How do retail stores entice you to enter their doors and linger over their shelves full of irresistible products? Visual merchandising is a skill that department stores, shopping malls, and chain retailers have spent many years perfecting. Retailing and merchandising is an important part of your overall business plan and it will dramatically increase business profitability at your skin care center, salon, day spa, or medical spa. Lauren Gartland is the president of Inspiring Champions, a business training and coaching company specializing in the beauty industry. Gartland, along with Salon Spa Cash Flow expert Gary Ahlquist, regularly advise business owners on how to instantly boost their profits with retail.

Make a Paradigm Shift

Ahlquist advises beauty professionals to make a paradigm shift in retail, to change their entire mindset about how to retail effectively. “The old way of thinking about retail only involved your staff selling products. The new way of thinking is to create a real shopping experience for your clients. We show salons and spas how to create a retail store within their business. We have never failed to have a business at least double their retail sales in this way and most do three to 10 times more sales. Many businesses earn from $100,000 to a million dollars a year in retail,” Ahlquist notes.