Create a marketplace for hairstylists
The post-covid new normal will be defined by the highest service demand ever and this is undoubtedly the best time to launch your marketplace for hairstylists. Yet, just launching a service marketplace is not the same as creating a successful one with a marketplace solution which will scale with your business’ growth. As marketplace owner, you need to ensure the best user experience, booking flow, listing management and secure payments even when fees are collected, cancellations happen or refunds are needed. This can only be achieved with advanced features which are hard to find in most SaaS marketplace solutions and non-customized marketplaces, yet not in our Second SaaS marketplace solution.
Our +8 years of experience in the marketplace industry have allowed us to identify the key elements to create a successful marketplace business: an advanced marketplace software and support from marketplace experts. Taking this into account, Second has been carefully designed to combine the most powerful marketplace software with professional expert support to maximize how you use the technology and help you optimize every other aspect of your marketplace business, from your user acquisition strategy to KPIs and analytics. Second will give you the necessary flexibility to smoothly manage your marketplace’s activity and the best part is that you don’t have to do it alone, as we will work together throughout the entire lifecycle of your marketplace for hairstylists.
Advanced features for your marketplace business
Multiple services per listing
Hairstylists who provide multiple different services can centralize them in one single listing, even if they do not belong to the same custom categories which you have created (e.g. haircut for women, haircut for men, haircut for children, etc.). Each service will have its own description, price and duration, and can be combined with other services and upgrades. For instance, a client can book a haircut for her husband and styling for herself in one single booking.
User reviews
Second integrates a review system into your platform which allows users to rate each other after the hairstylists’ services have been rendered. These reviews are made up of a score and a comment, and as platform admin you can of course moderate and manage these reviews through your back office.
Advanced calendar management
Failed marketplace bookings are mainly caused by listing calendars which are not up-to-date, since clients can end up booking services which are not actually available. This is why Second specifically includes different tools for providers to easily manage their calendars. If they already have an external calendar with events, they can synchronize it with their listing’s calendar to retrieve those events and automatically integrate them into it. Yet, if they prefer updating their calendar directly through their account, they can set specific days or times as available or unavailable, or they can also set recurring ones which repeat over time, such as indicating that during the month of August they are not available on Tuesdays and Fridays from 12pm to 4pm.
Personalized integrations and marketplace configuration
International payments and refunds
Second handles all monetary transactions with escrow payments, both locally and internationally, to ensure that your marketplace can manage cancellations, split payments and fees collection automatically, while giving you the flexibility to decide when a payout will be released. Additionally, if any issues arise, you can resolve all client claims and refunds seamlessly through your back office.
Pre-moderation
Your marketplace will take care of the validation of all credit cards used by clients, bank accounts added by providers and user KYC verification for you. Yet, if you want to go further and manually validate who and what is live in your marketplace, you can also enable listing and/or user pre-moderation to keep a tight grip on the quality of your marketplace, users and services.
User accounts
An important added value which you will provide to your clients and hairstylists comes from an optimized UX and listing management. Second is therefore designed to include a powerful user back end to allow your users to manage every aspect of their activity in your marketplace, such as profile data, listings, messages, reviews, bookings, invoices and more. Even after they have published their listings, they can always edit them to add more images, videos or files; improve its content or change the cancellation policy.
