Question from Robbie:

“I’m lucky enough to have been in the tanning industry for most of my adult life. So I’ve seen the scene change a lot since my first day. I’ve worked at salons where we had spray tans, teeth whitening, and red light therapy already on our menu’s and I have worked at place where we wanted to offer more services to our clients. So my question for you is, what services would you recommend adding to your tanning salon?”

Hi Robbie,

That is such a great question! I have been asked that more and more over the past few years. One trend I have seen growing hugely is Infrared. There are a couple different ways to introduce inferred into your salon.

Infrared pods are one options – These almost look like the hydration station without the water. They use infrared light which penetrates into the skin to create many different health benefits from stress relief to stimulating collagen and elastin production, decreases redness and inflammation, and improves circulation. Which in turn means that more nutrients and oxygen are delivered to your tissues, making your skin appear radiant. It’s also a great detoxifying tool and can help boost your immune system and since the energy penetrates so deeply, it can also help alleviate pain — like muscle soreness and even chronic back pain. The Pods are generally a 20 min session and users say they are very relaxing. Many tanning bed distributors also offer these infrared pods – check with your current distributor for pricing.

The option the I have seen not only spark new interest, improve your EFT, bring in foot traffic and a demographic you would have never reached before is Infrared Fitness Boxes. These are basically big infrared saunas (That have all the health benefits I mentioned with the pods) and have built in TV’s in them that play multiple different yoga and work out videos. It’s basically hot yoga, without a class full of people staring at you, infrared benefits instead of just traditional heat and the user controls the temperature (anywhere from 70 degrees to 130 degrees)

Traditional hot yoga can cost a pretty penny. The salons I have worked with that have incorporated the Infrared Fitness boxes have seen a huge influx in their EFT memberships. The boxes are generally 30 minute sessions and can be used alone or with up to 3 people. Most salons have advertised something like “Hot Yoga $29.99 a month” and had huge numbers in new EFT sign-ups for that service alone, because it allows you to work out and take a fitness class on your schedule. Also by adding this service to other high-end EFT packages you have, you are increasing your EFT revenue as well as offering a service that your customers will use even outside of tanning season. Bonus- they usually cost less than a tanning bed.

Before adding new equipment, I always recommend doing your research. If you are interested either of these infrared options just shoot me an email and I can put you in touch with other salon owners who have added these services to their salon so you can get feedback on how its working for them.

Thank you all for submitting your questions and your kind words! Robbie, we will be sending you $250 in Devoted Creations retail product for your question! Any questions you want answered in a future post and to be automatically entered to win $250 in Devoted Creations product, please email your questions to InTheGlow@smarttan.com

Happy Tanning!

Xoxo Lisa