sheerME’s 2021 in retrospect: A Year of digital transformation on the beauty and wellness sectors
At the end of each year, we always look back at the learnings and do a retrospect of what we accomplished.
The year 2021 started full of obstacles for all of us as a newly launched startup: lockdowns on and off, readjusting to the new realities of working remotely, building a culture of a new startup team, and with a sector suffering without knowing when they would open again.
Our product was still in a very early stage, and the clients we had closed a deal with in the last months of 2020 were uncertain of what was coming ahead. We immediately understood that we would need to invest time in giving them support, training, and give them the hope that sheerME would help them recover, and not be an extra cost for them in uncertain times.
From January to May 2021 we focussed on creating a stronger product, a new scalable strategy that would be a value add for users and merchants.
We started from the First Principles: How can we help users find what they need? And how can we do it in a way that would bring relevant business to the merchants? And how could we reward them to guarantee, repeat usage frequency and loyalty?
SheerProduct Market Fit
We understood that most other wellness and beauty platforms in the market today are SaaS products that have a fixed cost and help merchants manage existing business. But what merchants really need is to have more visibility online and convert that visibility into new business. Reach more people online and have them book their service 24/7.
We also learned that most merchants are not willing to pay a fixed cost for a digital booking manager, but they are more than willing to pay a variable cost, a commission for each time they get new business.
Thus not having a pure marketplace platform in the market today for these sectors, is limiting users to book online and this trend to be created globally, as there is not enough offer for online bookings, so clients and users still use the conventional inefficient ways to “try” to book their wellness and beauty needs, when what they want and need is to be able to book online 24/7, not only when someone picks up the phone.
Our Strategy and Relentless Focus
With this in mind, we made a strong and risky commitment that we wanted to be a pure marketplace. We had to become experts in opening visibility, acquisition, conversion channels, and partnerships to convert relevant visits into clients. We also understood that to make a difference in this sector, we would charge only a success commission: a percentage of the value of each service booked through sheerME and our technology partners.
We believe this is the hardest way to go, but the only way to make this a successful trend, and what is actually needed today, due to the digitalization of customers today. If a customer today, does not find what he needs online… it does not exist! This will be even more relevant in 2/3 years when today's 18-year-olds will be 20/21 and buying online services much more frequently.
We have a team with a great track record, that has been doing this for more than 12 years globally in different a different sectors… so what scares others… is actually what we know how to do best. Creating digital trends, marketplaces in very analog sectors. That is our expertise and has been for more than a decade.
Discover > Transactions > Rewards > Repeat
We realized that we would need to create a flywheel or a product loop that would be based on 3 Basic actions:
Discover — the best spots around you to take care of yourself, or find your favorite barber, spa, or hair salon on sheerME.
Transactions — Book 24/7 with instant confirmation, making your life so much easier, not depending on merchants to answer the phone. And pay so you can have an uber-like experience: go in and go out, without needing to touch your wallet.
Rewards — Each time you book and use sheerME you not only gain efficiency, but you gain cashback in your wallet on every booking made, creating the FOMO to use that money in your wallet and create the loyalty needed to repeat.
The sheerME FlyWheel:
Once we figured this out, it was game-changing and we started our collection of small wins that gave us the needed motivation to turn 2021 around.
2021 small wins that together continue to give us the ambition to make sheerME one of the top 3 players globally in the next 3 to 5 years
Launching the sheerME Booking and Payments Manager
Launching the sheerME Cashback on all bookings and Wallet Ecosystem
sheerME became L’Oréal Professionnel’s recommended platform for online bookings and payments for their clients
Testing with L’Oréal an e-commerce feature on sheerME with a small pool of L’Oréal Clients and one L’Oréal Professionnel product
Launching the Google Reserve integration with global reach
sheerME was selected to be on the Facebook and Plug and Play Acceleration Program
Presenting sheerME at the Lisbon Web Summit
Winning a CTT eCommerce Award for 2021 for Innovation in Digital Marketing & e-Commerce
Soft-Launching sheerME in Brazil, and taking the first steps to go international
Launching the META integration, having booking buttons on Facebook, Instagram, and being the first Portuguese startup being launched as a Facebook Business APP
Going from 0€ to over 300.000€ in GMV generated in Portugal for the Beauty and Wellness sectors between partnerships and bookings (huge impact in the last 6 months)
In 6 Months going from averages of 100 bookings to over 2.000 monthly bookings in Portugal in the Beauty and Wellness Sectors
These accomplishments, mostly in 6 months after our countries lockdown, gives us the belief we are on the right track, that we found a “white spot” in the market, and we need to continue to push as hard as we can to meet our goal of being one of the TOP 3 global players in the wellness and beauty sector.
We have the team, the experience, track record, and we believe we are designing and iterating sheerME to be aligned 100% with what the mass market really needs: being what the clients/users look for, and what the merchants actually need to expand their business digitally.
sheerME is revolutionizing the way that people find, book, and pay for their wellness and beauty services, powered by a benefit-based wallet ecosystem.
Our mission is to help people feel great about themselves every day!
We are aiming for 2022 to be the year that makes this mission international and takes sheerME to serve more people globally with our services and partner benefits.
Join the sheerME community and share your feedback
Register today at www.sheerme.com and win 10€ in your wallet right away, share the code SHEERLOVE with your friends, and have them win an extra 10€ on the sheerME wallet.
If you believe in our vision and would like to be part of our journey, and mission, reach out to us, we would love to talk and hear your feedback. Send us an email to miguel.ribeiro@sheerme.com and we will be more than glad to reply and hear your feedback, or just reach out to me on LinkedIn, you can reach my profile on this lin👇 https://www.linkedin.com/in/miguelalvesribeiro/
We hope 2022 will be the year you take better care of yourself with sheerME.com ;-)
