Retail Attach And Service Mix

---
name: retail-attach-and-service-mix
description: "Lift the two margin levers the chair controls: retail attach (product sold alongside the service, on trust the provider already earned) and service mix (tilting the book toward higher-margin services). Read revenue and margin per service hour, not just bodies through the door."
---

# Retail Attach & Service Mix

Two levers move margin without adding a single appointment: what the client buys on the way out, and which services fill the hours. This skill works both.

## The loop

1. **Read revenue AND margin per service hour.** A full book of the lowest-margin service is a busy business losing ground. Rank services by contribution per hour (price minus product/back-bar and time cost), not by popularity.
2. **Tilt the mix deliberately.** Promote, schedule, and price toward the higher-contribution services and add-ons — an add-on service is incremental margin on an hour you already sold. Coordinate menu pricing with the pricing tree in [`../../knowledge/salon-spa-decision-trees.md`](../../knowledge/salon-spa-decision-trees.md).
3. **Attach retail at the chair.** Product attach rides on the provider's earned trust — the cheapest incremental margin in the building. Build the recommendation into the service (during, not at the register) and measure attach per provider. Treat benchmark attach rates as `[verify-at-use]`.
4. **Wire it to checkout.** Retail and the rebook happen at the same moment — coordinate with [`../booking-and-no-show-control/SKILL.md`](../booking-and-no-show-control/SKILL.md) so the checkout captures both.

## Metrics

| Metric | Reads | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Retail attach rate | tickets with retail / total tickets | The margin lever the owner controls; `[verify-at-use]` on norms |
| Retail-to-service ratio | retail $ / service $ | The classic salon health ratio |
| Contribution per service hour | (price - product - time cost) / hr | Reveals the low-margin full book |
| Add-on / upgrade rate | add-on tickets / total | Incremental margin on sold hours |

## Anti-patterns

- Chasing traffic when the margin lever is attach at the existing chair.
- Ranking services by count instead of contribution per hour.
- Retail "at the register" instead of recommended during the service.
- Discounting the high-margin add-on that clients would pay full price for.

## See also

- [`../chair-and-room-utilization/SKILL.md`](../chair-and-room-utilization/SKILL.md) — mix drives revenue per available chair-hour.
- Best practices: [`../../best-practices/retail-is-margin-the-service-cant-match.md`](../../best-practices/retail-is-margin-the-service-cant-match.md), [`../../best-practices/price-the-menu-on-time-and-demand.md`](../../best-practices/price-the-menu-on-time-and-demand.md).
- Template: [`../../templates/service-menu-and-pricing.md`](../../templates/service-menu-and-pricing.md).