Wahanda Business News

Listen up beauty industry professionals – that’s quite a few of you we imagine. – we’ve got some exciting news. The Habia Skills Academy (the government-appointed skills body for the hair, beauty, nail and spa sector) is developing a new professional register to help raise quality standards and boost consumer confidence in the beauty industry.

The independent, voluntary register of beauty and spa professionals from across the UK will be based on the successful Register of Exercise Professionals (REPS) model, which is run by Habia's parent company SkillsActive and is the largest of its kind anywhere in the world with 30,000 members.

Acting as a mark of quality and skills reassurance for both professionals and consumers, the register will be available to the general public to verify...

As a health and beauty insider you don't need us to tell you how important first impressions can be, but with thousands of other spas and salons on site it’s important you make the effort to stand out. Make sure your venue is looking pretty as a picture - and that you’re showing off its full potential - by uploading some eye catching and inspiring images with our gallery function.

Keeping your venue page looking smart has many benefits, but images allow prospective customers to visualise their experience at your salon and can actually make the difference between them booking an appointment and looking elsewhere.

If photography’s not your forte, don’t worry. You don’t need a fancy camera or expensive lighting, just take a look at our easy guide to taking inspiring pictures. Say...

According to the latest research from Mintel into colour cosmetics, the makeup sector really is proving to be recession-proof, with UK retail sales of colour cosmetics putting on a good performance in 2011. With market value up by over 8% from 2010 (when the market was valued at £1.28 billion), the industry has seen sales of a stunning £1.38 billion. Growth is expected to continue - albeit at a slower pace - into 2012 and beyond, to achieve an estimated market worth £1.44 billion in 2012.

Vivenne Rudd, Head of Beauty and Personal Care Insight at Mintel, said:

"The market turned in a dynamic performance in comparison to other beauty categories like haircare and bodycare. Furthermore, continued active new product development, an expanding consumer base and fashion trends were additional...

Heading to the Olympia Beauty Show on the 23rd-24th September? Good news, so are we. Make sure you come and say hello to us over at stand G16 because we have plenty to update you on, including our revolutionary Wahanda Connect platform.

Wahanda Connect is our brand new online booking software for the spa and salon industry, with real-time booking functionality that allows businesses to attract our 18 million customers to their services and schedule them in for appointments 24/7. Sound good? We thought so too…

This win-win system offers customers a quick and easy booking experience (allowing them to select a date, time and service and book an appointment in a matter of clicks) while giving our partners access to millions of targeted customers as well as the ability to get listed, receive...

We understand that juggling a business and its promotional activities can sometimes feel a little overwhelming. To get you up to speed this autumn and to help you negotiate the marketing minefield with ease, it's time to go back to school.

Don't panic - there aren't any tests or grades resting on your performance, but brushing up on on your skills could really help to drive your business forward. Take a seat, grab a pen and some paper and listen up.

We'll try our best to make it as easy as ABC.

A is for…Always give your customers information about the brands you use and other services you provide.

One trusted way to increase your profitability is to make full use of up- and cross-selling techniques.

Think back to you when you last bought an electrical item: were you offered the...

Located in the heart of London’s West End is the boutique salon, Czaro Hair. Combining contemporary styling with understated luxury, Czaro ensure that their clients receive a bespoke and exquisite salon experience in a warm and friendly atmosphere. Czaro have been using Wahanda for just over a year and recently started using the Wahanda Connect system to great success.

Czaro are already seeing great results: “Wahanda Connect has helped to drive business, [as] online shoppers want to use a system to expedite the shopping experience.

"The faster and easier they can locate the service they are looking for and book an appointment, the more likely they’ll buy from us. Wahanda Connect does just that. In the first week of using Wahanda Connect we experienced a much higher volume of online...

Once you've created a presence here on Wahanda, the next step is getting your voice heard.

Interacting in the community advice section of the site is a great way to help boost your business, but if you really want to make an impression, the best thing to do is set up a blog.

Forget posts on fashion, food and films, a professional blog on this very site can provide a platform to help your individual knowledge and expertise shine through. You don't have to bare your soul or even need to worry about coding or cropping images - simply write and then send your first article to editorial@wahanda.com along with a short biography that sums up who you are and what you do. We'll take care of the rest.

Still unsure about how blogging could benefit your business? Here are five ways in which...

Located within Streatham Pharmacy in South London, MySpa Number 95 boasts three beautifully decorated and spacious treatment rooms, which emanate a sense of wellbeing and relaxation. Providing a full range of services, MySpa are extremely proud to offer exclusive Caudalie treatments at their day spa for top-class pampering.

MySpa use only the best products, known for their natural ingredients, with the likes of Caudalie, Mavala, Weleda, Nouveau Lashes, CND Shellac and St-Tropez on offer.

Since opening their holistic doors in February this year, MySpa have been using Wahanda as a Premium member and say that they wouldn’t change that for the world, as they regularly see customers with Wahanda vouchers.

MySpa’s owner, Marine, told us: “We really like the fact that people can purchase...

Congratulations – you’ve signed up to Wahanda! You are now one step closer to reaching thousands more potential customers. But before you start welcoming hoards of happy clients through your doors, there’s one more very important thing to consider: your profile page.

As a health and beauty industry insider, I’m sure you’re aware that first impressions count. Here at Wahanda, the first thing visitors see when they click on your business name is your profile page – think of it as a hub for all your customer interactions. We’ve carefully designed the page so that you can display everything a potential visitor to your venue could possibly need, from all important contact numbers and maps, to a bit of background info about your business.

To help you get started (or to help add a bit of polish...

If you’re looking for new ways to connect to customers as well as getting your hands on a simple-to-use booking system for spas, salons, therapists and fitness and beauty professionals, then great news: Wahanda Connect has now launched.

Our new online platform allows businesses to get listed on the site and sell directly to millions of customers through both Wahanda and our partner lastminute.com, while managing availability and scheduling appointments using the free diary management tool that comes as part of the Connect package. Giving you complete control, with Connect you can specify your availability and allow customers to book through the site 24/7 – ensuring that calendars are filled and reaching out directly to a plethora of health and beauty enthusiasts.

Businesses who sign up...

CEO of Wahanda Lopo Champalimaud wrote for the Spa Business Association on how to make sure your off-peak times are put to good use...

One piece of feedback I regularly receive from within the beauty services sector is a frustration at the often relatively low occupancy that even successful salons and spas run at. Very few salons perform at anything above a 50% occupancy, which can be frustrating for owners as the majority of their costs are fixed (rent, rates, staffing etc) as well as not being the best use of time for employees.

Coupled with this, most beauty services charge the same prices for their treatments, whether you come in on a Monday morning (a traditionally quiet time) or a Saturday afternoon (very busy) and, often, very little is done to incentivise people to use services...

Offering a key insight into the motivators which drive global and regional hotel bookings, a new report by worldwide hotel chain Hilton has found that having a spa as part of the hotel site could make all the difference when it comes to sealing the deal with a booking. The survey of 6,000 international hotel visitors from across the UK, America, China and Australia found that 45% are more likely to book a hotel that offered a spa, with Chinese travellers in particular believing an available spa is a key incentive.

The figure is slightly lower for British customers, with just over a third (37%) stating that a spa would sway their booking decision; yet 68% of UK and 69% of international customers would be ‘likely to use the spa if one was offered at their hotel’.

For spa lovers who like to...

If you’re a regular in the Wahanda community, you’ll probably have come across Paola; as our most active therapist on the site, she’s reached Guru status in our community rankings with over 10,000 points acquired by blogging, answering consumer questions and reviewing everywhere she goes since joining the site in 2009.

The web-savvy masseuse became hooked pretty quickly, she told us: “I was approached by Lopo Champalimaud, Wahanda’s CEO, as we were both members of the Courvoisier 500 network, the exclusive group of innovative companies hand-picked by The Observer. Once I started using the Wahanda site I immediately loved it and became slightly obsessed with it too!”

When she’s not busy tweeting the latest beauty news and browsing through Wahanda, Paola Bassanese runs an award-winning...

Located a two-minute walk from Oxford Circus is Metta, a hidden gem that is a real favourite of the Wahanda team – even our CEO says it’s the ‘best Thai massage outside of Thailand’. Specialising in massage, beauty and urban wellness, Metta’s most popular treatment is the Thai Combination massage, adored by customers looking to escape city life.

Metta have been promoting their services through Wahanda since opening in September 2011. Using the enhanced listing, Metta strive to highlight their business in the online sphere. Accepting Wahanda vouchers as well as creating two spotlight offers, Metta has seen a significant increase in business since partnering with us and continues to see growth - making them more than happy to recommend Wahanda to other businesses in similar fields.

Metta...