Upselling is about putting money in your pocket, but it’s also about adding value for clients. Add-ons are one of the best (and easiest) ways to add value while significantly boosting revenue. Think about it: Who wouldn’t want to add a deep conditioning treatment with a blonding service, or a brow wax onto the lash extensions set they booked? And, isn't a a beard trim an excellent compliment to a new fade?
Add-ons and upsells can boost overall sales—if they are they’re easy to manage for you and easy to find for clients. Vagaro’s recently released Add-Ons feature makes creating add-ons for your services and packages easy, and even easier for clients to book them. It enables salons and barbershops to easily attach upgrades to specific services and automatically gives clients the option to select them at the time they book appointments or make purchases. The added flexibility to turn pre-existing services into add-ons also means you no longer must create your own add-ons within your service menu. Additionally, upselling high-value class packages and memberships during booking increases value for both you and your clients.
Easy upsell, minimal effort. Sound good? Read on to see how it works!
Below, we’ve listed a few more ways that add-ons help you upsell, some steps to avoid & how Vagaro’s Add-Ons feature makes the process a breeze.
How it Works
Businesses on Vagaro can easily create and attach add-ons to relevant services, packages or memberships. From there, simply set prices, descriptions, the cost to the business and select thumbnail images for the add-ons. Time duration sets from zero, meaning it’s completely customizable. This is an added convenience with product add-ons in which duration doesn’t apply.
Speaking of time, you no longer have to waste yours creating your own add-ons within your service menu. Vagaro's Convert to Add-on tool enables you to seamlessly turn a service into an add-on when needed, which is assigned to specific service providers when booking online. You may be wondering if you can also set the durations of these converted add-ons to start at zero minutes. The answer is yes!
Of course, the best upsell is converting a one-time class booking into a repeat customer. By using the Upgrade to Save feature, you can sell those higher value packages or memberships during the booking process. Long-term commitment is more cost effective for the customer and ensures recurring revenue for you.
After this, the work is done! The corresponding add-ons will pop up as a suggestion for a client when they book an appointment or make a purchase. This upsell tactic takes place at just the right time—that magical moment when the credit card comes out and the client is ready to buy.
What to Offer & How to Price It
Add-ons can help you introduce the services and products you offer without changing the core service itself. Just remember that what you offer, how you price it & how long it takes should be based on:
What Your Customers Need
A straightforward way to figure this out is to ask questions during intake. This will give you a sense of what the most popular add-on treatments are. You can also take to social media.
Some Old-Fashioned Competitive Research
What are some upgrades that other salons attach to their services? You may think you’re offering the deal of the year, but what if it’s quite common?
Cost to Your Business
In the case of a salon, consider the cost of the various beauty products used, in addition to sanitation products. If you tack on a discounted product, make sure you know what the markup on that item is. If you extended a haircut to include a scalp scrub, for example, think about how much your time costs.
The Value to Client
Price add-ons in such a way that upgrading to more complex hair, skin or nail treatments in which they are included is more economical. The same goes for how you price services like extensions and blowouts with relation to packages. In this way, you can turn would-be one-time customers into a return clients.
Capitalize on Urgency
Add-ons provide logical value to certain corresponding services. But they increase average order values (AOV) largely because they create a sense of urgency for clients to act. As mentioned, the best time to upsell add-on services is when the iron is hot—meaning, when clients are about to book or make a purchase. This is a time-sensitive window, so clients need to know their options and should be able to make their choice on the spot. They may be turned off to add-on services if:
- They must call you to simply add a deep conditioning treatment after booking their hair appointment
- They’re redirected to a separate suggested add-on service menu
- They have to add upgrades manually at checkout, which is time consuming & can lead to errors
In these situations, the urgency is gone, replaced instead by annoyance. Vagaro’s Add-On feature solves this by automatically suggesting add-ons & upgrades to your clients at checkout when they add a corresponding item to their cart. It takes the pushy hard sell out of the upsell because clients are automatically presented with things that matter to them & carry relevancy, whether the transaction occurs online or at your business.
Speaking of what matters to clients...
Individualize the Experience
By the time they reach the checkout stage, your clients have already said yes to your services. When they choose add-ons, they do so according to their needs & interests, and have chosen to invest in a more individualized experience.
Remember, customization should make sense.
For example, a woman balancing career and family responsibilities may only have time to book a cut and blow-dry. It may be tough to upsell her on hair extensions, but a bang trim, or a quick gloss treatment will give her that presentation-ready look she needs. Similarly, your highlight may include a haircut and root smudge—but how about giving the option of a conditioning treatment as well?
People are unique and so, too, should your add-ons be. Vagaro’s intuitive Add-Ons feature provides a menu of customized suggestions for clients on the spot. If you think of a new upgrade idea, you can always add it. It should be that easy—and it is, for Vagaro businesses.
Simplify Your Service & Package Menu
It’s good that you offer a variety of salon services and packages. However, make sure that adding upgrades to this mix doesn’t confuse clients. Creating a separate add-on service category with an extensive list of prices just annoys clients and clutters your booking pages. Here’s a bit of philosophy: The art of add-ons is to simplify.
Vagaro’s Add-Ons feature lets salons put this little pearl of wisdom into practice. There are no separate categories, just the right add-ons, clearly priced, explained & attached to one main appointment for easy booking. This saves time, reduces the booking process and makes your business’s booking pages easier to navigate.
---- The Add-Ons feature is one of the easiest & most effective ways to improve incremental sales at your salon. It makes it easier to upsell services & packages, and it increases average order values. With Vagaro’s Add-Ons feature, upsells require minimal effort and they’re tailored to the needs of potential clients. Check out this additional article on how Vagaro Pay Later can help you sell more of your high-value services and add-ons by using the buy now, pay later model. Then, take your free 30-day trial and experience how Vagaro’s software can help you grow your salon like never before!
