Written by | Ray Cornelius
Imagine you’re traveling to New York City or Los Angeles for a few weeks and while there you need a beautician or personal trainer. Well, StyleSeat is here to make that connection a little bit easier.
It’s the newest online destination that links customers with beauty and wellness professionals anywhere in the U.S. and its just one click away. With the free mobile app, customers can browse through numerous photos of stylists, nail techs and trainers and find out what clients are saying about their experience. Professionals can also use the app to showcase their work and connect with new and existing clients.
StyleSeat officially launched in Atlanta this week and I had the opportunity to chat with the Founder and CEO, Melody McCloskey about why she decided to bring her beauty brand to the heart of the South.
L to R: Loop Atlanta Salon Owner, Lindsay Thompson with StyleSeat Founder and CEO Melody McCloskey
“Atlanta is one of our top cities which is totally awesome. Style is really important here and we love that. We found that Atlanta professionals are really vocal and helped spread the word about SytleSeat. Atlanta for us has been a growing market especially on the mobile side. Usage of our consumer app has skyrocketed to almost 90%, which is huge for the brand,” says McCloskey.
StyleSeat is available in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Baltimore, Houston, and Las Vegas with plans to launch in Miami. The concept of the company was created out of McCloskey’s need to find the right colorist in her native San Francisco.
“I wanted this for myself as customer. I am not from the beauty industry but I’m like a lot of other women out there who don’t want to spend a long time trying to find a really good stylist. Secondly, I wanted to find an expert that was proficient in the specific service I needed. For example, if I wanted to find a really good blond colorist, I would go the the app and search colorist…San Francisco…this price range…get a list of stylists and their photos and find the best one for me. Being able to find the right person for the job in a little amount of time is the ultimate goal,” says McCloskey.
McCloskey boasts that most professionals who join StyleSeat almost double their business in the first year. She also hopes that within next two or three years, StyleSeat will become the official online guide to all things health and beauty. She already has a budding partnership with cosmetic giant L’Oreal and plans to roll out more consumer features over the next year.
Check out a few photos below from the StyleSeat Launch that took place at Loop Salon ATL:
Photo Credit: RayCornelius.com