Updated Date: June 13, 2023 
As we gear towards 2021, the beauty salon industry witnessed a paradigm shift. The world we lived in no longer exists. People are choosing to stay at home to avoid crowds. This has led to many businesses switching to the internet to cater to their demands. Whether it’s online food delivery or grocery shopping, consumers are looking for businesses that can serve them from the comfort of their homes.
To reach customers where they are, many beauty salons have started offering on-demand beauty services. The online economy has opened new routes to explore for salon owners and entrepreneurs with an on-demand beauty app. Here is a glimpse of the blog:
Table of Contents
Firstly, let’s find out why consumers prefer beauty services at home.
Why are customers switching to on-demand beauty services?
More hygienic – Beauty salons are usually packed with people; more so, on weekends. As a public place that needs to reuse equipment and supplies, customers can never be too cautious with their safety. On the other hand, home beauty salons aim to cater to individual customers in a space they are comfortable in – their home.
Saves time and effort – Instead of clearing out their schedules for a trip to the salon, customers choose mobile beauty services that can be availed from a few clicks on their phone!
Individual attention – In a regular salon, beauty experts are usually swarmed with back-to-back appointments. However, with a mobile beauty salon, the customer gets the spotlight!
While this sounds like a great option from a client-end perspective, it can be an even better business venture to get into.
Unsurprisingly, a Statista report shows that around 63% of people are nervous to go to an offline salon to get a haircut in the US even after the pandemic improves. With numerous perks of at-home beauty service, many salons have adopted the on-demand way of serving their clients.
Types of salon business models for an on-demand beauty app
The model you choose depends on the kind of beauty service you want to provide. There are two ways you can launch your mobile salon services.
Self-owned business – Owners with an existing salon business can choose to go online by offering salon services at home. With an on-demand beauty app, your customers can book their beauty treatments and get dedicated services from the comfort of their own space. This on-demand service app idea can increase your salon’s visibility and give it a much-needed revenue boost.
Aggregator model – This model works best for entrepreneurs looking to launch a salon startup. With an aggregator app, you work as a bridge between businesses offering on-demand beauty salon services and customers looking to avail them. As a beauty startup, you can onboard not just established salons to your app, but also every type of beauty service providers like hair stylists, tattoo artists, barbers, and independent beauty artists!
Features you need in an on-demand beauty app
Before you launch your in-home salon service, you need to get the right technology stack in place.
Although the central app network would be the same, some of the features on the app for a self-owned business and an aggregator would differ.
Read also: Build On-Demand Delivery App With Clone Script Solutions
For a self-owned business
Check out the features you’ll need for a successful self-owned portable beauty salon –
- Customer app
- Beauty service provider app
- Admin dashboard
Customer app
The client-side app is what your end customers will use to book on-demand beauty services. Ideally, the customer app should provide every feature that ensures a smooth user experience; from the second they login to the minute they checkout. Let’s understand the features you will need in a customer app –
Login: Through a login page, your customers will be able to browse and book their services.
Service listings: After they’ve logged in, they will be able to view the services to choose from.
Filters: Your customers will be able to browse the services with advanced filter options.
Appointments: Once they have chosen their services, they can book an appointment according to their convenience.
Payments: Your app should also support seamless payment gateways through which your customers can make payments. Ensure to integrate the popular payment gateways in your location. Whether it’s PayPal, Stripe or Braintree, your app should provide a variety of convenient and well-known payment options to customers.
Cancel/Reschedule: This feature will allow your customers to cancel or reschedule their appointments easily making sure they get beautiful on-demand!
Apart from these features, it’s good to have the following features in the customer app of your on-demand hair and makeup app:
Service and Salon Photos: This will let your customers get a visual sneak-peek of their chosen service.
Push Notifications and Reminders: Reminders will ensure your customers don’t forget about the appointments, while push notifications can keep them updated about any offers or deals! This also brings us to the next point.
Offers and Deals: Make sure your customers can avail offers and discounts through your app while checking out.
Multi-Lingual Support: To avoid any miscommunication and language barriers, an ideal mobile salon business app will support multiple languages for an enhanced in-app user journey for international and region-targeted customers.
Reviews and Rating System: Customers value word-of-mouth reviews more than self-advertisements, and this is particularly true for a salon startup. This feature will build credibility for your services, which are more likely to be trusted by other customers.
In-App Chat: Make sure your customers can reach out to your support team or their service provider in real-time.
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Beauty service provider app
As important as it is to build a powerful customer app, your on-demand hairstylist or beautician should be able to manage their appointments efficiently. The next step would be creating a beauty service provider app. Here are some of the features you must include in the app:
View Bookings: This feature will let the beauty expert view the bookings along with the details.
Availability and Calendar: To avoid booking overlaps and other inconsistencies, providers should be able to set their availability and manage their schedules.
Accept/Reject Request: As an add on to the previous feature, beauticians should have the flexibility to choose their appointments.
Push Notification: The Push Notification feature will keep the beauty provider informed up-to-the-minute. Whether there are new bookings or cancellations, push notifications will streamline appointments. Additionally, this feature will help avoid delays or no-shows from the provider’s end.
In-App Chat: The in-app feature will let the beauty service provider coordinate with the customer.
Payments: The app should also let them collect and manage payments from customers easily.
Admin Dashboard
Your beauty and makeup on-demand business can only flourish when you manage it the right way. To oversee your operations, it’s imperative to build a powerful admin panel. Here are a few features that will help you manage your in-home beauty salon app:
Appointment Management: Manage all your appointments from one place with no hassles.
Edit Profiles: As the main admin of the app, you can add, edit and delete customer profiles.
Client Management: You can manage your client profiles and details effortlessly from your admin panel.
Edit Services: Get complete control of what products go on your platform. Add, edit or remove services from your product catalog on your on-demand beauty app.
Employee Management: Oversee your employees’ operations; track their work and manage their schedules.
In-depth Analytics: Take data-driven decisions with powerful insights into your beauty startup or beauty salon chains.
For an aggregator
If you’re planning to function as an aggregator, the customer app will have one more added feature – GPS Integration. With a GPS-enabled app, your customers will be able to find salons that are closest to them.
As an aggregator, you’ll need another important feature change in the Admin Panel. Your Admin Dashboard should have hierarchical levels of management control – Super Admin and Sub Admin. Bifurcated controls will provide leveled access to different admins.
Super admin panel
As someone with the complete rights of the app, you will work as the Super Admin of your on-demand beauty app. So, what is a Super Admin? As the Super Admin, you will be able to govern and manage the complete functioning of your on-demand beauty services app.
You can manage the access and set responsibilities for beauty salons or the Sub Admins on your app. The Super Admin console will also let you alter privacy settings, edit the service provider profiles on your app, and set permissions.
Sub admin panel
As an aggregator connecting beauty professionals with customers, your platform should offer a Sub Admin panel for your partner salons. While a sub-admin does not have the freedom to make core changes to your on-demand beauty app, they crucially function as the first touchpoint for your end-customer.
Partner salons/professionals should be able to manage their appointments, customers, employees, and payments from the Sub Admin panel.
A little tip: While these are the features you will need for a great salon app, you can research what your competitors have to offer to find the opportunity gap. Try to cater to an unresolved pain point of your customers with a unique feature to add in your beauty app!
This will not only strengthen your service offering, but also make you stand out from the crowd. Grow and get ahead of your competition with something new to give to your customers!
How much does it cost to build Uber for beauty app?
Building and launching a new app isn’t quite as cumbersome as it sounds. While questions like “how to start a mobile salon business?” and “how much does it cost?” might leave you confused, it’s much easier to kickstart your on-demand app.
The cost of developing an on-demand beauty app varies for each use-case. It depends on factors like your preferred app design and other features of your app.
While we can’t quote an exact figure, we can provide you with an estimated cost of development. Typically, it takes about $25,000 to $75,000 to build an on-demand salon app.
However, it costs much less if you choose to get it built by a mobility solutions provider like aPurple. With aPurple, you can expect your app development cost to range between just $12,000 to $15,000. Wondering why it’s low? That’s because the frontend and backend of your on-demand beauty app is pre-built by us; it only needs to be customized according to your use-case and business needs.
Launch your on-demand beauty app today
Salon on-demand has been the new buzzword in the beauty industry for the last couple of years. The customer-centric on-demand culture boomed during the pandemic, which had a significant effect on the salon industry. Salons switched to providing their services at home, which was well-received by customers. Consequently, the demand for at-home beauty services shot up, leaving room for beauty professionals to fill up with an on-demand salon service app.
With the right beauty salon business plan, developing an app for your salon services has now become easier than ever. With a beauty app clone script, our developers at aPurple are proficient in building beautiful on-demand apps for you. Boasting a robust technology stack that consists of Laravel, MySQL, Java/Swift, PHP and more, we have created high-performing on-demand beauty apps tailored to our clients’ needs. And we can do the same for you!
