to sell based on their popularity and your complementary service offerings. Start by conducting market research to understand who your target audience is (you likely already have a good idea) in addition to industry trends. Are clean beauty products growing in popularity? Are clients getting inspiration from TikTok influencers you should also be following? You're the expert, but most clients are getting outside beauty guidance from friends, family, and social media, which ultimately influences their purchasing behaviors.

Analyzing your sales data is a must. In addition to determining which products are selling quickly, you'll want to conduct a profitability analysis to understand your profit margins on those items. For example, if you're selling tons of units of a certain face cream but your profit margins are thin, you'll likely want to increase the retail price or do your due diligence to see if offering a similar product with higher margins would sell just as quickly.

As a young female founder, Square has helped me build confidence as a business owner. It has helped me wear multiple hats as an artist, a team leader, and a mother. And I take pride in using the best for everything — the best products for my clients and the best products to run my business.

Arax TerOvsepya, Glamourax owner

PRO TIP

Using Square for Retail, it's easy to understand which products have high sell-through and which ones are yielding a high profit margin with the cost-of-goods-sold (COGS), Ppojected profit, and sell-through reports.

Expand your footprint with an omnichannel approach

If you already have a booking website for appointments, it's easy to sell products online too. Beauty businesses that sell retail items and services both online and in person see 43% higher annual sales than beauty businesses that only sell in person, according to Square Appointments data.

Investing in a branded website is an effective way to help new clients discover your business when searching for services or products. Selling retail products online also enables customers to purchase from your website nationwide, so you can reach customers beyond the business's physical location.

The centralized aspect of Square is just what I was looking for. From booking appointments to payroll to point of sale for payments, everything is in one place, and it is incredibly easy to use.

Arax TerOvsepya, Glamourax owner

PRO TIP

Using Square Appointments and Square Payments alongside Square Online you can keep all your transactions and appointments integrated under one platform. Developing a strong online presence gives your clients the option to book and manage their own appointments and shop retail items whenever, wherever.