Groupon, Booksy Partner On Salon Appointments Amid Elevated COVID Concerns

Groupon has gotten together with beauty and wellness appointment app Booksy to streamline the process of finding and booking appointments with salons, spas and other service providers using the Groupon Connect API platform.

Eligible active Groupon merchants also get free six-month subscriptions to Booksy for unlimited staff members to manage customer bookings. Merchants can retain the free Booksy memberships with at least 10 Groupon bookings every month.

“Partnering with Booksy gives us the potential to grow bookable inventory for one of Groupon’s most popular verticals, beauty and wellness, as well as provides our merchants with access to Booksy’s suite of scheduling and business management tools to help them grow their business,” said Groupon’s Chief Commercial Officer Brian Fields in the joint announcement on Monday (Aug. 9).

“We are relentlessly focused on improving the customer experience at Groupon, and this exciting partnership will do just that by giving our customers the ability to book more of their favorite experiences directly on the Groupon platform, making the customer journey, from purchase to booking, more seamless,” he added.

Retailers and merchants in recent months have been doubling down on utilizing appointment software as consumer demand has surpassed levels seen during the pandemic. Appointment scheduling has allowed retailers to lean into creating a truly personal, omnichannel experience for customers, whether they walk in the front door or a digital one.

See also: Retailers Rethink Appointments As An Easy Bridge That Can Boost Omnichannel Sales

Groupon customers showed a steady interest in beauty and wellness experiences in the second quarter of the year, the company said, with plastic surgery, Botox and wrinkle injections, skin care, laser hair removal, massages, facial care and dental procedures among the most popular selections. The biggest gains during the quarter came from Arizona, California, Florida and Texas.

“We’re thrilled to join forces with Groupon to help make online booking a marketplace standard among Groupon’s beauty and wellness providers, enabling them to provide a better customer experience and giving them more time back into their day to run their business,” said Stefan Batory, co-founder and CEO of Booksy, in the joint announcement.

Booksy data shows that beauty and wellness providers can spend as much as 12 days a year trying to better manage their bookings, Batory noted.

Related: Booksy Raises $70 Million To Expand Beauty Booking App

Booksy announced in January that it had raised $70 million in a Series C funding round to expand its beauty booking app across North America, saying that it planned to expand into new vertical markets and acquire and partner with companies to help it grow in existing markets.

Booksy, which has 13 million consumers globally, claims that when customers are enabled to schedule their own appointments, the frequency of their visits increases by 20 percent.