BeautyTech MeetUp Tokyo: The rise of savvy salons
The Tokyo branch of the BeautyTech MeetUp SF held its second meetup on Nov 30th, 2018. In this second half of a two-part series covering the event, we look at three start-ups using a new business model for beauty salons.
The Inspiration for revolutionizing the salon business
Session moderator, venture capitalist Akihiro Azuma kicked off the discussion by noting that Recruit’s site “Hot Pepper Beauty” is the market leader in terms of salon reservations. But using a totally different approach is Requpo, which made a booking app that places the requests of the user first, not the availability of the salon. CEO Tomoyuki Kizaki said that his business’ slogan is “Wilful Me First Booking”.
The Requpo app churns out salon suggestions based on the customer’s desired date and time, menu, venue and price range. The customer chooses from that list and saves time from searching the web for a suitable salon. The user can choose from various proposals that the salons offer to attract customers, while the salon staffs get the stimulation of pitching for clients by making the best deal in order to get the most reservations and fill up booking slots.
Azuma noted that it’s commonplace for users to search for their own needs online, so why are Requpo users different. To which Kizaki answered that most of the users are ladies in their late teens to the early twenties who don’t search for bookings online. Rather, they check out Instagram for their favorite stylists’ works and directly message him or her for bookings. In that sense, the Requpo method of direct requests is similar to offering packages online and getting reactions from SNS posts.
Kizaki added that the app puts a fun spin to the booking process by making it entertaining, rather than a chore. The secret to the success of the app is recognizing the mentality of Gen Z that users a new concierge communication style, such as using voice commands to get AI to find solutions on them on their smartphones.
If Requpo is a user-first style app, GO TODAY SHAiRE SALON is a beauty salonist-first app that is a platform for booking private hair salon space for freelance stylists.
The CEO of that company, Kunihiko Oba, says that the working style of Japan’s beauty salon workers have been a full-time employee, contract-based or independent, with a common goal is opening their own salon, resulting in fierce competition for small salons. Also, as the working hours are long, there has been an increase in freelance stylists who don’t own their own salon but work freelance for more flexibility. He foresees Japan following the same trend in the US where one in three hair stylists are freelancers.
Keeping ahead of this trend is GO TODAY SHAiRE SALON with its private share salon rental service. This cuts operation costs by automating the management while giving stylists a high kickback, keeping talented people in the industry.
Users of the salon are can find registered hair stylists and their specialties, design works, and menu on the official site, and contact the stylists directly through social media. Oba believes that the future lies in this style of consumers searching out stylists and not salons. He said, “If the person working at the salon isn’t happy, he can’t make the clients happy. Placing the needs of the salonists first is necessary for placing users’ needs first.”
Another movement is making the salon a place where people go to every day. This concept is the focus of MEZON, which has a network of salons that its users can visit freely for a monthly fee for shampoos, blows, and hair treatment.
The service was founded by the current president of parent company Jocy, who went to the hair stylists right before an important presentation and found that it gave her more confidence during the presentation. Since then, she’s made it a point to visit the hairstylist every time before an important business meeting. Soon she was making such visits 5 times a month. She firmly believes that beautify hair boosts confidence and wanted to share this experience with other women.
At the meetup, Jocy’s vice president Takeshi Ishiguro added that their staff visits each member salon to ensure the quality is of sufficient standard to be on their network in order to charge clients a monthly fee of 21,800 yen to 35,000 yen for unlimited usage of shampoo and blow dry services. Ensuring this premium quality service has helped to keep repeated usage at 90%, with a satisfaction level of above 96%.
Ishiguro says that slowly the perception of salons is changing to become a place for services other than just haircuts. With more services like MEZON, more customers are visiting salons more casually, and this is also resulting in new business models such as fashion coordination to match your coiffure.
Linking up startups
Cosmehunt, San Francisco based J-beauty e-commerce site, was the host of the Tokyo summit and the current operator and owner Chloe Takahashi stressed the importance of networking during a casual get-together after the panel discussion.
The @BeautyTech SF community was kick-started by investor Odile Roujol in April 2017. In less than 18 months, sessions have been held in New York, Paris, Seoul, and cities in Europe and Asia. In addition to linking up startups with investors, startups also get to network with each other and exchange ideas and views. The Tokyo meetup was no exception, where news and views were aired in a vibrant session.
Translation: Ching Li Tor
Original text (Japanese): Ayako Sogo
