Beauty Spa's - The must-have accessory for department stores

It seems that to have a beauty spa in your department store is quite the fashion accessory du jour.

John Lewis in the UK have recently cashed in on the same trend that has been taking over department stores worldwide for the last 2 years.

Following in the footsteps of JC Penny in the states, Nordstrom's 'Spa Nordstrom', Harvey Nichols 'Beyond MediSpa' and KaDeWe's 'Nail and Foot Spa' in Berlin, John Lewis is set to open a series of beauty spas and hairdressers to its larger stores from next year seeking to create more retail theatre for its customers.







Retail Expertise managing director Michael Poynor said: “Improving in-store experience is essential for a department store. It has got to be a good experience, otherwise you’re just going to sit at home on your laptop.”

Never have truer words been spoken. In an age where everything from washing machines to hairclips is available online and delivered for FREE, retailers are having to find more interesting ways to engage customers to shop their bricks-and-morter stores.

Verdict analyst Maureen Hinton said: “Retailers are increasingly looking to add value to the store experience - not only to create difference from online, it helps drive footfall and keeps customers in the stores for longer.”

In fact it won't be long before a trip to the mall will soon be as visual and sensory as a trip to Disney World!

Still if it means I can get a cheap pedi, a fancy new hair do, a free skin diagnosis and interact with a coupon wall, I might just draw myself away from Firefox!

Black Friday Sales Figures Soar for Online Retailers

Initial numbers for Black Friday sales are in, and things are looking pretty rosy for Internet retailers.

Americans typically think of Black Friday as the biggest day of the year for brick-and-mortar stores, but another segment of the retail industry is seeing phenomenal year-over-year growth, even as the recession lingers on.

Online retailers saw an overall 15.9% sales growth between Black Friday 2009 and Black Friday 2010. The price of the average order also rose 12.1% from around $170 per order to $190.80.

This data, which comes from Coremetrics, also shows that consumers, though they’re spending more online, are spending smarter. When we make a purchase, we’re viewing fewer items per site, looking at fewer pages and doing fewer on-site searches, suggesting that we’ve done our research ahead of time and know what we want when we decide to make a purchase.

With that in mind, it’s likely that a greater online spend might translate to a lower overall spend this holiday season, as bargain hunters glean the best deals from the web and forgo traditional, in-store shopping.

Retailers are also seeing more mobile shoppers logging in from their phones. Around 5.6% of Black Friday 2010 traffic came from mobile devices — a 26.7 year-over-year increase.

These results don’t surprise us much. Online shopping has long been on the rise; in fact, in a poll we’re running right now, the majority of respondents are already saying they’ll do all or most of their holiday shopping online.

Jolie O'Dell for Mashable