New distribution partnership and powerful integrations expand the way sellers discover and use Square
OAKLAND, Calif., October 21, 2024--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Square today announced new partner integrations to give sellers a wider selection of tools that enable them to grow and succeed, alongside a new distribution partnership with SalonCentric that brings Square’s hardware and software offerings to more beauty professionals. Additionally, Square has rolled out a number of new features and product enhancements designed to help beauty and wellness sellers increase sales, provide clients with improved personalization, and more effectively manage back-office operations.
As the largest beauty product B2B distributor in the US, SalonCentric provides high quality products exclusively to beauty professionals at scale, with more than 1 million active customers and over 600 brick-and-mortar stores nationwide. Through this partnership, sellers can now purchase a Square Reader in any SalonCentric store, and receive promotional pricing for Square Appointments Plus with their purchase. Together, Square and SalonCentric are ensuring that all beauty professionals have access to the tools they need to start, run, and grow their business.
"SalonCentric's philosophy is to be the one-stop destination for beauty professionals to find everything they need to run their business from products to education. Our role as the industry leader is to help salons embrace new technologies to be more successful, including business solutions like Square," said Bertrand Fontaine, President of SalonCentric. "We are very happy with our partnership with Square as we share the same values in supporting an industry mainly made of small business owners and making their lives easier by providing not only the best tech, but also the right education support."
Each beauty and wellness seller is unique and requires powerful solutions that enable them to save time and operate more efficiently. Square’s latest partnerships provide beauty and wellness sellers with deeply integrated solutions that streamline their operations and reduce the complexity of running and growing their business. Now available in the Square App Marketplace:
SalonInteractive’s integration with Square enables sellers to earn additional revenue from drop shipped hair and beauty products, and frees them from handling all logistics from packing and shipping to delivery.
Vish, a hair color management system, allows hair salon owners to understand all aspects of their color business. Vish integrates seamlessly with Square so sellers and their staff can track color usage to increase accuracy of color application, eliminate manual inventory counting, and reduce color waste.
Submatic empowers sellers to create, sell, and manage memberships for repeat clients with automated communications and discounts. With this integration, joint sellers can view memberships within Square, and easily track benefits on customer accounts.
Pomp, the leading software provider for estheticians, lets sellers recommend skincare and earn commissions without stocking inventory or managing shipping. With the Pomp and Square integration, sellers can build client routines, sell products online, and elevate the client experience seamlessly.
SalonScale is an industry-leading backbar management software. Through this integration, sellers can simplify their tracking of hair color usage with automatic inventory counts, improving color accuracy, and minimizing color waste.
Glammatic, a beauty marketing software company, provides sellers with powerful digital marketing tools and customer support, enabling them to have beautiful custom websites with Square online booking, managed social media marketing, and access to brand consulting services.
In addition to partner integrations, Square has continued to strengthen its product portfolio for beauty and wellness sellers, while also offering new features that bring unique benefits. With these solutions, sellers of every size and complexity are better equipped to build modernized operations that in return create exceptional client experiences.
Bringing More Value to Services
Square’s new service features provide sellers with enhanced functionality to help them increase revenue and gain deeper insight into their business.
Packages, one of the top requested features, enables clients to purchase services in bulk—whether it's a set of the same service or a mix of different ones—giving sellers the ability to drive repeat clients and boost revenue. Buyers can oversee the entire process online, from browsing and selecting a package to booking and management. Sellers can migrate Package data from legacy providers to Square.
No-Show Fee by Service empowers beauty and wellness sellers to set no-show fees for each service as either a percentage or flat rate, offering sellers more control over how they operate their business. In Q1 2024, businesses that used Square Appointments’ no-show feature experienced on average a 23% decrease in no-shows and last-minute cancellations compared to Q1 2023, helping prevent loss of income.
Service Costs (Backbar) gives sellers the ability to track service costs by default spend or percentage. This gives sellers the ability to deduct service costs from commission calculations and to gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between revenue and service costs. Sellers can also use this feature on desktop and mobile.
"With Square’s Packages feature, our clients can purchase services and redeem as they go, making it easier for them to manage their appointments," said Michele Callegari, CEO and Co-Founder of Barberino’s, a barbershop in New York, NY. "Our clients have told us how much they love our Packages offering since it's flexible and meets their unique needs. Packages have also been a huge unlock for my business since I can grow sales by encouraging repeat business."
Optimizing the Booking Flow
New improvements to Square Appointments’ booking software give sellers more ways to enhance the client experience, increasing booking conversion and driving higher client satisfaction.
Customized Online Booking enables sellers to offer a better client experience for increased bookings and conversion through Square’s Brand API. Beauty and wellness sellers can better promote their business through an improved booking experience by leveraging logo and brand colors, staff and service photos, and category images. Sellers can also add website and social media links, as well as business hours.
‘Text Us’ Button on Buyer Booking helps sellers consolidate and better manage client inquiries across channels. Clients can simply submit questions through a ‘Text Us’ button during online booking, and sellers can manage all correspondences in their Square Messages inbox. This feature has been shown to increase client conversion, with 33% of clients that submit an inquiry via the ‘Text Us’ button ultimately booking a service with the seller, as of April 2024.
Post Booking Forms automatically sends links to required booking forms in appointment confirmation notifications to buyers. Sellers can save time by removing the need to manually collect forms at the appointment or sending separate correspondences. Now, after scheduling an appointment, a client will receive a booking confirmation that includes intake forms to be completed before the appointment, creating a seamless check-in process for both clients and providers.
Streamlined Insights and Back Office Controls
To bring more visibility into their operations, Square introduced several features that empower sellers with more insights and control while simplifying calendar and staff management.
New Versus Returning Client Indicator labels appointments with new clients on a seller’s calendar, better enabling businesses and their staff to initiate a consultation flow or offer first-time client perks like a salon tour or coupon to drive loyalty.
Color Coded Services, a top feature request, allows sellers to customize their calendar with color coding by service type, in addition to the capability to color code by staff. This enables sellers and their staff to better organize and manage their calendar.
Block Clients lets sellers block specific clients from future online bookings to minimize calendar disruptions from clients that consistently no-show or last-minute cancel, better protecting a seller’s bottom line.
"Beauty and wellness sellers need flexible solutions to operate however works best for them across channels," said Ashley Heywood, Health & Beauty Product Marketing Lead at Square. "Square’s latest product enhancements enable sellers to personalize their business for even more power and control. At Square, we’re committed to meeting the needs of every seller whether you’re just getting started, hiring your first employee, or operating a multi-location salon."
Square makes commerce and financial services easy and accessible with its integrated ecosystem of commerce solutions. Square offers purpose-built software to run complex restaurant, retail, and professional services operations, versatile e-commerce tools, embedded financial services and banking products, buy now, pay later functionality through Afterpay, staff management and payroll capabilities, and much more – all of which work together to save sellers time and effort. Millions of sellers across the globe trust Square to power their business and help them thrive in the economy. For more information, visit www.squareup.com.