Holiday special: Gift card intel for salons, spas, and medspas

Whether you’re reading this in mid-fall or early December, it’s time to gear up for the holidays at your beauty and wellness business. Let’s get right down to hard sales numbers.

A staggering 80% of U.S. shoppers plan to buy gifts early this year (39% in November and 41% in October or sooner). As you prepare and promote your retail offerings to entice and satisfy the early birds, you have to include gift cards in your holiday planning.

Yes, they’re convenient for shoppers who want an easy way to treat loved ones to personal care or a little pampering. They also promote your brand effectively. But there are additional reasons why gift cards make strong business sense not just during gift-giving seasons but throughout the year.

Here, we cover frequently asked questions about the use of gift cards at beauty and wellness businesses, along with ways to drive additional revenue with gift cards. You’ll also discover the benefits of using Zenoti software to create and manage your gift card programs.

Gift givers tend to prefer physical gift cards... but receivers prefer digital, according to a 2023 research study. The authors found this is partly because “givers overestimate the extent to which recipients see digital (vs. physical) gift cards as violating the norms of gift-giving.”

The lesson learned here? Make sure you’re offering both, with digital gift cards available for purchase through your business website, at the point of sale (checkout and in-store kiosk), and through a mobile app for customers. Your website and mobile app, specifically, are your 24x7 channels for gift card revenue.

Think of gift cards as a referral program for your brand. They help you expand your customer base by making it easy for happy customers to refer friends and family by way of a gift. Your satisfied guests are not just recommending your business – they're giving loved ones the money to try your services.

A session on beauty and wellness industry trends at Innergize 2023 hosted by Zenoti presented a statistic worth noting: 25% of gift cards are redeemed by new customers. This means one in four people redeeming gift cards is a new guest – and potential lifelong customer, making gift cards an acquisition tool you cannot afford to ignore.

For your year-round gift card strategy, think beyond holidays like Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, and the December festive season. As stated above, make gift cards readily available for customers to buy anytime through as many channels as possible: your website and in-store point of sale at minimum, and through a mobile app for customers.

Whatever frequency you choose, make it predictable for customers. Idaho-based PURE Medical Spa offers gift card promotions a couple times each year – for Black Friday / Cyber Monday, during PURE’s “12 days of Christmas,” and for Mother’s Day.

“We only offer two options,” says PURE founder and medical director Julie Acarregui. “Buy a $200 gift card and get $50 free, or buy a $400 gift card and get $125 free. We have had so much success.”

Here’s an unexpected value to gift card promotions: Acarregui notes that customers often buy gift cards for themselves, to put money in their wallet and let it sit there. She says, “People know they can rely on it, and we don’t offer the promotions any other times of the year.”

Creating and managing both physical and digital gift card programs is easier than ever with the right tools. Delivery is seamless—digital gift cards can be sent via email, while physical gift cards can be delivered by mail or picked up in-store.

Need a quick design for your gift cards? Many platforms offer pre-designed templates for rapid setup. You can also upload your own artwork to match your brand’s unique look and feel.

Here are some useful tips based on the experiences of businesses running successful gift card programs.

1) Give customers the option of amount-based or service-specific gift cards.

Offering gift cards for predefined and custom amounts keeps it simple for buyers. With service-specific gift cards, the buyer can select services from your menu, but the recipient has the flexibility of choosing a different service when they redeem the gift card.

2) Support gift card redemption across your entire brand.‍

This boosts portability and convenience for guests. With the right software, a business owner or the corporate office can control which stores will participate in cross-center gift card programs.

3) Honor member pricing on service gift cards.

Zenoti-powered businesses can easily verify if a gift card buyer has a membership with the business and then offer members discounted pricing on service gift cards. This feature rewards your regulars with even better deals, helping deepen their loyalty to your business.

4) Track program performance centrally.

Say goodbye to manually logging gift card data and using spreadsheets to create reports. With analytics in software, it’s a breeze to track metrics like gift card revenue, liabilities, and cross-center comparisons.

Make gift giving effortless and enjoyable for customers during the holidays and all through the year.

1) Set up attractive displays at your cash wrap so guests can browse gift card designs at checkout.

2) Train your front desk with a short script. Something like “Would you like to buy gift cards as holiday presents?” is helpful and low key.

3) Include pretty packaging for physical gift cards sold. You’ll boost the ‘wow’ factor and save work for the giver.

4) Tweak the script by season or promotion to bring consistency and constancy to gift card sales by your staff.

Explore software to simplify gift giving for customers and drive revenue for your business.