Merchant Accounts for Salons and Spas

Men don’t go to the barber anymore and their wives, daughters and girlfriends don’t just go to the salon, they go to the spa. With everyday life getting busier and more hectic, everyone needs a time out; the spa industry has just what you need to revitalize yourself and escape if not for just a bit. The spa has taken over the cosmetic and salon industry offering more than just haircuts. Most spas are full service; they offer services such as manicures, pedicures, massages, tanning and they’ll even do your make up for you. Five years ago, if you owned a spa or full service salon, you owned the market in your town. Today, with many to choose from, spas need to differentiate and offer services that separate themselves from their competition. Some of the most sought after services today are full body wraps, hot stone therapy and of course there’s always a line out the door for a three hundred dollar haircut. It really sounds crazy, but it’s true, people are doling out big bucks to make themselves feel better and there is really no slow down in sight for the near future.
In addition to traditional salons and spas, specialty spas and salons are popping up in major cities, except their clients are probably not who you think? Kids and pets, that’s right, pedicures, massages and fancy hair do’s for your children and prized pups currently make up a small but growing percentage of the spa industry. In addition to service and product differentiation, these small businesses need to keep up revenue and watch their profit margins as this industry is high end and its clients demand the very best in terms of atmosphere and amenities. If you’re a salon or spa owner, the banking industry may not be your best friend as of late. Banks are cutting back on business improvement loans, both in terms of the size of the loan, term of the loan and interest rates are not as good as they once were. However, businesses need to keep up with trends, change to meet consumer demands and expand to grow their businesses. These are realities that spa and salon owners cannot ignore if they want, if they want to stay in business for the long term. A great way for small businesses like these to save money is taking a good look at their credit card rates; really, what they are being charged by their bank and/or processor to accept credit cards at their business. So many business owners are just too busy running their business to take a close look at their statement every month, and just chalk up the fees and high discount rate to the cost of doing business today. If that’s the case, then please look again. Sometimes banks and processors will place a business like a salon or spa in a high risk category; they often justify this to their customers because of the nature of their business, in that these are not necessities but luxury purchases. If you find yourself in a position that you don’t want to be in for the future, you may want to contact a merchant service provider. A merchant service provider is simply a broker that deals with a lot of different banks. Two really good reasons for dealing with them over one bank is that you can shop rates of several banks while dealing with only one person and certain processors and merchant service providers deal mainly with specific types of industries. For spa and salon owners, this means that they’re in sync with busy times of the year and know how to handle chargebacks more effectively. For a business owner, that can mean real dollars saved and sleeping better at night!


Jennifer Loganathan is the President and CEO of Stradafee Limited. Stradafee is a leading international payments company based in New York. Stradafee is a retail and ecommerce payment processing provider specializing in international and Internet merchant account solutions. Stradafee also offers check processing, high risk merchant accounts and offshore merchant account options. Stradafee can help businesses of all industries and sizes. For more information on credit card processing and check processing please visit www.stradafee.com.