Updated 2026-09-30 · 4 min read
Almost every salon has a shelf of products for sale: shampoos, masks, oils, hairsprays. And in almost every salon the same thing happens: it gets recommended at the backwash, the client takes it home and that payment ends up folded into the service, jotted in a notebook or nowhere at all.
You see the result at the end of the month. You don't know how much retail you sold, you don't know what's left, and you find out the hairspray has run out when somebody asks for it. Retail is the salon's easiest margin, and it's the one that's worst controlled.
Why retail slips away
It's hardly ever a question of willpower. It's a question of place: the service is charged at the till and the product lives somewhere else. If recording a shampoo sale means opening another program or grabbing a notebook, with the salon full it doesn't get recorded.
So the answer isn't «be more organised». It's making selling a product cost the same as charging for a cut: one more tap on the same receipt.
The product, on the same receipt as the service
In ClaudIA, products live inside the till. Each one has its record with the name, the brand, the product family, the retail price, the cost price, the VAT rate and the barcode. When you charge for the appointment:
- You search for the product by name, or scan it with a barcode reader and it goes straight in.
- It goes on the same receipt as the service, with its price and its VAT.
- When you take payment, its stock goes down on its own. Nobody has to remember to subtract it.
If the system thinks you have fewer units left than you're selling, the till tells you, but the sale goes through anyway. The product is already in your client's hand; what's left is checking the stock, and the product is flagged for exactly that.
Stock: deliveries, counts and minimums
A product's stock isn't typed in by hand: it's the sum of everything that has happened to it. That's why every change is recorded with its reason:
| What happens | What you do | What gets recorded |
|---|---|---|
| The order arrives | You tap «Delivery» and type the units | A delivery, with who recorded it |
| You sell at the till | Nothing: the payment does it | A sale, with its receipt |
| You refund the whole receipt | Nothing: the refund does it | A return, with its document |
| You count the shelf | You tap «Count» and type what's there | An adjustment for the difference |
So the question «why do I have three if there were six yesterday?» always has an answer: you open the product's history and see every movement with its date and its receipt.
You also give each product a minimum. When it drops below that, the list flags it as «Below minimum» and the summary at the top tells you how many there are, so you can place the order before you run out.
Who touches what
In a salon with a team it pays to separate two things. Recording the stock that arrives or counting the shelf can be done by anyone: it's whoever is at the front desk. The catalogue and the prices, on the other hand, are changed only by whoever runs the business. That way nobody lowers a price by accident and the count doesn't depend on you being there.
What you gain at the end of the month
With the product inside the receipt, whatever you sell off the shelf goes into the same till close as the services: nothing to reconcile separately. And each product's history tells you how much has gone out and when, so you can see what sells and what sits gathering dust on the shelf.
It's also the most direct way to raise your average ticket without raising prices: recommend what you really use at the backwash, and make charging for it effortless.
You keep placing orders with your suppliers as you do now, with the list of what's below minimum in front of you. And the WhatsApp and voice assistant focuses on appointments: products are sold at the till. You'll find all the detail in products and stock, and the full payment flow in your salon's POS.