How salon hair care brands can move more products and add salon shelves with the help of data.
The landscape for the salon hair care market has been rapidly changing, with many brands expanding their distribution through new channels, including retailers like Sephora and Ulta. Despite this, Salon Hair Care Global Series, our latest report on the salon hair care market, shows that hair care brands in the United States still prefer professional salon outlets for reaching their target consumer. Sales of professional hair care products through salons account for 74% of total sales.
With 68% of salon hair care sales, the model of getting products into salons is still strongly dominated by the distributor channel. For years, relationships between sales consultants and salons strongly influenced which brands made it on shelves. A new wave of indie brands is seen due to the number of legacy brands being acquired. According to Kline PRO, in 2017, we saw strong double-digit increases in retail sales from a variety of indie brands, including Milkshake, Organic Pure Care, and Verb. While both national and independent distributors rapidly expand their product portfolios, one thing has not increased—the shelf space in salons. With salon retail down 7.8%, many salons have reduced the level of inventory carried, while some give up retail altogether, citing reasons like clients purchasing online or favoring less expensive mass brands.
With so many brands vying for consumers’ attention, it is now more important than ever to use fact-based insights to grow loyalty and increase market share. Knowing what consumers are actually purchasing off salon shelves and what the most requested services are will put you in the role of a trusted advisor. With limited shelf space, salons need to ensure that the products they carry will move. Facts versus opinions will help sales consultants be more proactive in planning for the most profitable mix of products. For example, in 2017, we saw a rise in color care shampoos with the largest increases from Celeb Luxury, Amika, and Keune. Being able to demonstrate with data that sales of color care shampoos are on the rise and which brands are driving that growth gives salons the confidence that allocating space to these products will be a smart decision. The fact that the number of in-salon treatments grew 9% in 2017 with associated revenues up 12% can help with the education and support of salon staff to keep them current with trends. It is data like this that salons will look at to improve the management of their business.
To reflect your brand’s top priorities at an affordable cost, you can select data you need with our Kline PRO Snippets. With this newly acquired data, you will also obtain actionable ways to upsell your distributors purchase orders, enhance your marketing story, and add claims to flyers, POP displays, and trade ads.
Written by Linda Viglione, Account Manager and Paula Gottdiner, Project Manager
