Welcome to 2021!!!!!

I am so excited for this year and ready to get going!  ARE YOU READY?????

The best part of 2021 is that we are moving into a NEW WORLD.  Yes the re-set button was pressed last year and we in the middle of moulding and defining A NEW BEAUTY & WELNESS INDUSTRY.

I would like you to think back to anytime when you received or started something new.  Perhaps a new car, perhaps when you went to university or college for the first time or perhaps when you started your business.  Can you describe the feelings and your mindset at the time?

Excited, happy, a little nervous, full of ideas, explorative, eager, open to learning, and so many more words we could use to describe how you felt.

So as you read the 2021 trends we are expecting in spas and salons in South Africa as well as globally, I would like you to take yourself back to one of those “new” moments in your life because as we venture into a “NEW” YEAR, how you begin the year and your mindset will play a critical role in how your year will roll out.

Something else I want you to remember is that business is constantly evolving so in order for your business to survive and grow you will need to evolve.  Build on what is working and evolve or adapt where you see opportunity!  Don’t close your mind to new things, now more than ever is it the time to have an open mind and experiment with change.

Below you will see xxxx trends predicted for 2021 and some lasting longer for the Beauty & Welness Industry to be seen both in South Africa and globally.  A great idea is to align your business with the trends to ensure you are meeting consumer demands and evolving your business for the new world.

  1. Redefining wellness

Wellness is set to take on a different, more dynamic and all encompassing shape going into 2021.  The consumer will be focused on all types of self-help and ways to prevent illness rather than cure it.  it will not just be about mindfulness and treatments that promote wellness and holistic interventions but will include far more such as fashion and science looking at what fashion styles, fabrics and colours can do for wellness as well as how science is evolving artificial intelligence, modern medicine and the digital space to offer solutions for all to be healthy and well.

What does this mean for the spas and salons?  Look at your space and your fabrics and colours, look at every part of your engagement with your client and ask yourself:  Am I as a business adding to my clients’ wellbeing.

  1. At home solutions

As a beauty salon or spa owner, our goal is to get the client in for treatments but this has changed and will continue to change.  They will come to the spa and salon but they have already and will continue to look for more at home solutions and if you don’t offer this they will search until they find them.  so instead of fighting this rather look at what you can offer your clients in terms of treatments they can do themselves at home.  Some examples to look at are:  spiritual cleansing baths, bath teas for different outcomes such as detoxifying, sleep enhancing, skin smoothing, remineralising and more.  At home skin peeling solutions, a wider variety of masks, special eye treatments to assist the reduction of swollen or red eyes and any blue light protection products as the consumer spends more time in front of their computers and devices.

  1. Online

Set to show the biggest growth in 2021 is the online space as consumers spend more time looking online instead of in store or face to face.  Identify what your next online step should be and how to engage the clients you already have, once you have that right then you can develop your strategy from there.  The online space is not quick and easy to do, it takes a lot of strategy and careful action to engage a client that is literally now bombarded with hundreds of online offerings. The goal is ENGAGEMENT and REVENUE.  that is what you are looking for with your online presence.

  1. Sustainable travel/Staycations

What to call this????  So many names but we will definitely see a rise in local travel which are renaming “responsible travel” where the aim is to support our local economy get back on track whilst still recharging and regenerating.  With overseas travel taking a back seat completely in 2021, how can you collaborate with a local hospitality business to be responsible and help build each other’s businesses?  That is the sustainability focus for the coming year.  Taking the sustainability concept to other areas of your business would mean looking at all areas of your spa and salon business and how are you supporting your local economy, your local brands, your local manufacturers?

  1. Nature and outdoors

Prescriptions will change shape in 2021 with nature as the main remedy.  2021 will see a rise in nature based anything from hotels, treatments in the outdoors, guided nature meditation sessions and so many more offerings.  Look at your business and before you jump to saying you don’t have an outdoor offering or space why not think differently and consider how you can bring the outdoors inside?  or how you can incorporate the outdoors with anything that you currently offer.  To give a small simple example:  start with one treatment room and convert it into a forest, YES a forest!  From the colours, fabrics and plants you use assimilate a forest best you can.  Then experiment and do a few treatments in there to see the response you get from the client.  You will be so surprised!

  1. Sleep better

QUALITY of sleep has deteriorated and it’s becoming more a question of quality over quantity.  Analyse your offering to see where you can incorporate services to enhance better sleep even perhaps including sleep time in a treatment where you purposely get the client to sleep in the type of treatment you are offering.  Silk sleepwear, sleep yoga, satin pillowcases are all set to show huge growth in the coming year.

  1. Immune boosting

Anything you can do to support the immune system will be the name of the game in 2021.  Relook at your treatment offering now and adjust to include immune-boosting in massage, in body wraps and exfoliations, in skin treatments and even explore energy healing concepts.

  1. Skin is the focus

With increased time on zoom calls and online meetings where the focus is the face and neck well there, you have it.  Treatments to enhance natural glowing skin and flawless complexion is a top priority for the workforce going into 2021.  Align the descriptions of your treatment to speak to these consumers.  Yes, I am sure you have a skin treatment to induce glow but does it have the right name for example Perfect Online Glow Facial or Flawless online Face Facial.  Just get creative and talk to the audience and give them exactly what they need.  A focus on natural make-up is also a huge 2021 trend with makeup for online meetings, lessons being the top of the list.

  1. Quality of Air

Quality of Air was already a focus from 2019 but will see a new shift in 2021 with much more than air purifiers and specific plants that improve the air quality.  Have a look at something very interesting that will start to make some way this coming year especially in the workplace where people have to come to a public place to work and also the hospitality industry that services the business traveller.

 


Image:  Gary De Silvio

Called Pura-Case, the product uses ozone to clean clothes and is designed by Carlo Ratti Associati for tech startup Scribit. The product is portable, battery-powered and operated via a custom-made mobile app.  A wardrobe purifier in a different league.

The process begins with users placing clothes inside the case – which accommodates up to four hangers – and closing it with an air-tight zipper. The purifier will then release ozone which penetrates the fabric to sanitise clothes. Once the system is finished, the ozone is reduced to oxygen through a natural decay process using sustainable materials, making the case safe to open.

Once a piece of garment is hung inside the case, the air purification system will clean fabrics in the space of an hour.

In conclusion, I want to remind you again of what I wrote at the beginning of this article.  Get your mindset right, get your A-game on and commit to pivoting and changing everything if you have to in order to align with the new world we are moving into.

Please contact me at marisa@thespaconsultants.co.za and let’s connect.