April's salon gift voucher sales reach £1 million

UK salons have generated sales of over £1 million in gift vouchers since the start of this month.

Enabling salons to generate revenue whilst closed due to the Covid-19 lockdown, gift vouchers sold now can be redeemed once salons reopen. 

According to salon software experts Phorest, who released its online gift voucher functionality on 1st April, during the first three weeks of April the average gift voucher value sold by salons is £69.

Melanie McBreen, owner of Changes Salon in Milton Keynes, was one of the first to activate the functionality. She says:

"The online Gift Voucher has been a brilliant addition to our offering in these uncertain times. It exceeded our expectation and we sold over 40 vouchers in the first few days, adding £3000 to our cashflow. We were bowled over by how supportive and generous our clients are of our business, it means so much at this time.”

The release of Phorest's online gift voucher functionality was not originally planned for this year, however the pandemic caused a change in plans for the company, as Phorest's CEO, Ronan Perceval, explains:

“We had this feature on the roadmap for early 2021, however, when we saw the potential impact the pandemic could have on salon businesses, we made it a priority. We sought payment processing partners and put this live in less than four weeks.”

To further support the salon industry in the UK, Phorest also started the #SupportYourSalon campaign, encouraging salon owners reach customers via social media, email and SMS, using pre-built templates. They are also continuing to run their #30Days2Grow challenge; open to all Phorest and non-Phorest clients, this free 30-day challenge has been specially designed to help salons lead a successful salon reopening.