Consumer Interest in Immune Health May Drive Adoption of New Spa Services

Mindbody’s 2022 Wellness Index gathered important insights on what kinds of salon and spa services the U.S. population are seeking now, but it also taps into emerging trends and where opportunities may exist based on what is top of mind for today’s consumers.

After living through the pandemic over the past two years, it’s not surprising that 55% of the US population is focused on their health and wellness and are interested in specific services to strengthen their immune health. According to the study, one if five Americans have already tried new services or treatments that support immune health, while another 46% say they are interested it trying them in the near future.

Sunil Rajasekar, Mindbody’s president and chief technology officer, recently sat down with SALON TODAY’s Stacey Soble to talk about the importance of this finding and discuss some of these immune-boosting services.  

“With the pandemic, 55% of consumers now have an increased focus on immunity, and we recognize focusing on immunity was not something we were thinking about a couple of years,” he says. “But now it’s top of mind for a lot of people and we are seeing a lot of new services that help with immunity—things red light therapy, IV therapy and cryotherapy—these have been considered cutting edge therapies but now are becoming more mainstream.”

While these services are sure to draw a new clientele into your day spa, they all require a bit of careful thought and planning to implement them. Services like IV Therapy and B12 shots are similar to Botox injections in that they must be performed by a medically trained professional. Other immune-boosting services—such as cryotherapy, salt rooms and red light therapy—don’t require special staff, but do require equipment or special buildouts.

But some of these services come with built-in revenue generators. For consumers to realize benefits from services like cryotherapy, they need multiple treatments, so some of these immune-focused services lend themselves to subscription programs.

Another aspect of Mindbody’s Wellness Index looked at mental health—in fact over a third of Americans’ ranked mental health as the most important dimension of wellness.  

“With the pandemic, the level of mental stress has been incredibly high,” Rajasekar says.  “We see this within our company as well, and some of the things we’ve done is offer wellness services and fitness classes to our staff, and we got them all subscriptions to Calm, a meditation app.

“The ability to take a mental break once or twice a day can go a long way,” he adds. “It also signals to your employees that you care about their mental health when you show you’re willing to invest in them.”