Beard trend

Another segment that suffered due to the departure of some Russians after the mobilization and reduction in the level of consumer income was the beauty industry. Thus, barbershops operating in the high price segment lost 16% of their customers, and economy class salons lost 7%. Market participants claim that the outgoing year was the most disastrous for the industry since the early 1990s.

From the end of September to December 2022, barbershops across the country, where the average bill exceeds 5,000 rubles, lost 16% of their customers compared to the summer period of the year, according to YCLIENTS calculations (a platform for recording companies in various service industries). At the same time, in salons with an average check of 1 thousand rubles. traffic over the same period decreased by 7%. Analysts attribute this to the partial mobilization announced at the end of September, followed by the second wave of solvent Russians leaving abroad.

The trend to reduce traffic was confirmed by the market participants themselves. Gevorg Vopyan, the owner of the FIDEL network, says that after September 21, traffic in his stores fell by 16% year-on-year. The founder of the Superman network, Vasily Mikhailov, in the first two weeks after the announcement of the mobilization, recorded a decline in all points of up to 15%, but already in October the flow of customers recovered. The founder of the BORODACH network, Anton Vasilenko, noticed a 3% year-on-year decrease in traffic. The depth of recording has also been reduced: if earlier clients signed up for three to four weeks, now the planning horizon has been seriously reduced, Lyalya Sadykova, Ombudsman of the Association of Beauty Industry Entrepreneurs, explains.

Such changes in YCLIENTS are explained by the predominantly male audience of barbershops. After the start of mobilization, barbershops suffered the most, as they not only lost some customers, but also most of the staff, Ms. Sadykova notes.

The decrease in traffic has led to a reduction in the oversaturated segment of expensive barbershops, says Vasily Mikhailov. Gevorg Vopyan doubts that those clients who paid 1.5 thousand rubles. for a haircut and received a quality service in a clean salon with disinfected tools, in order to save money, they switched to “no-name salons” with a haircut for 600 rubles, where there is no administrator and even payment by card.

Lyalya Sadykova believes that the situation is sad in the industry as a whole. “This is the first crisis in my experience when even the economy segment suffered. Since February, we have seen that salons are no longer competing with each other, but with a typewriter from a hypermarket and a haircut at home in the kitchen,” she says. Many industry entrepreneurs who have been working since the early 1990s testify that this year is the worst for their business, and even in 1991 the situation was more optimistic and predictable than now, Ms. Sadykova adds.

According to her, many barbershops and salons have already begun to close, and next year those who see the negative results of December will turn off their business. The BORODACH and FIDEL networks noted a decrease in traffic in December by 7% and 16%, respectively. The reasons for this were the refusal of people from corporate events and a surge in the incidence of influenza in December, as a result of which many appointments were canceled, summarizes Ms. Sadykova.

Against this background, entrepreneurs have become more cautious about opening new salons. Franshiza.ru expert Anna Rozhdestvenskaya recorded that in October the demand for franchises of beauty salons and barbershops fell by 30% year-on-year, in November the demand went up, but last year’s figures were not achieved. Although, until October, analysts, on the contrary, noted an increase in barbershop outlets. According to the 2GIS service, over the past two years, the number of barbershops in the 15 largest cities of Russia has grown by 54%, to 3.5 thousand points (see Kommersant on October 7). YCLIENTS Sales Director Kirill Rudenko also claims that, despite the events and the recession period, the market continues to grow and new businesses are actively opening in the industry.

Daria Andrianova