For those itching to explore a wide variety of beauty services at a steal, newly launched Tropika Club collates everything in one place.
The platform has more than 4,000 listings of beauty, wellness and fitness offerings from a growing pool of more than 200 merchants. Services range from massages and eyelash extensions to hairdressing and body waxing.
And at certain times of the day for certain providers, you can snag discounts of up to 50 per cent off. For instance, a massage at Impression Beauty salon in Stamford Road is half-price any time before 6pm.
If the concept sounds familiar, Tropika Club founder Louis Lye, 33, and his partners are not afraid to admit where they found their inspiration.
"It originated from our use of restaurant reservation platform Eatigo," he says. "We were impressed by the idea of cafes and restaurants filling up their off-peak capacity by offering discounts. We figured this could also be applied to the beauty, wellness and fitness industry."
The banker-by-training indulges in beauty and grooming packages frequently. Over the years, he befriended salon owners and developed a better understanding of the industry.
He saw an opportunity to plug a gap when beauty booking app Vaniday announced its closure in November last year. Vaniday relaunched earlier this year.
It took six months to develop the Tropika Club portal and onboard merchants. It was launched officially at the end of July.
It was an opportune time to launch and help businesses given the current climate, says Mr Lye, who works full time as an agency development manager with a financial and wealth planning firm.
"When Covid-19 happened, it disrupted many businesses. They wanted to embrace digitalisation, but many were not sure how to list their services online.
"We realised that while they are aware of the market and consumers shifting online, they do not understand intricacies such as SEO (search engine optimisation) or backlinks. They weren't sure how to begin and were not ready to invest large sums to establish an online presence," he adds.
The platform hence helps to list merchants' profiles and services online in one place, with merchants free to set off-peak promotions. Tropika Club earns a small booking fee when a customer successfully books and pays via the portal.
To ensure authenticity, all merchant listings are integrated with Google Reviews, allowing potential customers to make informed decisions. Users can search for services by location too.
Since its launch, Tropika Club has crossed 1,000 sign-ups. It saw around 700 bookings within the first month, and the top merchant, beauty chain Wellaholic, received 110 bookings with a total revenue of $19,000.
The discounts are a big draw. So far, nine in 10 customers book services with off-peak discounts, says Mr Lye. "More customers are working from home and hence are able to indulge in off-peak beauty and wellness services."
Eyelash salon Perky Lash, which is also listed on other beauty booking platforms, has seen business improve by 15 per cent since getting on board Tropika Club.
Half of its weekly bookings at its two outlets are for off-peak timings, which are currently at 50 per cent off, says the brand's marketing executive Angelina Foo. "It has helped us gain more new bookings and reach out to new customers," she says.
There are plans to develop an app version of Tropika Club in the future.
Mr Lye says: "We support merchants with featured listings and priority search features as well as articles, video content creation and social media. It will take us some time to gain traction, but we hope to continue engaging both merchants and customers on a regular basis and grow our user base."
Correction note: This article has been edited for accuracy.
