The concept of SmartSun Therapy is designed to mean much more to tanning businesses than the direct revenue it creates. When you introduce the SmartSun Therapy SST28 light therapy device, it fundamentally shifts the nature of your business. In one giant leap, you can go from a tanning business to a wellness business that provides numerous benefits from a variety of light spectrums found in natural sunshine, including the many wellness benefits of red and near-infrared light.

That said, the SST28 has already proven to be one of the most financially impactful additions you can make to your tanning business. Salon groups around the country are using SmartSun Therapy to sell packages, all-inclusive memberships, and membership add-ons. Perhaps most impactfully, though, they’re experiencing greatly enhanced retention for their high-dollar memberships through the tanning off-season.

With five SST28 units across four locations in mid-Michigan, Pacific Tan Salon and Spa is one of the groups making the most of every opportunity SmartSun Therapy provides. In this interview with Smart Tan, Pacific Tan GM Carly White explains how the SmartSun Therapy SST28 has helped drive five-figure increases in Pacific Tan’s monthly EFT draws, how it fits perfectly in conjunction with hybrid tanning equipment, how the underlying message of combining beauty and wellness has shifted the positioning of the business, and more.

Carly:

Since acquiring our first few SmartSun Therapy devices back in September of 2022, we have seen nothing but positive gains in membership retention, membership activation, package sales, and just an overall amazing customer and employee response. Only a year earlier, we first introduced the KBL P9S to our floor plan and started offering our first true hybrid tanning experience.

These introductions paved the way for our salon locations to offer the most advanced light spectrums from the sun that our industry has embraced. In just a couple of years, we have transformed from an equipment floor plan that only offered UVA/UVB in a multi-level system to now a much fuller spectrum of light with UVA, UVB, red, blue, and near infrared. We now take tremendous pride in providing regimens that increase tanning goals with enhanced skin care benefits, support overall cell rejuvenation, and just great overall wellbeing.

Today Pacific Tan’s fleet now has five Smart Sun Therapy devices with two units in one location due to the increased session demand. We currently offer our All-Access membership at the price point of $105 which provides four monthly sessions in our SmartSun Therapy device. We also offer packages with additional sessions for non-members, members, and exclusive pricing to our All-Access members.

In the first six months of introducing SmartSun Therapy, we saw our All-Access membership base triple, and retention of this membership base has held steady. We believe that in the second half of 2023, the addition of the Smart Sun Therapy devices will continue to produce big membership dividends. We are currently projecting a fifteen percent increase in the upcoming draft months compared to last year. This is a direct result of the SmartSun Therapy device that offers more than just UVA/UVB. If your business model and sales approach are heavily focused on membership revenue, then I advise expanding your spectrum of light in your floor plan.

Having a business model that always stressed the importance of membership revenue, investing in SmartSun Therapy was an easy decision for us. We also saw that technology was finally turning the corner.  Older tanning equipment with only UVA/UVB pales in comparison to what we can now offer with today’s enhancements in red light technology, but it’s a huge investment to add multiple hybrid units and phase out current equipment. SmartSun Therapy has allowed us to bridge that gap, as it can be added on to any basic, intermediate, or advanced UVA/UVB tanning regimen or membership levels. It has also allowed us to work in conjunction with the new hybrid equipment (P9S hybridSun) to fortify All-Access membership retention throughout the whole calendar year. When we introduced SmartSun Therapy in September last year, our All-Access membership was declining as expected due to the time of year. Once we allowed access to the SmartSun Therapy devices through the All-Access membership base, we were able to retain and roll over into the next year, setting us up for rapid membership growth. That’s where we stand today.

The only objective for us now is to keep pounding the message of what our floor plan’s light spectrum provides and what it can do for our customers. The proof is in the fact that we are seeing very little cancellation in the eight-month window in which we have been operating with the SmartSun Therapy devices.

I believe the pandemic put our industry back on the map; it exposed the truth about what we do in correlation to sunlight and vitamin D. Today we are more diversified in enhancing all aspects of beauty and wellness, and we are on the right trajectory to continue to propel our business to the next level. We couldn’t have done that without the help of SmartSun Therapy.