A salon gift card is paid today and often brings a brand-new client. Here is how to sell gift cards for a salon and deliver them the moment someone buys.
To sell gift cards for a salon, offer them as a product with set amounts, take payment, and deliver a code the buyer can pass on. Redeem it at checkout or in the chair. Instinctor handles salon gift cards in the store, so they are sold and delivered on your own site automatically.
STEP BY STEP
Six steps to salon gift cards
1. Create the gift card
Offer set amounts or let buyers choose a value, with a pretty image so it feels like a treat.
2. Take payment
Connect a processor so buyers pay by card, and the money reaches your salon right away.
3. Deliver the code
After payment the buyer gets a code instantly, ready to forward to the person they are treating.
4. Push seasonal sales
Feature gift cards before holidays, Mothers Day and birthdays, when people want an easy treat.
5. Redeem easily
The recipient uses the code online or in the chair, and the value comes off their total.
6. Welcome a new client
The recipient is often new to you, so a gift card is a fresh client walking in the door.
WHY IT WORKS
Why gift cards are perfect for a salon
A salon gift card is money now for a service later, and it brings you the giver friend as a new client. It is one of the easiest ways to lift a quiet month and grow your book.
Paid up front
You collect the payment today and deliver the treatment later, which smooths out a slow week.
New clients arrive
The recipient is often someone new, brought in by a friend who already loves your salon.
Nothing to bolt on
Gift cards live in your store with your other services, so there is no separate gift card tool to run.
WHAT SELLING SALON GIFT CARDS TAKES
Easy to buy, easy to redeem
Gift cards are quiet, high-margin revenue for a salon, money in the till now for a service later, and they bring new faces through the door, because someone always spends more than the card. The trick is making them effortless to buy online, especially around holidays and Mother's Day when demand spikes, and simple to redeem against a booking. A buyer should be able to purchase in a minute, choose an amount, and have the card delivered by email to send on. Promote them at the right moments and they become a reliable seasonal boost with almost no cost.
WHERE SALONS LEAVE GIFT CARD MONEY BEHIND
The mistakes that cost you sales
The first is only selling physical cards at the desk, missing every online and last-minute gift buyer. The second is not promoting them when it matters, the weeks before holidays, when people are actively hunting for a gift. The third is clumsy redemption, so a gifted client has a frustrating first visit. Sell them online, push them at the right moments, and make redeeming seamless, and gift cards become steady found money.
THE RIGHT WAY
Sell salon gift cards online
Let clients buy a gift card online in a minute, choose the amount, and have it delivered by email to send to someone, then redeem it easily against a booking. Promote them ahead of holidays. Instinctor handles gift card sales, delivery and booking in one site you own, live in about a minute, free to start, so you capture the online and last-minute gift buyer.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Questions about salon gift cards
Offer them as a product with set amounts, take card payment, and deliver a code the buyer can forward. The recipient redeems it online or in the chair.
Automatically. The moment payment goes through, the buyer receives a code they can pass to the person they are treating, so you post nothing.
The recipient enters the code at checkout online or hands it in at the salon, and its value comes off their total. There is nothing for you to track by hand.
Around holidays, Mothers Day and birthdays, when people want an easy, thoughtful treat. Feature them on your homepage in those weeks to catch the demand.
Often, yes. The recipient is frequently someone new to your salon, walked in by a friend who already trusts you, so a gift card grows your client book.
Only the payment processor standard card rate. Instinctor takes no cut of the gift cards your salon sells.