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Upselling Beyond Wax: How to Create Service Bundles That Clients Can’t Resist

Upselling Beyond Wax: How to Create Service Bundles That Clients Can’t Resist

Posted by Diana Kissinger on Feb 10th 2025

If you are not offering upsell opportunities throughout your entire week, you are likely leaving 40% more income on the table. Service bundling is one way to think about upselling and offering it to your clients in a way that makes sense. Remember, measure your costs when bundling in any service.

Key Points

  • What is Service Bundling: Combining multiple offerings into a single price point for easy purchasing decisions by your customers.
  • Why It’s Guaranteed to Help: Increasing the amount each client spends with you is crucial to your success, making it easy for them to make the decision is just as important.
  • How You Can Do It: Remember to consider masks, ingrown treatments, brow tints, holiday gifts, or “mini” services that can be offered at a reduced price.

Education: Understanding the Power of Service Bundling

What is Service Bundling?

Imagine you walk into a spa for a wax and are presented with two pieces of paper, one of them has checkboxes and prices up and down each side of it, showing you potential additions to the service, and the second piece of paper is well laid out and presents just 3 options that have a graphic representing each with a single checkbox below them and a savings amount next to each to show the customer how much they save by choosing the tier. Which piece of paper is the one that is more appealing to you? The answer is the second if you weren’t sure. The more simplistic, straightforward experience will get you more conversions to each tier, and allows you to show savings to the customer by bundling.

Benefits for Clients

  • Convenience: The lack of decision-making and ability to get multiple services in a single appointment makes things easier.
  • Cost Savings: Who doesn’t love a good deal? Don’t make it too sweet, but an attractive offer is hard to say no to.
  • Personalized Experience: What is something you know that a lot of people would be interested in being prepared for? For example, “Swimsuit-Ready Wax Package”.

Benefits for Salons

  • Higher Average Sale: More revenue is good if you haven’t given too much of a discount to get it.
  • Client Loyalty: Getting real value at a service is what bring the clients back in the door.
  • Cross-Selling: Clients may become a huge fan of one of your other offerings.

How to Execute: Creating and Promoting Irresistible Service Bundles

One of the hardest things is to put all of this together. Below are some thoughts, with price examples, to help you move forward on this journey.

Identifying Complementary Services

1. Popular Add-Ons
  • Brow Shaping: Great to pair with a face wax.
  • Lash or Brow Tint: An easy upsell that fits well with waxing.
  • Mini Facial: Ideal post-wax to soothe and hydrate skin.
  • Body Treatment: Can be done before or after certain waxing services to help exfoliate skin, reduce ingrowns, and increase cellular turnover.
2. Product Pairings
  • Moisturizers & Exfoliators: Encourage regular aftercare, 2-3 exfoliations per week and daily moisturization.Ingrown
  • Hair Treatments: Help clients deal prevent and treat ingrown hair by using products like Hive Daily and Hive Tonic.
  • Gentle Cleansers: Cleansing will help the hair follicle grow out properly and further prevent ingrowns.
3. Seasonal Bundles
  • Holiday-Themed: Pair leg waxing + underarm waxing + a small gift (e.g., scented lotion).
  • Summer Prep: Combine bikini/Brazilian wax + body treatment + soothing moisturizer.
  • Back-to-School: Quick wax services for time-strapped clients (brows, lip, underarms).

Pricing and Packaging Strategies

Step 1: Calculate Your Costs

In order to know what to charge, you first need to know your cost per service. This includes:
  • Materials and Supplies: Wax, cleanser, oil, powder, strips, gloves, sticks, 4x4s, & anything else you regularly use.
  • Labor: Hourly wage or commission for you or your estheticians (use $25 per hour if you don’t know).
  • Overhead: A portion of rent, utilities, insurance, etc., allocated to each service’s time slot.
    • Formula = (Total of rent, utilities, insurance, and other fixed costs) / (# of hours servicing clients in a month * # of hours in this service)
      • e.g. $1600/80 = $20/hour *.5 hours of service = $10 overhead in a 30 minute service)
Example:
  • ½ Leg Wax Cost: $15 materials (1.5 lbs hard wax, plus supplies) + $12 labor (.5 hours) + $10 overhead (.5 * $20)= $37 total cost.
  • Bikini Wax Cost: $5 materials (.5 lb hard wax, plus supplies) + $6 labor (15 minutes) + $5 overhead = $16 total cost.
  • Brow Wax Cost: $1 materials (.1 lb hard wax, plus supplies) + $4 labor (10 minutes) + $1 overhead = $6 total cost.
    (These numbers are purely illustrative; adjust for your actual expenses.)

Step 2: Determine A La Carte Pricing

With your costs in mind, set individual service prices. Let’s use a typical 2x to 3x markup above cost to ensure a healthy profit margin.

Example:
  • Leg Wax: $37 cost → Price at $74 to $121
  • Bikini Wax: $16 cost → Price at $32 to $48
  • Brow Wax: $6 cost → Price at $12 to $18

Step 3: Bundle Services and Discount Strategically

Offering an attractive discount (10-20%) to customers who are bundling will increase your conversion rate on your offer. You can start low and add discounts if you aren’t seeing conversions to keep your profit as high as possible.

Example Bundle: “Swimsuit-Ready Wax”
  • Individual Prices: Leg Wax $90 + Bikini Wax $35 + Brow Wax $10 = $135 total
  • Bundled Price: $120 (about an 11% discount), or even $105 (around 22% discount).
Keep in mind:
  • Be careful that you are not too aggressive with your discounts, or you will lose profit that you needed to keep moving forward.
  • If your total cost for all three services is $59, charging $120 leaves you plenty of profit and gives the client $15 off for bundling.

Step 4: Tiered Bundles

Offer multiple levels—basic, premium, luxury—to serve different budget points.

  • Basic: Leg Wax + Bikini Wax, $99
  • Premium: Leg Wax + Bikini Wax + Underarm Wax, $129
  • Luxury: All the above + Body Treatment + Moisturizer at home-care discount, $179

By offering multiple tiers, you open the door for clients to upgrade to a higher package.

Communicating Value to Clients

1. In-Salon Promotions
  • Clear Signage: Always show the highest price you might charge, scratch it out, and write the lower price next to it to show savings.
  • Staff Scripts: As clients are coming in, make sure you or your staff are consistently mentioning the bundles, showing them to clients, and asking for the upsell.
2. Digital Promotion
  • Social Media: A graphic or short video can often convey more than words. Use Fiverr if you need some extra help!
  • Email Marketing: If you have a seasonal offering, make sure to call out that it ends at a specific time. This will create urgency for your clients.
3. Staff Training
  • Team Education: Educate your team on each bundle’s components, price, and how to talk about its benefits.
  • Role-Play: Practice makes perfect! Ask your significant other or a friend to help you practice. Truly pretend you are entering a service and see if you can convince them. Try it with a couple of people.

Tracking Results & Adjusting Offers

1. Collect Feedback
  • Short Surveys: After the service, send a survey your clients if they would purchase the bundle again. Ask them what they would change if they could
  • In-Person Conversations: Encourage staff to ask for quick feedback after appointments.
2. Monitor Sales Data
  • Track Bundle Sales vs. A La Carte: Track how many bundle sales you have month over month.
  • Seasonal Fluctuations: Watch if bundle sales spike at particular times of year or around promotions.
3. Refine Your Strategy
  • Adjust Discounts: If bundles aren’t selling, increase your discount.
  • Revamp Components: If that doesn’t work, switch up the bundle. Make sure to give at least 30-60 days of testing.

Benefits of Execution: Why Service Bundles Work So Well

Once you implement data-driven bundling strategies, you’ll likely see:
  • Boosted Revenue: Each client’s transaction value increases, driving overall sales.
  • Improved Client Satisfaction & Retention: Clients love feeling they got a deal, especially when the services fulfill multiple needs in one visit.
  • Inventory & Scheduling Efficiency: Pre-set bundles help you predict product usage and understand the minimum and maximum amount of time an appointment should take.
  • Stronger Market Position: Unique, well-priced bundles set your waxing business apart from competitors.

Summary & Next Steps

Recap

  • Service Bundles = More Value: By packaging complementary services and offering a slight discount, you can attract cost-conscious clients while still maintaining strong profit margins.
  • Numbers Matter: Conduct a cost analysis for each service (materials, labor, overhead) and set a profitable markup.
  • Stay Flexible: Monitor sales, adjust discounts, and update bundle components to reflect client feedback and seasonal trends.

Call to Action

  • Try One Starter Bundle: Pick your two most popular waxing services and combine them at a modest discount.
  • Train Your Team: Ensure you and others know how to communicate the value and cost savings to clients. Practice!
  • Track, Evaluate, Refine: Collect data and feedback, then fine-tune your offerings for maximum profitability.