As a medical spa or aesthetic business owner, figuring out how to price your services, skincare products, or consultation services can be overwhelming, especially for new business owners. There’s much more to pricing than choosing a random number and hoping for the best. Pricing plays a crucial role in the success of your business.
It’s no secret that aesthetic, cosmetic, and laser treatments are growing in popularity. Audiences of all ages are looking for ways to either maintain, prevent, or rewind signs of aging and unwanted skin blemishes or concerns. In particular, the laser hair removal market is ever-expanding and shows no signs of slowing down. Therefore, it’s even more vital for you to understand the competitive pricing for your laser hair removal treatments to ensure your aesthetic practice is fair and profitable.
As the leading distributor for aesthetic laser devices, Astanza has worked with numerous medical spas and laser hair removal providers and knows what to consider when pricing laser hair removal treatments. Please keep reading to learn our five tips for determining your laser hair removal pricing.
1. Know Your Market
Before you even start crunching numbers, you need first to understand your market. This means knowing who your target customer is and who your competitors are. For existing medspas and aesthetic practices, it’s helpful to use your business’s existing data to get a sense of what your customers are currently paying and what they’re willing to pay. A simple survey asking for demographic information, household salaries, and what services existing clients would like to see at your practice can help you understand your target consumer on a better level. Don’t forget to offer some incentive to reward survey participants. It could be as simple as offering 10% off their first laser hair removal treatment.
For new and existing laser hair removal providers, it’s crucial to research who the big players in your local and extended geographic market are. Laser hair removal is a very high-demand procedure, which means you’ll probably have a fair share of competitors in your area (or none at all if you’re lucky). Create a spreadsheet that lists out who your competitors are, what type of provider they are (physician, medical spa, laser hair removal specialist, etc.), what technology they use, and of course, what their prices are.
Remember, not all aesthetic practices display their prices publicly. Don’t stop researching after you’ve Googled all your laser hair removal competitors’ websites. Make the necessary phone calls and even do some secret shopping to get a clear picture of how much your competitors are charging.
2. Evaluate Your Business
Once you’ve grasped what the competition is like, grab a mirror and take a good look at your practice. Put yourself in the consumer’s shoes and determine why a patient might or might not choose your business over your competitors. Ask yourself questions like, “Is my laser comparable, worse, or better than theirs? How accessible is my location? How does my practice and treatment space size up to others? Is there additional value in the overall experience my business offers? What are the qualifications of my practitioners versus others?”
You can use these questions to determine your initial pricing and then adjust as needed. As you research, it’s essential to constantly evaluate how the market perceives your company, technology, staff, and services compared to your competitors. For example, physicians, dermatologists, plastic surgeons, and other licensed medical professionals can charge more per treatment since patients are willing to pay more for their time, experience, and education. Medical spas and mid-level practitioners can charge close to the average going rate. In contrast, entrepreneurs with basic training will most likely provide treatments at a lower cost solely based on their practitioner experience. This is just one aspect that may affect your pricing. Just remember to be honest in your business’s evaluation so you can strategize your pricing accordingly.
3. Know Your Value
Two of the biggest challenges business owners face when figuring out how to price laser hair removal treatments are underpricing or overpricing. Many new businesses are mistakenly under the impression that they’ll attract customers quickly by offering the lowest price in town. However, most aesthetic consumers are willing to pay a premium for quality laser treatments and excellent results and want to make sure they’re getting their money’s worth. There’s a difference between offering an affordable deal versus coming off as cheap; don’t be the latter. Let your brand be known for its quality treatments and services rather than just being the cheapest in town. If you have a prime location, expert laser technicians, and the best laser hair removal system on the market, don’t undervalue your services.
You also need to ensure your overall costs to perform and offer laser hair removal are covered when pricing your services. This includes any marketing and advertising budgets, employee salaries, overhead costs, lease payments, and more. If your prices are too low, you won’t generate profits, and you won’t even get to see your long-term business plans come to life.
On the other hand, overpricing your treatments can be just as harmful to your business. You want to mark your prices high enough to earn a good profit margin but must be careful about overcharging your clients unfairly. While most customers are willing to pay a fair price for good service, they’re also smart enough to know when they’re getting ripped off. Know your worth versus your competitors and choose a pricing strategy that matches your business’s overall value and experience.
4. Choose the Best Pricing Structure For Laser Hair Removal
Two of the most popular ways to price laser hair removal treatments are by treatment area or treatment size. Typically, every laser hair removal provider offers pricing per treatment. Practices that use a treatment area pricing system will assign an individual price to each treatment area or body part that they treat. For example, a medical spa might charge a flat fee of $30 for a single upper lip treatment and $65 for a single underarm treatment.
Practices that use a treatment size pricing system will categorize numerous treatment areas or body parts underneath a range of size groups: Extra-small, Small, Medium, Large, Extra-large. Refer to the size chart below.
Again, depending on your market, competitive landscape, location, physician or non-physician experience, and other factors, pricing for an extra-small treatment can range anywhere from $5 to $150. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, the average surgeon or physician charges $287 for a laser hair removal treatment. However, fees generally vary according to the patient’s needs and the region of the country.
Although laser hair removal patients require multiple treatments to achieve long-lasting permanent hair reduction, offering single session pricing is necessary for clients who only want to purchase one treatment. Some clients might only need a touch-up or want to test out a single treatment before committing to a complete package. This leads us to our next point of offering treatment packages and discounts.
5. Offer Packages and Discounts
As we just shared, virtually all laser hair removal consumers will need multiple treatments for sufficient results. The average patient needs a minimum of 6 to 12 treatments spaced 4 to 8 weeks apart. Many aesthetic practices offer discounted treatment package options that bundle a certain number of treatments to encourage customers to pay upfront and secure repeat visits. Treatment packages are also great because they provide an opportunity to drive up revenue quickly. For example, let’s say your practice charges $65 for a single underarm treatment. You could offer a treatment package of six underarm treatments for $312 to entice the customer and lock in revenue early on.
Furthermore, almost every patient that experiences successful laser hair removal in one area will want to remove hair in another area. This allows you to get creative with your packages and discounts. Numerous laser hair removal practices nationwide offer value bundles or mix and match packages for multiple treatments on a handful of the most popular treatment areas. For example, if your practice provides treatment size pricing, you could have clients create a discounted six-treatment package for one treatment area under each size category. While ideally, every customer would be buying a full treatment package from you upfront, this isn’t the case for many. We recommend offering financing options so you can cater to every customer’s budget.
In addition to treatment packages, don’t forget to sprinkle in some attractive discounts to appeal to your target consumer even more. If you’re a brand new practice, you can offer a welcome deal to the first 50 customers who book an appointment. Existing medical spas or aesthetic businesses that recently added laser hair removal to their services can offer a brand loyalty program discount to get clients to try out their new service. Other common discounts include adding a free skincare product to their first treatment or offering a referral discount when a client brings in a friend or family member.
The key to pricing laser hair removal services lies in market research and finding your competitive advantage amongst your competitors. Once you’ve found your sweet spot for pricing, pay special attention to what’s worked and what you should change. Prices don’t have to be permanent. Your treatment costs, customers, competitors, and market are ever-changing, so make sure you identify your successes and adapt along the way.
Are you interested in adding laser hair removal to your aesthetic business? Be sure to check out our pre-recorded webinar, “Adding Laser Hair Removal to a Salon or Non-Medical Aesthetic Business,” for more information. You can also download our FREE ebook, “Expanding Your Aesthetic Business with Laser Hair Removal.” Both of these resources provide insightful tips on how to build a successful laser hair removal practice.
