Salon packages: how to design, price and track them

A good salon package is a set number of sessions, paid up front, at a price that saves the client about one session in six, with a validity long enough to use them all at their normal pace. Sell it on a GST invoice the day it is paid, make each session a ₹0 line when it is used, pay the stylist fairly on every session, and remind the client before it expires. Get those five things right and a package brings clients back without costing you more than it should.

Fixed sessions or “any N from a list”

There are two shapes, and they suit different services:

Fixed sessions are easy to explain and to price. “Any N” is more flexible for the client, but price it on the most expensive service in the list, or clients will use it only for that one. Frizzi packages (in Plus) do both.

Which services make good salon packages

Packages work for services clients need again and again on a known rhythm, where one visit alone doesn’t give the full result. Good candidates:

• Courses of treatment: hair spa, scalp treatments, facials, body polishing, laser hair reduction.
• Regular grooming: men’s haircut and beard, threading, waxing.
• Pre-wedding: a set of facials, hair spas and manicures in the weeks before the day, with the bridal look as the last session.

Poor candidates are one-off or seasonal services (a keratin every six months), services whose price changes with hair length, and anything where the products you use cost a lot and may go up in price before the last session.

Sell at the moment the client sees the value: right after their first hair spa, while they still feel the difference. “Today was ₹1,200; the six-session package brings it to ₹1,000 each, and you’ve already done the first” is honest and easy. Frizzi’s till can hint “sell a package” when one fits the client’s bill.

Pricing a package

Start from the normal price of the sessions, then give away about one session’s worth. A worked example with sample prices:

Then check that the per-session figure still covers your stylist, products and rent; our pricing guide shows how. Going deeper than about 20% off rarely sells more packages; it just gives margin away to clients who would have bought at 15%.

How long a package should last

Set validity from the client’s natural pace, plus room for life: sessions × the usual gap × about 1.5. Six monthly hair spas → 9 months. Ten fortnightly beard trims → about 7 months. Too short and clients feel cheated; too long and unused sessions sit on your books for years, and the client forgets they have them. In Frizzi you set the number of months when you create the package, and you can extend one for a client when there is a good reason.

If you have more than one branch, let packages work at all of them. A client who buys in Saket and moves closer to your Dwarka branch should not lose sessions. In Frizzi, packages, memberships and wallet balances belong to the client across every branch of your salon, so this happens by itself. See many branches.

Sharing, transfers and refunds

Decide this before the first sale, and print it on the card:

• Sharing. Can a mother’s package cover her daughter’s haircut? Many salons say yes within one family. In Frizzi, a package belongs to one client and can be given to another client when you allow it.
• Transfers between branches. If you have more than one branch, clients will expect a package to work at all of them.
• Refunds. Refund unused sessions only at the price actually paid per session (₹1,000 in the example, not ₹1,200), and only with a reason.

Stylist commission on package sessions

This is where packages quietly cost more than owners expect. The client paid ₹1,000 a session, but the stylist did a ₹1,200 hair spa. What do you pay commission on?

Either can be fair; what matters is choosing on purpose and telling staff. Frizzi pays commission on package sessions at the service’s normal branch price, before GST, so stylists aren’t penalised for package clients. Build that into the package price. Our guide to commission on packages goes deeper, and the commission calculator does the sums.

GST at the sale, and ₹0 sessions

Sell the package on a normal tax invoice, with 5% GST on the package price, on the day the client pays: ₹6,000 includes ₹285.71 GST (₹142.86 CGST + ₹142.86 SGST). Each later session is a line at ₹0 with no further GST, because the tax was paid at the sale. Don’t sell packages as wallet money and charge GST bit by bit; it makes your records harder to follow. Our guide to GST on salon services covers the rate.

In Frizzi, using a session shows “Use package · 3 left” and makes the line ₹0. A session can’t be used on the same bill that sells the package, and cancelling that bill gives the sessions back.

Reminders before a package runs out

Two messages keep packages moving: one when a client is due for their next session, and one a week or so before expiry with how many sessions are left. The second turns a complaint into a booking. Frizzi’s “package ending” message is on by default, 7 days before (you can pick 1 to 30), and the Packages expiring and Package sessions used reports show who needs a call.

A sample menu-card line:

Hair spa package: 6 sessions for ₹6,000 (save ₹1,200). Valid 9 months from purchase, for one client. Unused sessions can be refunded at ₹1,000 each. Prices include GST.

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