Right now, a silent revolution is happening in tanning salons across the country. Tanning salons have always been famous for offering two main services: tanning and sunless tanning. After all, they are tanning salons—not hair salons or nail salons. Of course, they’d be there for a sun-kissed glow, right?
Well, things are starting to change.
In recent years, the demand for both UV and sunless tanning has started to shrink. Part of this is due to the rampant misinformation related to skin health, but it also has to do with a general change in beauty trends. In the past, this would have meant tanning salons would face closure. Thankfully, there’s a new trend changing the way tanning salons do business…
Not Just A Tan, But An Offering Of Wellness
Not too long ago, tanning salons were totally focused on appearances. Recent smear campaigns focused on the tanning industry started to dissuade people from getting a tan of any type—sunless included.
So, how can tanning salons cater to the new wave of people who just don’t want a tan? It’s simple: offer something that gives them a different type of healthy glow. In other words, the easiest way to get new clients into your salon is to act as a wellness center.
Wellness isn’t just about looks. A beautiful sunny glow only goes so far when it comes to consumer demand. It’s about improving a person’s overall wellbeing, glowing skin included. After all, what good is looking good when you don’t feel good?
Why Wellness?
Strategically speaking, wellness just makes a lot of sense. Think about it…
- Wellness is the hottest trend on the market right now. Insurance prices are soaring. Medicine prices are soaring. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and everyone knows that. So this is one trend unlikely to stop.
- You can get spa-like effects from the right wellness machines. Tanning beds and sauna beds have more in common than you might think. The tanning industry is great at using machinery to automate and deliver results, so it just tends to work in a way that most others don’t.
- Most people who are interested in tanning also want wellness services. For many clients, tanning salons aren’t just a place for a quick break. It’s their own mini-vacation. Wellness services make that connection even better.
- Wellness services attract (and keep) people who would otherwise not be interested in visiting a tanning salon at all. People who are sun-sensitive are not going to want to tan. They will, however, be interested in skin care, saunas, or red light therapy.
- Many people are looking for a one-stop shop for all of their self-care needs. If they can get their teeth whitened, skin tanned, and body saunas in one spot, they absolutely will do it.
The wellness industry just broached $480 billion in 2024. It’s still growing, making it a far larger larger market with more potential clients than tanning as a whole.
Fighting Back Against Tan Stigma
It’s no secret that the tanning industry has been under attack by smear campaigns as well as unfair laws surrounding it. This is both a policy issue as well as a stark change in consumer tastes that has been ongoing since the 2000s.
President Barack Obama levied a 10 percent tax on tanning services during his presidency, a tax that still remains on a federal level. Due to the stigma surrounding misguided melanoma studies, over 22 different states also banned children under 18 from using tanning beds.
Even the numbers show a lot of changes in consumer use–at least, in one 2023 study by the Dermatologist’s Nursing Association. Only 12 percent of women use indoor tanning. However, 18 percent of women now use sunless tanning alternatives, such as spray tanning or tanning lotions.
Companies aren’t blind to the change in consumer habits. Up until recently, the tanning industry was beginning to struggle, with many “mom n’ pop” shops shuttering their doors. The stigma is real, and now is the time to fight back.
Diversification As A Rebranding Strategy
For smart business owners, they’re beginning to realize that wellness is the best defense against the offense that comes with misconceptions about tanning. That’s why more and more companies are starting to emphasize the wellness aspect of of their salons.
Palm Beach Tan, one of the biggest chains in the country, is going for a gutsy change by doing a name change to Palm Beach Beauty And Tan. Glo Tanning, another top tanning company with over 100 locations, has been steadily emphasizing its array of services.
However, company names are not going to be the only thing to change. Depending on how deep the wellness trend goes, the very name of the industry may end up changing to encompass a wider range of services.
As Glo’s founder, Onyi Odunukwe explained, “We no longer want to be called a tanning salon. We want to be called a sun spa.”
And you know what? If you ask me, that title fits the new wave generation of tanning businesses perfectly.
