To support small and medium businesses to continue thriving during the crisis, Phorest Salon Software released its online voucher functionality on April 1st.
So far, salons have sold over £1million in gift vouchers to be redeemed once non-essential businesses are allowed to open doors again. During the first three weeks of April, the average gift voucher sale is worth £69.
Sales happen online, 24/7, via the salon’s website or their social media channels. Every salon using Phorest Salon Software can activate the service at no extra cost and can make the sale through their own personal page generated by the software. The payment system is managed by Phorest and salons receive the payments weekly.
A salon in Milton Keynes was one of the first to activate the functionality. “The online Gift Voucher has been a brilliant addition to our offering in these uncertain times. It exceeded our expectation and we sold over 40 vouchers in the first few days, adding £3000 to our cashflow. We were bowled over by how supportive and generous our clients are of our business, it means so much at this time”, says Melanie McBreen, owner of Changes Salon.
According to Phorest’s CEO, Ronan Perceval, this functionality was not initially planned for Q1 2020, however, the pandemic caused a change in plans for the company. “We had this feature on the roadmap for early 2021, however, when we saw the potential impact the pandemic could have on salon businesses, we made it a priority. We sought payment processing partners and put this live in less than 4 weeks”, he says.
