On May 19, 2020, the phone won’t stop ringing in hair salons. The avalanche of calls from customers, their hair lying fallow after two months of confinement, will continue for several weeks. Full schedules and busy hairdressers? A boon for platforms specializing in online booking of beauty-focused services. “Many professionals, still reluctant, have suddenly become aware of the value of making appointments on the Internet”remembers Antoine Puymirat, co-founder and CEO of Planity, a sort of “Doctolib of beauty”.
This universe was one of the last to take the digital turn, a good decade after the world of travel. Balinea, which appeared in 2010, will be the first French player to push beauty independents to abandon paper and pencil diaries. Fourteen years have passed, and 30% of French establishments in the sector can now be booked on the Internet, a rate which could eventually rise to 70%, according to Planity. “A majority of consumers, and not just connected city dwellers, expect to find this service from now onassures Mr. Puymirat. Who hasn’t tried or gotten into the habit of booking their train tickets, accommodation or a consultation with their doctor in just a few clicks? »
The presence of a hairdressing salon even in the smallest towns has made France one of the main targets in Europe for champions of online appointment booking in these professions. To accelerate, Treatwell, born in the United Kingdom under the name of Wahanda and passed into the fold of the Japanese Recruit Holdings, got its hands on Zensoon. As for the American Booksy, it relied on the acquisition of Kiute, resulting from the merger between LeCiseau and Flexy.
Multitude of small players
Planity’s subscription formula, without commission or promotion, has nevertheless enabled the latter to establish itself, in the space of seven years, as number one against these two major competitors and a multitude of smaller players. specialized. This proposition has won over a quarter of beauty establishments in France. Financiers are also crazy about this type of model, with its source of recurring income that grows over the options, including cash and inventory management.
The founders of this young company – a trio made up of a former Henkel specialist in the hairdressing market, as well as two experts in reservation software behind ClicRDV, sold to the Solocal group in 2011 – had already raised 50 million euros in order to achieve critical size in France and profitability. Two objectives achieved at the start of the year, after a 60% jump in turnover in 2023, to 40 million euros.
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