Square has increased its offerings for beauty and wellness sellers by adding new features, partner integrations and a distribution partnership.
These tools are designed to help beauty and wellness professionals with their sales, customer service and back-office operations, the company said in a Monday (Oct. 21) press release.
“Beauty and wellness sellers need flexible solutions to operate however works best for them across channels,” Ashley Heywood, health and beauty product marketing lead at Square, said in the release. “Square’s latest product enhancements enable sellers to personalize their business for even more power and control.”
Square’s new services include Packages, which enables clients to purchase services in bulk; No-Show Fee by Service, which lets sellers set no-show fees for each service as either a percentage or a flat rate; and Service Costs (Backbar), which enables sellers to track service costs by default spend or percentage, according to the release.
Square Appointments’ booking software now includes Customized Online Booking that helps sellers improve their booking experience, “Text Us” Button on Buyer Booking that helps sellers consolidate and manage client inquiries across channels, and Post Booking Forms that send links to intake forms to be completed before the appointment.
New back-office controls include New Versus Returning Client Indicator labels, Color Coded Services and a Block Clients feature that helps prevent specific clients from making future online bookings.
Square also added six new partner integrations that are centered on beauty and wellness sellers and available in the Square App Marketplace. These include SalonInteractive, Vish, Submatic, Pomp, SalonScale and Glammatic, the release said.
The company also formed a new distribution partnership with beauty product B2B distributor SalonCentric. This partnership brings Square’s hardware and software offerings to more beauty professionals by enabling them to purchase a Square Reader in any SalonCentric store and receive promotional pricing for Square Appointments Plus with their purchase, per the release.
Block, the owner of Square, said in August that gross profit from Square’s vertical point-of-sale solutions, including Square Appointments, Square for Restaurants and Square for Retail, was up 21% year over year in the second quarter.
Providers of beauty and wellness services are expanding their digital presence, from booking and payment capabilities to customer outreach and advertising, according to the PYMNTS Intelligence and American Express collaboration, “The Digital Transformation of Beauty and Wellness Services.”
In one example of this transformation, the report said that online booking is a must, with nearly half of beauty and hair salon customers booking their appointments outside of a salon’s operating hours.