Amy Bush is the owner and operator at Ambushed Salon, a hair salon located in Gahanna, Ohio. At Ambushed Salon, Amy and her team provide non-heat or chemical services to clients with naturally textured, curly hair.
In addition to hair services, clients can also purchase retail hair products for use at home. Between the services and retail sales, Ambushed Salon traditionally processes around $28,000 in monthly credit card sales.
The Problem: Covid-19 Closure Eliminates In-store Revenue
When Covid-19 started to make its way across the United States, Amy had to make the difficult switch to close her business for an undetermined amount of time. This resulted in a complete halt in income for Amy and the salon.
To continue to bring in revenue, Amy started hosting virtual hair and product consultations with her clients. She would charge $1/minute for the consultation and ultimately sell hair products at the end of the call. In order to bill for these consultations, Amy uses the Stax platform to allow her clients to pay online.
In addition to hosting virtual consultations, Amy knew that she could also bring in additional revenue for the salon by selling gift certificates. Clients could always purchase gift certificates in person at Ambushed Salon, an offering that typically generates $2000 in sales annually, but Amy now needed a way to sell these certificates online since her clients were unable to visit in-person.
The Solution: Add Integrated Digital Gift Cards Option
That’s when Amy Bush learned about the ability to add the features of Gift Up!—a digital gift card platform that connects directly with the Stax dashboard—for no additional cost.
“When we learned that you released Gift Up! and I received the information on what it was, I thought ‘I’m in’. I’m all about making things easier for the client. We were considering activating a similar program with our point of sale, but your program made it so much easier because it was all done for us”. |
Why did Amy choose Gift Up!:
- The Stax Marketplace included a link directly to Gift Up! so Amy could immediately sell digital gift cards right from her Virtual Terminal
- The Stax All-In-One connects with Gift Up! without charging Amy any additional fees such as Activation Fees, Hosting Fees, etc.
- Gift Up!’s drop-in checkout form gave Amy the ability to embed the form right on to her website, without needing help from a developer
- Gift Up! waived the 3.49% transaction fee for her first $5000 in digital gift cards sales to support businesses during Covid-19
Once Gift Up! was live on her website, Amy informed her clients of the new digital gift cards product by sending an emailed newsletter. The Newsletter also announced the gift card promotion she launched alongside Gift Up!
The Results: Digital Gift Cards Generate Revenue to Continue Salon Operations
In 30 days, Ambushed Salon has processed over $7000 in gift card sales without ever seeing a client in person. This new form of income has helped Amy continue to pay her employees while also keeping up with other expenses even during Covid-19.
This has been extremely successful. We started towards the end of March (2020) and since then we have sold over $7000 in gift cards. So that has helped us get another month of expenses and I can still hold money back to help make payroll and cover costs once we do go back to the salon.”
Recap
Here is a quick recap of what Amy and Ambushed Salon were able to accomplish with Gift Up!
- $7000+ in digital gift cards sales over 30 days
- 4,216% increase in monthly gift card sales
- 65 digital sales processed when the salon was closed
- Simple and immediate setup
- Ongoing engagement with clients
Conclusion
Amy and Ambushed Salon will continue to sell digital gift cards with Gift Up! even after the salon reopens.
“Gift Up! has definitely solved a problem for us. Our sales went way up when people could just purchase from home. Customers are so used to ordering online and now they can easily purchase a gift card from us without having to stop their day and come to the salon. We are also able to re-route some of the activity at the desk. Instead of selling gift cards in person, we are able to answer the phone or assist with other questions”.
Stax Pay secures in-person and online credit card payment processing with an all-in-one platform to help you run and grow your business. Stax Pay lets you improve your customer experience with over-the-phone ordering and curbside pickup, create and manage digital invoices, and modernize your business overnight with comprehensive contactless solutions.
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