Make no mistake, the Beautystack app is a game changer! Founded by Sharmandean Reid, an expert in social media and technology, the app is a hybrid of LinkedIn and Instagram and unites beauty service providers and consumers in the same space. Professionals can market their services to an engaged audience. There is no reason why apps of a similar nature can’t be created to serve other industries.
Here are more details of how the whole thing works:
Beautystack addresses an issue that many consumers have had when it comes to searching for beauty products and services. Historically, consumers have looked to Instagram for what’s on offer. They have explored relevant hashtags and found pictures of styles and looks then presented their phones to salon professionals and asked them to deliver a result as close as possible to the one on the screen. With Beautystack, users can discover styles and then book in with stylists who specialise in that look. There is a booking system built in so the whole process from search to payment is streamlined.
Beautystack confronts an ongoing problem for industry professionals: booking systems.
Traditionally, salon owners and beauticians have used websites, email and even WhatsApp to communicate with clients but now, with Beautystack, all appointments and transactions can be made in the app. Beautystack also gives professionals more brand autonomy. Whereas Instagram’s algorithm can make it difficult for brands to stand out and websites can fail to allow brands to really showcase their products’ visual attributes, there is more scope to curate a profile on Beautystack.
The app does take a cut from all sales made but it is free for brands to appear. The user-generated aspect of Beautystack means that it serves as a trusted source of information for other beauty consumers. The social platform element means that, instead of reviews, the proof of a brand’s excellence is there in its imagery. This can prove a much more effective way of generating sales. There is also scope for the community of industry professionals who showcase their talent in the app to become influencers.
Features
There are many great little one-off features of the app, such as the beauty pro function, which allows users to upload a picture of what they want and send it to salons and professionals ahead of their appointments, as further illustrations of the results they are looking for. The community aspect of Beautystack is fantastic. Users can upload selfies of treatments they have had done, provide details of which professionals they used and give background information about the service they received.
This user-led aspect means Beautystack has the power to become an alternative to the likes of Instagram. Users can connect and chat with each other and share tips and ideas. There is a more down-to-earth aspect to Beautystack that Instagram, with its over-filtered, unachievable beauty standards, often lacks. Beautystack images always include information about the techniques on display and lead the user or visitor to the professionals who will help them achieve that specific look.
Beautystack combines both the engaging user-led traditions of social media and the effective seamless functionality of booking software, to create an app that provides an opportunity for both users and professionals. By bringing consumers together on one platform in a place where they are accessible to professionals is revolutionary and it remains to be seen if other industries will create similar apps that allow for the same interaction and seamless transactions.
