Last week i touched upon the fitness and health & wellness packaged food, this week the second part – enjoy!!

Beauty industry trends

According to Euromonitor consumers wants when it comes to skin care

• Understand the benefits
• Buy organic
• Buy anything labeled “Anti-aging”

The McCann Group conducted 7,249 online interviews, a conjoint study, and 40+ focus groups in 15 global markets resulted in the very interesting “The Truth About Beauty 2012”. Among the findings were

• 76% believe that the right beauty products makes us look longer
• Almost 70% of women in Brazil and Mexico consult a beauty blog for tips and advice at least once a month
• 63% of Chinese women and 55% of Brazilian women change their beauty routines once every couple of months or more.
• 70% of women globally think that being beautiful helps them get what they want out of life
• 70% believes that beauty equals happiness (and vice versa!)

The rise of the WHOLE beauty

Women are looking within for beauty. And according to McCann there are four key components that women think about when it comes to building and maintaining their beauty: Foundation Beauty (skin care), Enhancement Beauty (color cosmetic), Wellness Beauty (food sleep, fitness), and Emotional Beauty (confidence, charisma).

The Whole Beauty Ecosystem is a virtual circle; women around the world believe that if they look more beautiful then they will feel healthier and more confident…and if they feel healthy and confident then this will shine through, making them look more physically beautiful.

 

Retail trends

Retail is the spa industry Achilles. We are always struggling with retail sales and motivating the staff to enhance the guest’s result with products (or why not food!).

McCann researched the In-Store experience and found that there were 3 top things to address

1. Able to touch and feel the items
2. Easy to find
3. Beautifully displayed

PKF’s “Future of retail report 2012” shows that “Shopper to Shopper Service” is on the rise – meaning “help me to decide which one to buy!” with brand fans share their expertise and provide one-on-one advice to fellow shoppers.

 

Spa industry tips!

We have identified that the next trend in spa retail is “Shop Communication”. This is not dependent on the individual, but is a strategic system that can be put in place with moderate effort.Most buying decisions takes place in the actual shop. Therefore exposure and communication in the shop have significant impact on sales.

Yet, do not forget the power of one-on-one recommendation and create a forum for your guests to recommend items and treatments to other guests.

Shop communication purposes

• Communicating the retail range in an attractive manner
• Provide information on product characteristics
• Help the customer to make purchasing decisions on their own
• Controlling the sale of the goods with the highest profitability and turnover
• Inspiring add on buying
• Communicate the retail brand 

HOW?

Exposure affects profitability. Products given more space and clear exposures will sell more. The products that you want to sell most of should have prominent positions at the entrance, near the checkout and the “main shopping street”.

Some tips…

Eye tracking– There have been numerous studies to show how our eye is tracking the retail item in terms of packaging design, placement, preferences and search behaviors. Studies have then shown that the eye perceives the most exclusive products to be on the top shelf, and budget/low cost products on the bottom shelf. Research has also shown that the most effective retail display is the ones that include a face and those products that are repeated in display and in an actual product sells better, as customers like to purchase products the feel familiar with.

Guest round – The way your customer “walks” the shop; studies shows that 80% of the customer walks clockwise and that they are most interested in the beginning in the “round”. Further that the customer best sees an item from knee height up to just above eye height. This gives you hints on how to strategically place retail products to encourage flow and minimize “cold” spaces.

First impression – Eye tracking has also shown the crucial importance of first impression, capturing the customer’s interest to explore the shop further. The goal is to inspire and simplify the first impression.

Final words

The future is truly bright, one of Susie Ellis and Spa Finders trends for 2013 is “The healthy hotel & Wellness focused traveller” showing that hotels are more and more focusing on ensuring that their guest keeps well with healthy food, great sleep and spas and fitness to relax and rejuvenate in.

Embrace the shift and be creative, start small, trial and error and slowly grow and success will be around the corner.

//Anna