Beauty On Demand | Thriving Business Models to Get Ready for the Future

Everyone wants to look beautiful. This fact has powered the beauty industry to be one of the fastest growing industry in the world. But that’s not the only factor that can power the growth of your salon or beauty parlor in today’s world. Advancements in technology and consumer behavioral shifts have changed the way consumers interact with beauty professionals. With less time and patience than ever before, customers want a quick and painless way to pamper themselves. It is a fact that with the onset of beauty on demand, customers are least interested to walk in to a salon and spend their precious time at your outlet. Instead, people want a stylist to visit them at their location that too at a time that is best suited to them.

Startups, small business owners as well as big salon chains are swiftly switching to beauty on demand platforms in order to get ready for the future. A business that is innovative enough and changes its model according to the ongoing trends is already on the right path to emerge as a winner over others. In this post, I’ll introduce you to the ongoing trends in the beauty industry and the possible on-demand business models in the beauty industry.

As of now, the beauty industry is over $250 Billion and a lot of entrepreneurs are vying to take a share out of this enormous market. Here are the possible business models that can be implemented in beauty on demand space.

Beauty On Demand – At-Home Services by Freelance Stylists (Marketplace Model)

One model that works best for the on demand beauty industry is a marketplace model where your online platform would match stylists with customers, the same way as Uber drivers are matched up with customers who request a ride. Maybe, this is the reason as to why beauty on demand is also called Uber for Beauty. The matching of the customer to the stylist could be automatic or manual. Hence, this beauty on demand business model is further divided into 2 categories.

• Automatic Selection of Stylist
• Manual Selection of Stylist

Whichever matching algorithm is used, one thing which defines this type of on-demand beauty business is that it is based on a marketplace model. There is no need to hire permanent employees. Platforms based on this model basically act as an aggregator of service providers and manage bookings & transactions through their platform. Let’s understand it further with the help of some live examples.

GlamSquad – Automatic Matching

Glamsquad, an on-demand app that provides professional and affordable hair & makeup services to customers at their location. This app works in a way where users are asked to choose a hairstyle or makeup look before booking an appointment. Based on the style the user has selected, Glamsquad will assign a beauty professional. But this is done automatically based on the location of the customer and the service provider that will provide the selected look. Glamsquad claims that its sytlists arrive in as little as 90 minutes. As of now, this beauty on-demand statrtup is operating in New York, Los Angeles and Miami.

Stylelisted – Manual Matching

Stylisted is quite similar to Glamsquad in regard to the services it offers. But it has one important distinction in terms of the matching functionality. It allows clients to manually select the stylist who will visit you at your location. Each freelancing stylist has a separate profile on the platform. A customer can go through the stylist’s profile, read reviews and check the prices. The prices offered by each stylist are different as stylists have the option to set their own pricing. This functionality makes this beauty on demand startup a buyer pick marketplace, where buyer chooses a stylist manually.

Beauty On Demand – At Home Services by Your Employees

Another common type of beauty on demand statups that are quickly hauling the business of traditional salons fall in this category. As the name suggests, this business model is best suited to salon chains which have their own employees and want to serve their customers at their location to keep up with the on-demand trend. While all technology aspects of a mobile app in this category are similar to those in the marketplace model, the only difference being that in this model, stylists are permanent employees.

For Enterprises:

Enterprises in the beauty industry are moving to on demand beauty model by launching their own platforms to cater to the ever growing demand and serve customers at their location. The best business model that suits enterprises is when technology is used to book customer appointments, as well as manage and track employees while they go out of the salon to serve customers. Internal rating & review system is also helpful to gain the trust of your customers.

The Bottom Line

One thing that people want when they request the services from a business is instant gratification. Beauty on demand services are the new trend and is soon catching up in almost all geographical areas of the world. A lot of startups in this space have already shown the way and proved how lucrative on demand beauty industry is. However, it is technology that can make or break an idea. If you want to understand how the different modules of an on-demand business (Sign Up, Scheduling, Matching, Notifications, Tracking, Payment, Promotions, Review) work, simply download our ebook below.