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More Payment Options Mean Growing Beauty Businesses, Satisfied Customers

Our Most Compelling Data:

59%

of consumers worldwide were not likely to return to a beauty salon or spa that doesn’t offer a convenient payment method.

89%

of beauty leaders said mobile wallets are the most convenient payment type.

80%

of consumers found debit cards to be a convenient payment type.

Two beauty payment insights that surprised us

Taking a payment directly from the salon chair, or even before the customer arrives, has obvious business benefits.

It helps facilitate deeper customer relationships, decreases lines at the front desk, and creates frictionless experiences. Most importantly, it makes it easy for your staff to get paid.

While four out of five beauty leaders found every payment offering we asked about convenient, there were two surprises. First, mobile wallets (89%) were seen as more convenient than cash (87%). This is a clear validation that tap-to-pay setups, whether at a front desk or on a stylist’s phone, have become an industry expectation.

Second, 80% of beauty leaders told us that buy now, pay later (BNPL) is a convenient option for their staff and employees to use. Buy now, pay later presents a big opportunity to differentiate your payment offerings, opening the door to clients who crave your products and services but don’t feel they can pay the $100-plus price tag all at once. This is especially relevant for salons and spas that cater to Gen Z or millennial clients, who are more likely to use buy-now, pay-later products.

Traditional register service is still seen as most convenient – for now

Traditional registers still reign supreme for beauty consumers, presumably because it’s been standard across industries for decades.

However, it’s worth noting that nearly half of consumers said in-app pay is convenient too. And 59% of consumers told us they weren’t likely to return to a salon or spa that doesn’t offer a convenient payment method.

The good news: Salons and spas seem to be embracing consumers’ emerging digital preferences. Online checkout (88%) and in-app pay (86%) are seen as convenient for staff use by a large majority of beauty leaders. Beyond the convenience of not having to process the order physically in the moment, these payment methods are ideal because they let beauty businesses collect payments in advance and charge no-show fees when appropriate.

Before you switch all your payments over to an app, there’s one exception to consider. Similar to what we covered in the previous chapter, Gen X and baby boomer consumers haven’t gotten on board the payment technology train in the same way as their Gen Z and millennial peers. In fact, when we compared the generations, consumers aged 44 and older were only half as likely to see in-app pay and mobile POS as convenient, compared to the feelings of Gen Z and millennial consumers.

Key takeaway:

The shift toward tech-powered payments is good for the growth of the beauty industry. Online checkout and in-app pay – which open the door to sell multiple products at once – can help beauty business owners increase ticket size (specifically if you sell additional retail items or classes through your online presence) and lock in payments either before or at the exact time of service. According to Square data, businesses that sold both products and services, rather than services alone, saw 57% more in annual sales.

Pro tip:

Square has integrated tools that enable beauty businesses to accept payments, to make bookings, to manage staff, and more all from one place. With everything in one place, business owners can get time back in their days to focus more on helping their clients feel their best.