l TIFFANY WILLIE:“ Since we are in a resort hotel environment, we tend to sell gift cards like there’ s no other. Whenever we have promotions— Valentine’ s, Mother’ s Day, Black Friday or the holiday season— we offer a percentage off or a GWP. Those unique experiences encourage husbands or significant others to purchase additional retail to go into the gift bags they’ re buying for family and friends. Additionally, for any service we have in-house— massage, facial or salon— we offer an additional 10 percent off retail. That helps drive goals, and, like Carol and Megan mentioned, we can’ t assume what a guest will spend. It’ s important to be the experts and guide them in what they can purchase for retail.”
Turn in-room touchpoints into spa invitations. Use turndown service and guest recoveries as creative opportunities to drive spa visits and retail awareness. l MATTHEW PUNSALAN:“ The biggest thing, especially in the hotel and resort world, is that our biggest customer is in-house. We look for where the traffic is— and one thing every guest has to do is sleep. So we work with our partners to make turndown cards with sample packets that drive guests down to the spa and boutique and indirectly into services. We also started looking at hotel defects or service recoveries. When they happen, the spa sends a little note— just a surprise and delight— saying, Thank you so much for being here. Here’ s a little sleep mist, and you can visit us down in the spa. It’ s really about taking every opportunity for awareness to bring that customer to our location, which drives retail and service units.”
Which retail metrics matter most?
Keep KPIs simple and visible for every role. Set clear, easy-to-track benchmarks for both front desk and treatment staff so everyone owns a piece of retail performance. l MEGAN JASPER:“ It’ s important to make sure you have all your inventory locked in whatever software system you’ re using. When you’ re doing end-of-month or mid-month inventory, it all has to align and match so you can see what products are really selling. It’ s also important to monitor retail-to-service sales— for your esthetics team, your front desk team— where are we at? Are we close to budget? Are we behind? What’ s driving retail sales? You have to be on top of those every week so you can see what to purchase more of, what’ s not selling, what’ s really selling.”
Track hotel-wide metrics and SKU velocity. Retail performance data should demonstrate impact on overall guest experience and profitability. l MATTHEW PUNSALAN:“ We also track retail revenue per occupied room— how much impact we’ re making on the total hotel experience. Ownership loves that metric. And we review SKU turnover: If a product’ s not 70 percent-plus sell-through, it’ s time to replace it.”
Audit inventory often to see what’ s selling. Frequent spot checks help identify top performers and eliminate slow movers. l TIFFANY WILLIE:“ It’ s important when you’ re doing end-of-month retail, mid-month inventory … because you’ re able to see what products are really selling.”
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