Spas

7 Spa Business Trends for Success in 2023

A woman getting a back massage

The spa and wellness industry is a $4.5 trillion global business, with the U.S claiming an $18.3 billion market share of it. The Covid-19 pandemic, however, contributed to reshaping the market significantly. The recommended social distancing guidelines and other health protocols have made people revise their approach to wellness, medicine, and taking care of their bodies. 

While the world is reeling back to normalcy, there is no turning away from the fact that a lot has shifted to online or within-home experiences. 

In medicine, doctor office visits have been taken over by telemedicine, going to the gym has been replaced by in-home fitness equipment, and spa visits have been laid claim to by DIY beauty and wellness treatments. 

During such an economic landscape, launching a day spa or a wellness retreat can cause a lot of uncertainty. Should you do it at all? If yes, what’s the protocol? What will ensure survival, or success? 

We’ve dedicated this article to discussing new spa trends and practices that can help you gain a sure footing in your initial days of the business and ensure a hopeful future. 

Here are the spa trends 2023 will see on the rise that will help you boost your business growth.


1. Hygiene and Covid-19 Guidelines

One thing that the pandemic taught us is that the standard health and safety guidelines that the spa businesses have always worked with are not enough any longer. You need to do more to grow your existing spa business. 

Familiarize yourself with the latest in health and sanitation practices outlined by the CDC for regular businesses, and by ESPA International for spas, in particular. Compliance with these guidelines and your effective marketing about them will ensure that your audience knows you are taking your and their safety seriously and acting as a responsible business. 

While social distancing guidelines aren’t quite as important, the guidelines pertaining to proper disinfection of equipment, strict cleanliness of the establishment, and correct use of masks and other protective gear should definitely be considered.

Here’s a glance at some of the safety instructions outlined by ESPA International (These might look heavily derived from the pandemic times, but hygiene is an attribute that needs to be looked after at all times, pandemic or no pandemic): 

Safety instructions for spa

Employee training to comply with all of these (and other) safety guidelines is essential. Also, communicate these to each client who visits you. Promote these sanitary measures on your social media pages, website, and other marketing and informational material. 


2. Open, Light, & Natural 

Unlike Boomers who preferred tomb-like quietness and dark and quiet atmospheres in spas, millennials like their spaces light and airy. According to our friends over at the Trend Book, neutral shades, Scandinavian minimalism, and big windows that let in a lot of natural light are going to be the staple of modern spas.

The reason we are noticing this shift from dark to light spa spaces has to do with the generational change of mindsets. Gen-Z and millennials are more about human connection. They want to see and actively interact with their surroundings, bathe in the whole experience, and communicate with their service provider more intimately and genuinely.

The minimalism and the use of natural materials for the décor add a touch of authenticity to the brand name. 


3. An Authentic Brand Identity

At this point, a business’s authentic brand image and identity are not just trends anymore. Audiences want to interact with businesses that are more than just trading entities; they want their preferred businesses to have character, values, and personality. 

So, ask yourself. As a day spa startup, what is your brand’s promise to your guests? What are the values that you stand on? What is your unique brand identity? 

Let’s un-spool these concepts a bit more: 

  • Brand Promise: It’s the expectation your customers have of enjoying a certain level of service and experience with you. Every single time that they visit you. And it needs to be consistent.
  • Brand Values: The core principles that your brand stands on. Why is it different and why should people prefer your brand over ten others?
  • Brand Identity: It deals with the visual design elements that your spa business may use to create a certain kind of visual image of your business in the audience’s mind. Your spa logo would be the cornerstone of a cohesive and unifying brand identity. 

While your brand promise and brand value declarations need to be communicated in clear and concise words, you can emphasize these messages by using the elements of visual design. 

Start by creating a spa logo design that encapsulates, in the language of colors, shapes, and fonts, what your spa brand is all about. Though the visual elements of spa brand identity are mostly softer features – circle and oval shapes, pastel colors, and relaxed or elegant typefaces – do strive to create a distinct identity by digging deep into the psychology of your brand and creating a design that represents it well. You can even use sharper shapes or bolder colors or heavy serif fonts, as long as they gel naturally to the unique brand character you are trying to cultivate.

Remember, the more authentic and real you are as a brand, the more loyal your customer base would get.

Want to build that attractive brand image of your spa? Check out our blog on how to create a strong spa branding strategy in 7 simple steps


4. Virtual Visits Aided by VR

This is another spa trend that has been around the corner since the pandemic. Covid-19 restrictions have accelerated investment in technologies like VR. These technologies allow guests to experience a facility before they decide to book an appointment there. Augmented reality or virtual reality programs enable guests to visit a spa facility before making a booking. They can check out treatments, look around the rooms, and experience the atmosphere – all before ever setting foot into the building.

This results in an overall safer environment at the spa facility but also helps your brand. 

Your brand appears modern, in touch with the latest offerings of technology, and willing to adapt and change. It also translates to a brand’s desire to do whatever it takes to prioritize employee and guest safety. 

Not only this, investing in VR/AR enables you to offer more immersive relaxation experiences at your spa. Your guests do not have to keep staring out the window or looking around the room or even closing their eyes as they relax. You can transport them to tropical islands, dense forestry, or under starlit skies, all thanks to VR-powered relaxation programs. 

As these technologies become more mainstream, they also become more affordable. Investing in one as you launch your new spa will not only prove to be a competitive edge but will also help establish you as a pioneer of change. 


5. Online Scheduling System

The spa trend that will continue becoming less of a trend and more of a norm is the application of online scheduling programs at spas and other services providing businesses that work on a system of appointments. 

On an admin level, efficient scheduling of appointments is a necessity but a hassle nonetheless.  

Using a spa scheduling software, turns the whole thing around. It improves your admin efficiency and takes away the human error that is inherent in manual scheduling. With it, you can tell your guests which time slots are available for which treatments.

What’s more, it gives you the time that you need to refine, research, and perfect your spa treatments. 

While you can find a ton of scheduling programs online, choosing the right one can be a tough decision. Free software might look like a good option in the initial stages of your business, but eventually, you’ll have to invest in a full-featured scheduling program to enjoy the most benefits! The best way is to choose a scalable online scheduling software, that helps you accept bookings from multiple channels, like your website, Facebook, Instagram, Google My Business, and manage it all from a single place – Appointy


6. An Active Social Media 

Most spa owners saw the benefits of marketing on social media and joined the platforms. But for the huge majority that was left behind, the use of social media for business is quite recent. And we can thank the pandemic for that (but let’s not). 

Having an active social media presence not only gives your spa another digital address and improves your SEO but also does way more than that. It allows you to get in touch with your consumers even when they aren’t visiting your salon. Through an agile and responsive social media presence, your spa can use a ton of things to endear itself to its audience. 

  • Use your social media channels to conduct surveys on your upcoming spa treatments.
  • Create hype about your new location. 
  • Advertise how you are complying with the CDC and other health and wellness agency guidelines.
  • Create video tutorials and give tips on DIY beauty treatments (your customers will appreciate you more for it).
  • Conduct live sessions where you answer queries or share your insight on the latest spa industry trend. 

There is a ton more stuff that you can do on social media for your brand-new spa. To get some ideas, here’s a useful guide on marketing your spa on social media and beyond.


7. Consumer-specific Treatments 

We all know about personalized treatments, but this is a step further. This is customizing your personalized treatments on a strictly individual level. And no, calling your guest by name or remembering the last treatment they got from your spa is not nearly enough; it’s just the bare minimum. 

To make your spa business startup thrive and succeed, invest in some next-level personalization and customization. Create beauty treatments that are as diverse as the market segment you are hoping to target. Know your guest’s skin type, how it reacts to different seasons, allergens, and treatments, and offer specific services. 

Yes, it’ll take time and repeated visits but that’s exactly what you want. By offering such customized spa treatments, you ensure not only results but also that you get a client who can be loyal for life and keep coming back.  

You can utilize digital intake forms, SOAP notes, and customer notes to achieve this. Some scheduling software, like Appointy, offer you these features and help you provide personalized spa experiences to your customers.

Creating run-of-the-mill treatment menus will not get you much far. Especially as people get more comfortable taking care of their skin and beauty treatments for themselves. So offer to handle critical areas, flaunt your expertise, and provide something better.  


Conclusion

Taking care of the physical and beauty well-being is only one layer of the spa culture. One of the other major layers has to do with the human connection. We go to a spa to look and feel our best, escape the rut of daily life, and sometimes have healing and healthy conversations with the people we have come to trust. 

As long as you are using agile marketing and embracing new technologies, and using them to augment your high-end spa treatments and impeccable customer services, there’s no reason you can’t see your spa venture thrive and reach new heights. 

So bookmark this page and imbue your practices with the latest spa trends the world has to offer. We wish you the best of luck!


About Appointy

We at Appointy, help business owners grow and run their businesses with our online scheduling software. This blog was a part of our ‘Manage your Business’ category, where we provide expert tips, and resources, or simply talk about the challenges that small and medium businesses face every day. 

If you have any thoughts on this blog or would like to chat about your business struggles and achievements, let us know in the comments below. 

We love a good talk!