Looking Beyond the Chair: E-Commerce Helps Med Spas Grow

It’s easy to forget how much online shopping has changed our lives. But think back on the hours you once spent in department store aisles, and you’ll truly appreciate being able to load a dozen items into a virtual cart for shipment to your home—all in the space of 5 minutes.

As the busy founder and CEO of a Southern California medical aesthetics practice, I save time by doing my own shopping online, and I know my clients are just as grateful to avoid a drive across town or a wait in a checkout line for a product that may not even be in stock.

That’s a key reason my business delved into e-commerce, and the response we’ve received has encouraged us to build on that strategy. Our current online offerings of skin and eyecare products have been successful, and our soon-to-come eGift cards, packages, memberships, and pre-paid injectables will not only boost client engagement but also save time for our front-desk staff and increase our revenue.

Since we launched internet sales during the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve seen an 8% to 10% rise in our skincare product revenues. Now that we’ve expanded our online offerings into other categories, we’ve decided to embark on a yearlong study that will determine how much e-commerce is improving our bottom line.

We’re eagerly anticipating the results, as fellow med spa owners have told us that online sales have lifted their revenue by as much as 40%.

That makes sense in light of the rapid growth of online retail. In 2022, global e-commerce sales were expected to outpace those of retail sales annually between 2023 and 2027, when they are anticipated to reach $8 trillion for the first time ever.¹ Notably, in the beauty industry, e-commerce sales are expected to account for 26% of the worldwide market by 2027.²

This creates a clear directive for med spa owners: Whether we’re catering to clients who want to thrive agelessly or to their loved ones seeking perfect holiday gifts, we must consider shoppers’ evolving preferences. No longer is it enough for spas to sell top-notch items in our offices. If a product or service contributes to our recurring revenue, it needs to appear on our websites and mobile apps.

Fortunately, that’s surprisingly easy to accomplish, and the resulting boost in client volume more than justifies the investment.

TACKLING E-COMMERCE

We are designing our online strategy for ease of use. Limited to our home state of California, it maximizes two revenue streams: home-use products that clients love and have been medically cleared to use, such as skincare and eyecare treatments, and services that must be performed in-person, such as Botox and Sculptra.

The goal is to increase our roster of clients by being available whenever they need us.

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, we worked with skinbetter science to add their ready-made landing page to our website, allowing us to sell their skincare products remotely and around the clock for patient convenience. The strategy worked so well that we added ALASTIN’s landing page late this year. Most recently, we incorporated ELEVATE, an online storefront from RVL Pharmaceuticals that enables customers to order a once-daily prescription eyedrop for adult patients with acquired ptosis that lifts the eyelid, at any time of the day or night.

These microsites are easy wins for med spas as they come ready to add to a website, complete with marketing, links, and purchase buttons. Some even provide direct help with client retention; for example, ELEVATE’s landing page automatically sends patients refill reminders via text message.

It’s incredibly helpful that these third-party vendors take all responsibility for stocking and drop shipping their products, as well as resolving problems with orders. While that means that spas lose a small percentage of their usual profit margin on these online products, we ultimately come out ahead by streamlining our workflow and increasing our client volume.

Also central to my practice’s strategy is an app created by RepeatMD, customized to feature all our offerings, which we’ve been using since 2021 to incentivize our clients with specials and promotions. Branded with our name, the app allows us to earmark a client’s favorite products or recommended services for later consideration. We are building our app for 2024 to offer special package purchases and in-app financing through Affirm, a partner that supports clients in making larger purchases while offering flexible payment options with no down payments and a low APR.

We’ve been extremely pleased with the simplicity of our strategy. By restricting e-commerce to our website and app, we’ve ensured that the program is easy for patients to navigate and for our team to execute and measure.

And by working with a limited number of third-party vendors, we’ve been able to retain the lion’s share of our growing profits.

APPLYING BEST PRACTICES

While our program is largely handled by outside vendors, it does require involvement from our team members.

Our marketing and website experts devise promotional ads, emails, texts, and social media posts to promote product landing pages and online sales. They also implement a $50 discount program for new clients who download our rewards app and create inspirational before-and-after videos to be embedded in the app. Meanwhile, we ask our front-desk staff and injectors to “favorite” recommended products and services for patients in our app during office visits, so they can learn more at home and consider future purchases.

As we’ve developed our strategy, we’ve identified some best practices that have helped us succeed. These include:

Diversifying our menu. A spa’s online menu should be varied, including over-the-counter and prescription products as well as expensive in-office procedures, which offset the margin reduction associated with third-party product landing pages. Spas should make it easy for clients to browse and buy across categories.

Offering telehealth appointments. We keep 1 day a week open for telehealth consultations. Spending 15 minutes online with a patient, rather than 30 minutes in the office, can be the quickest route to service and product recommendations and, ultimately, purchases.

Establishing an annual marketing calendar. In-app holiday sales can be set up in advance to boost revenue at various times of the year.

Selling spa-branded merchandise. My practice offers hats, sweatshirts, yoga pants, beach bags, and other products that bear our brand. In addition to strengthening our relationship with our clients, the merchandise helps us advertise. To spark the most interest, we recommend introducing new items every season, including some limited-edition offerings.

EMBRACING THE E-COMMERCE ERA

As experts in medical aesthetics, we’ll always be artists dedicated to direct patient care. But that doesn’t mean we should restrict our services to the clients who fill our chairs.

By capitalizing on the convenience of online sales, we can substantially grow our businesses, and the time has come for med spas to lean into that strategy.

When clients love what we provide, they’re going to want to purchase it again and again. With e-commerce, med spas can more comprehensively meet that demand, ultimately improving our patient volume—along with our bottom line.

1. Oberlo. Global Ecommerce Sales Growth (2023-2027). Accessed November 21, 2023. https://www.oberloc.com/statistics/global-ecommerce-sales-growth.

2. McKinsey RH. Online beauty sales in the US to hit $45B by 2027. RetailDive. https://tinyurl.com/32yea9te. Published May 31, 2023. Accessed November 21, 2023.