Jenni Gilbert Frighteningly (it all depends which way you look at it!), there are roughly only eight shopping weeks until Christmas.
Well, for consumers, that is. You really need to have done your “Christmas shopping” in terms of stocking up on retail items for Noël … now! But don’t panic.
If, amid the million things you and your team are occupied with every day, your festive retail offering isn’t organised (or needs a good kick in the Christmas stocking), we have some ideas for you.
If these new offerings “fly”, you may decide to add them to your retail menu throughout the year as a great revenue booster and client bonus.
Christmas shopping is an ideal way to trial new products for your inventory. Think of busy, time-poor clients who rush in for treatments for party/holiday season and confide they haven’t anywhere near ticked off their gift list (or perhaps you could ask them how they’re going with it …).
Et voila! You have the solution, with meaningful health and beauty-giving gifts at very attractive price points. How handy is that for all concerned!
We have previously covered off ideas for makeup gift retail. Today we look at …
TEA TIME
Herbal teas offer a variety of benefits, from helping to cleanse the blood, assist the body’s natural detox processes and digestion, relax mind and body, promote sounder sleep … yada yada yada … all of which contribute to healthier, clearer, more radiant skin.
Many herbal teas sold in supermarkets et al (mostly “Commodity” teas – ie. produced with quantity in mind over quality) can be rather bitter and leave a cloying taste in the mouth.
And who knows what chemical processes they have been through, albeit when in teabag form they are convenient. However, when it comes to health and wellbeing, convenience is not the main aim of the game, right?
Bespoke (aka Traditional) herbal teas are generally a lot more palatable but, far more importantly, they are crafted with specific concerns in mind and have more, well, oomph.
A favourite medispa of mine always has a herbal concoction in a glass pot simmering evocatively over a tealight in the waiting area.
It’s the centrepiece of a wall feature that showcases its non-skincare retail offerings such as books, teas and scented candles (one of which is always infusing the space with a magical scent).
It makes for great ambience, a glow-giving brew that clients can help themselves to whenever they want (gorgeous cups and saucers add to the allure) and a subliminal stimulus to purchase one of the teas.
Apart from keeping all the good work of the treatments going at home from the inside out for your clients, they are usually packaged so beautifully that they make tasty (and well-priced) gifts, including for one’s self!
Bestow Organic Tea (pictured above) range offers two therapeutic blends, Luminositea and Eternitea, to help support healthy skin from within. Creator Janine Tait used to be addicted to coffee, which was hard on her nervous system. This led her to develop teas for an extra boost of antioxidants, vitamins and nutrients, to calm and relax, cleanse the body or give a burst of energy.
Duquessa teas, Complexion, Sleep, Rest and Digest, are the result of a collaboration between Katherine Miller RN, founder of Duquessa medi-clinics in Melbourne and now Sydney, and a naturopath. They come singly or as a package of the three.
Australian organic skincare brand Edible Beauty‘s health-boosting and beautifying teas are packaged in iconic old-style apothecary brown bottle packaging . There are 10 formulas to choose from. The best seller is the Green Goddess Detox, which promotes lightness and radiance.
The Byron Bay Tea Company supplies premium traditionally-made tea and organic herbal tea to the retail and hospitality industries. Traditional (as opposed to Commodity) tea-making harnesses hundreds of years of methodologies and techniques, and utilises the” terroir” of each place (soil, geography, climate, weather, etc) and local tea bush cultivators to show a tea plantation’s best flavour advantage.
Pukka teas are made using the highest quality organic herbs and spices that are Soil Association certified. The tea also uses the FairWild certified herbs, providing a guarantee that the herbs have been wild-harvested ethically and the farmers have been paid fairly for their work. The latest addition to the range is Turmeric Gold, a carefully crafted turmeric tonic with the added goodness of green tea.
As one of the hot health ingredients of 2016, we’ve seen turmeric pop up in soups, smoothies, salads and lattes – but if applied topically and consumed internally, it’s also a superfood for the skin.
