We love the International SPA Association (ISPA) for a variety of reasons, but one of our favorite reasons is that they take the time to provide our industry with hard data. Every year they release "The Big Five Statistics," which takes a true pulse of the spa industry. This is not only a valuable compass for spa owners, but for companies like us who provide said spas with the professional supplies they need to get the job done. This year's stats show that the spa industry is growing—which means it's only getting more competitive.
First, the Latest Numbers
Yeah, we hate math too. But sometimes we have to take a look at the numbers to see where we've been as an industry, and where we might be going.
From the end of 2012 to the end of 2013:
- Spa revenues were up from $14 billion to $14.7 billion (up 5.1%).
- The number of spa visits increased from 160 million to 164 million (up 2.5%).
- The number of spas jumped from 19,960 to 20,180 (up 1.1%).
- The money spent per visit increased from $87 to $89 (up 2.5%).
- The number of overall employees increased from 343,600 to 349,900 (up 1.8%).
Per the chart above, note that #5 was tracked from May 2013 to May 2014. More interestingly, the overall employee increase was due to more part-time employees; full-time and contract employees were down over this period.
What Do the Numbers Mean?
At first glance, any spa owner can look at those numbers and feel good about the direction the overall industry is headed in. Like last year's report, the numbers are up. However, more spas opening and more spa visits means more competition. That's right: even a slight industry upswing puts the pressure on spa owners and estheticians to deliver topnotch treatments. One domino effect is that these increases make it harder to find qualified employees—hence, that whopping 8% jump in part-timers.
Here's How We Can Help You Remain Competitive
There are a variety of factors that go into a spa remaining competitive. There's one we can absolutely help you with: using premium products. In fact, here's a completely unscientific client preference study we recently completed:
Okay, so we made that graph up. But that doesn't make it any less true. Clients visit spas for an experience. The supplies you use are part of that experience. Since we're bringing up how competitive the industry is, we figured we'd at least offer one way we could help. If you're not using premium spa and salon supplies, get in touch and we can change that. Immediately.