The gift card selling season is well underway, and reports from spas around the country are that most sales are up, at least slightly, over lat year. According to forecasts by the National Retail Federation, 77% of shoppers are expected to purchase at least one gift card this holiday season, and many reasons are cited for their popularity, including convenience for the purchaser, and the option of choice for the recipient. The average American will spend $145 on gift cards, up from $139, or a 4% increase, which is corresponds to the holiday sales forecasts of increases of 3-4% over 2009. Traditionally, the spa gift card average has been between $100 and $125, although that range doesn’t account for some of the aggressive discounting and giveaways that were used in 2009. (more…)
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2010 Black Friday Weekend Sales Encouraging
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The results are in for the holiday kick-off weekend, and they’re encouraging. It is estimated that 212 million shoppers visited a store or website over the four-day Black Friday weekend, an increase of 8.7% from last year, according to National Retail Federation reports. Average spend was also up about 6%, and the combination of higher spend and more traffic yielded a four-day sales total in the neighborhood of $45 billion.
While it’s good news that both foot traffic and average spend were up, the big winner was the online sales category, which the NRF says generated over 33% of the four-day total, for the highest ever contribution to the weekend total. According to ComScore, an online research firm, spending on Thanksgiving Day rose 28 percent over last year, and online sales for Black Friday alone rose 9% for a total of $648 million, the biggest online sales day so far this year. It’s too early to start cheering, but these indicators do give hope. (more…)
ISPA 2010 Conclusion
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By the third day of the ISPA Conference, things feel like they are moving so fast! This is the last day for the Expo; breakfast was served in the hall at 8am to facilitate early browsers, and there are no morning breakouts to create conflicts. Those who got onto the floor early were able to get a lot done by 10am, when more crowds started showing up.
I stopped by the booth for Imprint Plus, which is an affordable and eco-sensitive resource for reusable name badges that is new to ISPA, but already has a presence in the hospitality and retail worlds. Their badges come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, and feature a metal back plate, a lens cover, and a clear insert that you customize and print on your own printer using proprietary software. All you need is a starter kit and you’re good to go, even for small orders. (more…)
ISPA2010 Day 2 Inspires & Motivates
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Second full day of conference began with early morning Professional Development Sessions. Well, truth be told, it actually begins even earlier in the morning in the Precor Experience Center, or at the Greet the Day session, but due to the all of the parties and dinners the previous night, 6:30am does not have a lot of takers. Excellent morning sessions were offered, including timely, actionable advice on using social media from Kathleen Turpel of Imaginal Marketing, who works with many beauty and spa businesses, and suggestions on incorporating stress management therapies into your life and spa menu from Brent Bauer, ISPA Board member and Mayo Clinic Associate Professor. (more…)
ISPA 2010 Conference, 20th anniversary edition.
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Spa industry executives and vendors from around the globe are gathered in Washington D.C. for the 20th annual ISPA conference. The conference is an annual “must-attend” for many due to the high quality educational breakouts, motivational keynotes, and networking opportunities.
Monday offered 10 Professional Development Sessions on a variety of topics. Barry Moltz gave an impassioned presentation entitled “Customer Service is the New Marketing,” point being that now that customers are online talking about your business in so many channels, if you focus on providing high quality client experiences, the clients do the marketing for you. Neil Ducoff gave a compensation presentation, and I was so happy to hear him mention the “sweet spot” of 30-35% of revenue for provider pay; as a country, we need to keep working on that. There were other excellent presentations on marketing, communications, and menu engineering, and a “State of the Industry” session where ISPA shared 2010 performance statistics. More on those in another blog! (more…)
Great social media insights at SpaExec Ft. Lauderdale
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On the eve of the IECSC show in Ft. Lauderdale, SpaExec welcomed attendees to the Hilton Marina for another exciting networking and vendor showcase event. Over 60 local and regional Spa Directors, owners and staff members enjoyed meeting with the 21 vendors displaying their latest wares. The educational portion of the evening consisted of a keynote presentation by social media strategist Jamie Ginsberg of Cleveland Groove, and a panel discussion of trends for 2011. (more…)
Crystal Awards Asia Pacific 2010 Gala & Winners
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While the entire Wellness Summit is a rich, stimulating experience, the highlight of the conference is always the gala Crystal Awards evening, and this year was no different. This year, nominees and guests gathered amidst the lush greenery of Fort Canning Park to enjoy each others company and await the announcement of the winners for 2010. (more…)
Wellness Summit Day 2
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Our day began with a guided meditation, led by Dr. JemBendell, Director of Lifeworth and Associate Professor at Griffith Business School. Dr. Bendell’s work is as a strategist and consultant for sustainable luxury for high-end brands, and he is accredited with the organizational concept for the Marine Stewardship Council. Bendell’s presentation, “Integrating Personal and Global Wellness,” shared the idea that wellness is a form of contentment and balance, and our personal wellness is connected to the wellness of the collective whole. So this is what clients are seeking, both personal wellness and re-connection to nature. He cited a study that showed that post-operative patients with a view of nature have better outcomes and need less painkillers. We need to be creative and find ways to deliver the unexpressed needs of our clients; illustrating that point Bendell quoted Henry Ford; “If I asked what my clients want, they’d say a faster horse.” He referenced online resources are Greenerhealthcare.org, greenyoga.org, greenglobe.com and authentiluxury.net. The sum of the presentation was that creating real change is not up to any one person or entity; we need to work as a group to achieve our goals, as multi-stakeholder standards are more credible. (more…)
Wellness Summit report Day 1
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The 5th annual Wellness Summit was held last week in Fort Canning Park, Singapore, with a theme of “Riding the Wave: Delivering Relevance, Ensuring Sustainability.” The Wellness Summit is designed to explore ways in which the wellness industry can remain profitable, competitive and relevant in a challenging business environment, and discover synergies between the spa, salon, fitness, medicine, health & lifestyle, and tourism arms of the growing wellness industry. An impressive lineup of presenters and educators participated in keynote addresses, panel discussions and breakout presentations over a 3 day period with approximately 160 delegates, and as always the highlight was the gala dinner where the 2010 Crystal Awards Asia-Pacific were presented. (more…)
What are you doing with your unusued beauty products?
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I’ve got a lot of beauty products, just like you. Lots and lots. Bags full of really nice products that I may never use or have tried once. My husband would like me to “do something” with them, since I can’t possibly use them all on my one body in my lifetime. But what? I’ve given plenty away for benefit raffles, and shared with my friends, but somehow the pile doesn’t really diminish. I hate to throw it all away.
Then this week I read a story that really made me sit up and take notice. Harrah’s Entertainment is working with the Orlando-based charity Clean the World, which collects soap and shampoo left behind by hotel guests and distributes them to impoverished families in the United States and more than 30 countries. In recent months, more than a ton of soap has been gathered from from five Harrah’s resorts in Las Vegas; Paris, Bally’s, Harrah’s, Imperial Palace and Caesars Palace. Clean the World also received a $100k grant from Harrah’s to develop a soap recycling facility in Las Vegas. KUDOS to Harrah’s, that’s really doing something useful. (more…)
