In its State of the Salon and Spa Industry Report, Mindbody recently surveyed both consumers and wellness brands to understand how the industry’s shifted over the past year and a half and more importantly, where it’s headed in the months to come.

When circumstances call for change, the best among us capitalize on the opportunity to rethink and rebuild. That’s true of industry leaders and their clients, and the data tell us a story about how that’s taking shape in 2021.

Key Findings

Geeting back to beauty. 24% of consumers have added wellness services or treatments at salons and spas since the pandemic started. Additionally, 22% of those who consider beauty part of their routine are getting more services or treatments now that the economy has reopened.

Cost matters to consumers, but it’s not everything. When it comes to choosing a salon or spa, consumers do still cite pricing as their top concern (49%). Unsurprisingly, cleanliness also emerged as a key factor (36%). Coming in third, at 29%: having a skilled service provider. Peace of mind is everything when it comes to booking services, and there’s comfort (and loyalty) in knowing that a service provider does excellent, safe work.

Consumers are branching out post‐pandemic. Over half (53%) of consumers say they’re more open to trying new beauty services or treatments than they were before the pandemic began, and 49% say they’ve made or will make a drastic change as a way to mark coming out of the pandemic.

Many consumers plan drastic changes to their appearance. 32% plan to make this change through body hair removal, 26% with hair color, 24% with haircuts and 21% with advanced skin care (laser treatments, micro needling services).

What the Industry is Overcoming

Franchise organizations cite getting new/more customers (51%), learning how to more effectively optimize their business (43%) and securing capital/loans/investment to grow (39%) as their largest challenges. Meanwhile, non‐franchise organizations noted optimizing their use of technology and software (44%), getting new/more customers (44%) and learning how to more effectively optimize their business (43%) as their top three challenges.

What’s Next?

The long pause in services has given way to a new paradigm: It’s time to grow. Across both franchise and non‐franchise organizations, half of salon and spa owners (50%) say they’re planning to actively invest in growing and expanding in the next three years, which is encouraging news for the industry as a whole. The remaining respondents are split between saying they’ll maintain their current level of business (24%) or focus on getting back to profitability first (26%).

To dig into more details regarding the study, read the report.