By Lisa Parsons, Devoted Creations

Hey, hi, howdy, hello, bon jour! Depending on what part of North America you are reading this from, I wanted to greet you appropriately! First of all, THANK you for reading my very first blog!

Writing is still a little new to me, but I can confidently say tanning isn’t. I have officially been in the tanning industry over half of my life. I am not going to call myself an expert, but I can share information from my travels all over the world, working with salons of “all shapes & sizes” as well as personal experience of what works and what doesn’t based on trial and error, working with successful operators and studying the mindset of the consumer. With this blog I hope you gain knowledge, perspective, inspiration and ideas on how to make your business better, figure out what makes your employees “tick,” how to sell more product or just any and all things tanning related. If you have a question you would like me to answer in my future blogs, please email me at InTheGlow@smarttan.com

Question: How many different lotions should I have in my salon? What is too much? What is not enough? How many of each should I have?

Answer: I believe in the Rule of 3 – I believe that you should have 3 tanning product options in every price point. If your low end is $30, you need 3 options in the $30 range – generally speaking a bronzer, an accelerator, as well as a natural bronzer or unisex product. I recommend jumping up $15 from your lowest price point each time. So the next 3 products would be in the $45 range, next 3 in the $60 range and so on and so on. The perfect number of tanning products is debatable by many salons across the country, but what I have seen to work best is about 15 – 18 tanning lotions and 3-6 after-care options.

Specialty Products: You generally need a handful of specialty products, which are your tingles, hypoallergenic and we used to put male-targeted lotions in this category. If your salon has a low number of male clients, this is probably where you would put a manly product. If you are a salon is near a gym or has a higher number of male tanners (above 30%), you may need options in different price points.

So what does that look like? Here is a very simple easy to follow lotion guide to help you pick the best products for your salon

$30 – $37

1. Accelerator
2. Bronzer
3. Natural Bronzer

$45 – $55

1. Light DHA Bronzer
2. Dark DHA Bronzer
3. Unisex product

$60 – $70

1. Accelerator
2. DHA Bronzer
3. Natural Bronzer

$75 – $85

1. DHA Bronzer
2. Dark DHA Bronzer
3. Natural Bronzer

$90 – $105

1. Accelerator
2. Natural Bronzer
3. DHA Bronzer

$105 – $120

1. Darkest DHA Bronzer
2. DHA Bronzer (High Skin Care)
3. Accelerator (High Skin Care)

Specialty products (Insert in whatever price point works best for you)

1 or 2 Men’s Products

1 Hypoallergenic

1 Hot Tingle

Note: This doesn’t include your auxiliary products such as facial lotions, leg lotions, tan extending moisturizers, body washes, bronzing powders, sunless maintenance items, teeth whiteners or any add-on products. Your after care will fall into a different category. We know that it is not every day that your tanners will buy new lotion, which is why as a salon you need to have other options for them to buy and these are not counted into your overall “lotion Skus.” If you carry a verity of these add on products make sure they fulfill a specific need and not just take up space on your shelve.

The reason that the “20 Skus” is the magic number is mostly because it is the easiest to comprehend and train your staff on. When you pick products all from the same brand it is very simple to learn what makes each sku different and why the higher priced products are priced the way they are. Generally, the higher you go in price the better skin care, better tanning results and also larger bottle sizes. When you have too little of products on your shelves it looks like a close out sale and on the flip side when you have too many items it looks like you don’t really believe in the products you are selling. By simplifying the method, you are not only making the sales experience easier on your staff but also more understandable to your end consumer.