Week 6 Teardown to Open Up

This week most stylists are happy about Governor Whitmer reopening the salon industry June 15th. Mostly everyone is preparing to reopen for services. I am not in this bunch. While I will be advertising products, I do not think it is safe to hoover within inches of a client’s face for 2-3 hours while COVID numbers are still on the rise. I will give myself 2 weeks before accepting a smaller number of clients to demonstrate new products on. In the meantime, I will be focusing on the marketing for the new products I have. I sent one of the DIY Gel Kits to an influencer I found on Instagram looking up #polygel. She had a decent number of followers and after she made a post using our kit, the Livid Lash Instagram page began to gain more followers. I decided to use the Instagram’s paid advertisement to promote the post with her results from using the Livid DIY Nail Kit and the insights were 359 likes, three comment (from locals), 218 bookmarks and 19,494 people reached in just 3 days. I sold one kit to someone in Charlotte which is the area the influencer is from.  I also used an influencer for the Magnetic Lashes and I thought her video was phenomenal. I was able to make a nice amount of sales on the Lashes, but the paid promotion directed towards the magnetic lashes didn’t make as much impact as the Gel Kit. 

My website doesn’t have clear data so I imported what I could into an excel file.  I sold 13 bundles of lashes and 6 Polygel Kits totaling to $1977.50. From this I have set weekly goals, and when to reorder based off inventory. I was very impressed with these results. I usually sell lash extension products to professionals, but I had to make a hard pivot and meet the needs of my customers without being able to service them. The local support was awesome and the money I put into expanding my reach with the implementation lead to an increase of presence on social media.

The state of Michigan is reopening the salon industry next week, so I contacted my international suppliers for lash products (which aren’t done being produced) and asked that they send what they have ready. I want to be fully stocked and ready to make deliveries for the lash service providers. I am the only local lash supplier that offers same-day delivery and I want to clean up with sales as well as retrieve calendars needed from 50 providers. Getting the schedules will be hard to get because people are normally leery about giving out that type of info, but I have a report with my customers, and I think they trust that I will not misuse their information. 

Airbnb is “the world’s largest accommodation provider, Airbnb owns no property.” Livid Lash Pro wants to provide accommodations without owning salons”. In respect to their revenue teardown, for every booking they charge guests between 6-12% of the booking fee. They charge the host 3% for every successful transaction. 

They operate as a transaction facilitator between hosts and travelers (which is one of Livid Lash Pro’s segments) and users are looking for a comfortable accommodation at a cheap price. To the service providers, Airbnb provides insurance and a rating and review system. The platform builds trust with the users and lowers transaction costs. Profiles and users review help to create reputation and trust among participants of the marketplace. 

To retain the travelers, they offer promotional codes and credits to frequent travelers as well as hosts. As the imitators of Airbnb offer “first-comer” benefits, we could offer the same and adjust the business model as it pertains to local cultures from (Vallejo, Houston, Atlanta and Detroit markets). 

I looked up the Airbnb teardown through CB Insights. It’s interesting that they are now expanding inventory, targeting luxury business travelers and going at competitors. These things parallel with Livid Lash Pro, but the tear down exposed their marketplace safety tactics. They work with “Trooly” which focuses on engineering team and intellectual property to make digital score cards on individuals. This is how Airbnb protects themselves from bad service providers. This information is valuable with respect to what Dr. Stoltman was speaking of with authenticating the service provider. It doesn’t necessarily include mystery shopping, but it shows an alternative way to authenticate the service providers. We can’t do credit checks, but we can simulate a background check and authenticate through researching the service providers. 

As we approach the reopening, service providers books are filling or completely booked as customers are running to make appointments. I am still closely observing the participants calendars, social media and booking. Many have gotten their facilities professionally prepped for reopening by utilizing cleaning companies who offer sterilization. They have updated their terms and condition, as well as their process and procedure for regular appointments. 

Progress during prior week

• Focus on New Products and Marketing

• Request schedules from supply customers

• Research Airbnb teardown

• Continue to observe the reopening of Attendees until they become available.

• Add “Payment Plugin” into the Lean Stack Canvas

Plans for the coming week

• Work on lean stack after Dr. Stoltman Check-in

• Prepare for Detroit Startup Week

• Retail Marketing and Drop Shipping

• Supply Service Providers upon reopening and acquire more calendars

Questions/Issues/Concerns/Observations It will be interesting to see the trends within the coming weeks; will service providers still have the same amount of appointments, will the booking frequency remain, and will COVID-19 increase and halt the reopening altogether?