How to Choose the Right Shelving for your salon
I am often asked what kind of shelving I recommend for a salon or spa. The answer is it really depends on your budget and how much you want to invest in what could be the most profitable area of your salon. The first step to successfully selling haircare products to your clients is to have a beautiful, shoppable, clean retail area that makes them want to shop. Your options are to either invest in custom built shelving or purchase prebuilt shelves from IKEA, Smart Fixtures or another retailer. Custom built are definitely more expensive, but it will guarantee that it fits and it is exactly the size and color you want. If you are not sure what you want, go with IKEA or another affordable option until you are ready to invest in the custom built option.
Here are some things to think about when choosing or designing shelving
- Allow for ample space on the top shelf to do vignettes or images.
- Make sure they are fully adjustable - this way you can adjust for tall hairsprays or gift sets
- Use the bottom 2 feet of the shelf for storage drawers. No one likes to bend over to shop the bottom shelf so you might as well use it for storage. Plus, the bottom shelves get full of hair and dust.
- Do not keep your products behind the front desk, they need to be in an area where clients feel comfortable shopping. One rule of merchandising is you cannot merchandise for kids or thieves - your merchandising decisions should be based on clients purchasing. Install bubble cameras in areas of concern and make sure you have a site line to the front of the salon. Mirrors also deter shoplifting. Cameras can be purchased for under $100 and can be connected to an app on your phone, well worth the investment.
- Keep architectural breaks in the shelving, rather than one ongoing shelf with no breaks.
Example with section breaks
Here is an example with breaks (sections) - it allows you to group the brands better and section styling from men's, redken from pureology, etc.
Example without section breaks
Here is an example without breaks, the shelf is ongoing and I used a promotion in the middle to break it up.