Saturday night my wife and I had the opportunity to attend a Grand Opening of a salon’s new location. It is owned by a good friend we have known for years - and his partner and her husband.
It was a big bash with lot’s of folks, wine flowing and great snacks. The new location was an old house that had been
Private Label Hair Products
converted sitting in the heart of the old part of the city - just where you would think a progressive, fun and upscale salon should be. They did a great job on refurbishing the old house - plenty of walking room, interesting decor, well-laid out sections for washing, drying, styling and waiting.
A Case for Private Label Hair Products
We wanted to visit, but not steal the hosts from their other guests - so, we were only able to spend a few minutes together. With that said, we exchanged pleasantries and congratulations. What caught my attention was the next thing that came out of his/their mouths - “You know, we really need to discuss getting a private label line of products in here. It is becoming very difficult to work with the distributors, the manufacturers and there is little margin in the products we do sell.”
They went on…”…look over here - we have two display cases filled front and back with $1,000’s of dollars of products and they just sit there. We sell a few, but customers become uneasy when we ‘promote’ the products, plus sooner or later we are notified the products are discontinued?!”
So, why are they teeling me this? Because I am the managing partner for a small, niche hair products manufacturing and distribution company. We do wholesale of our brands - Nourish, Healthy Hair Plus, ProFolla, ProFolla Silk, Strimedix, and RegeneVal. And, we do private label for some salons and distributors who want to market their own brands or establish their own identities. We do a few proprietary formulas, but 95% of our customers choose from over 200 hair and skin products we have available.
I don’t mean or intend to promote our products or our services (but you need to sometimes), but I wanted to write this post because it is the 5th or 6th time I have have had this comment made directly to me and the “ump-teenth” time I have seen this subject come up in a blog, article or as a topic in a magazine article.
Why Does a Private Label Hair Products Line Make Sense?
Here’s the $50,000 question that I get everytime along with a couple of add-on questions like…how do you do it?….how much does it cost?…what products should I choose?…should I do wholesale or private label?
Well, before we talk about the process, let’s discuss what you can gain:
- Build a product mix that works best for you and your customers and clients
- Choose the products you want…not just those that are available
- Improve loyalty and exclusivity with your own brand
- Increase traffic
- Increase ancillary product sales
- Improve salon margin
These all sound very good. How do I get started??
Without going into a small book on the process, here’s a summary:
- Determine start-up budget (smallest - $100 for a few wholesale products; plan for $500-$2,000; big plans - $10,000)
- Choose the products you want to carry
- Shampoos, conditioners, styling aids
- Solutions - Dry, oily, colored, permed, dense, coarse, breaking, scalp problems
- Supplemental skin products
- Choose the plan of introduction
- Start with a few, or a whole line…or a sub-line (volume and dry, for example)
- Determine any promotional or display steps, if any
- Private Label or Wholesale
- Labels or screens (silk screens)
- Labels cost - design cost + ~$2,000 for labels themselves
- Screens cost - design cost + ~$250 for set-up + $.50 per bottle
- Minimums - generally a case (48) down to 6 (half dozen)
- If you want to do a special formula, count on minumums in the hundreds or thousands
- Shipping costs must be incurred
- Shipping, delivery time usually 2-3 weeks
