No matter how large your clientele or superior your service, your salon or spa is leaving cold hard cash on the table if you’re settling for mediocre retail sales. Revving up your retail game and making retail an integral part of your salon business plan can scale your income beyond bringing in new clients or increasing the cost of services, creating a reliable stream of revenue.

If your retail sales numbers leave something to be desired, you may need to take a good look at your sales practices to see if you’re making one of these key salon retail mistakes.

You’re trying to appeal to everyone

Jack of all trades, master of none. If you’re trying to appeal to a wide range of people with your salon products, you’re spreading your retail budget thin while failing to truly speak to your ideal customer.

You know your clientele and you know your niche. Rather than stock multiple lines in an effort to appeal to every customer type, stock what you know your target demographic needs and loves.

Your employees aren’t motivated to sell

Some people in the beauty industry don’t like selling products because they feel they are artists, not salespeople. Others are worried they might scare away clients or lose out on tips if they push products too hard.

Educate your employees that getting the right products into their clients’ hands will increase their credibility as artists, while helping their clients extend the life of their new look outside the salon.

Then, motivate your employees to sell with a good commission percentage (but be sure to do the math to make sure you’re still making money on your products!) and rewards for top sellers each month.

Your employees don’t have sales training

While motivation is important to boost your retail sales, it isn’t enough: Your employees need sales training! Invest in employee education from the get go, so they feel at ease introducing products to their clients and do so in a respectable, natural way that works.

Your displays are boring

Purchase displays are responsible for 80% of impulse buys. Make sure your displays are highly visible and draw the eye, taking the perusing customer on a journey. Place things a customer is most likely to buy impulsively nearest to the register — smaller travel products, for example — to encourage impulse purchasing.

Make the retail area an appealing place to spend time. By setting up complimentary coffee and tea near the retail area, you’ll encourage customers to linger. Music matters too: It sounds crazy, but studies show 80% of people purchase more when music is playing.

You have too many options

The paradox of choice is very real: If you provide too many options, it becomes difficult for your clients to decide what’s right for them— and that indecision will cost you sales.

Take this study on buying behavior: When researchers gave customers a choice between 24 different types of fruit preserves to purchase, only 3% of customers bought something. Alternatively, 30% of customers made a purchase when they only had to choose between 6 types of jam.

Stock your retail shelves with the all star products you know your customers need at home, and cut out the rest of the white noise.

You’re not selling products clients get excited about

If your products don’t make your clients feel gorgeous, special, or even a little glamorous, they’re not going to fly off the shelves. Stock a line of products both your employees and your clients will obsess over and advocate for. Better yet, launch your own line of products branded to your salon: It’s easier than you think to do and will create a feeling of luxury and exclusivity around your products, increasing customer excitement and loyalty.

With these simple salon retail tips, you can make retail sales a pillar of your salon or spa business plan, boosting your revenue and scaling your beauty empire.