Shoppable homecare plans: getting paid for the products you already recommend
You recommend products all day. After every facial, in every consult, in every "what should I use for this?" text. Most of those recommendations earn you nothing, and many never get bought at all.
It is not that clients ignore you. It is that buying is a separate job. They leave, they mean to look it up, they forget the exact name, and by the time they are in a store they buy whatever is closest. The recommendation was right. The path to buying it was missing.
A shoppable homecare plan closes that gap, and it is one of the simplest parts of virtual esthetics to start.
What a shoppable plan is
It is the homecare plan you already give, with one change: every product in it comes with a way to buy it, right there.
A good plan has:
- The routine, in order. Morning and evening, with how often.
- Each product, with a reason. "This cleanser, because yours is stripping your barrier."
- A buy option on every product. Not "look for something with niacinamide". The exact product, one tap away.
- What to stop using, which is often the most valuable line.
The four ways a client can buy
Clients like to buy differently, and the one way you offer may not be the one they use. Offering more than one keeps the sale with you.
- In office. They pick it up at their next visit, or you set it aside. Best margin, but they have to come in.
- Your own online shop. If you sell retail online, link straight to the product.
- The brand, through your affiliate link. Many professional skincare brands run affiliate or pro referral programs. Ask your vendors what they offer. The client buys from the brand, and you earn a commission.
- Amazon, under your own tag. For everyday products, a link with your Amazon Associates tag means the convenience purchase still credits you.
Let the client choose. A client who would never drive back for a cleanser will happily tap a link. In my own studio, most clients still buy in person, and some buy through my affiliate links. My virtual clients buy only through affiliate links, so I never have to hold inventory for them.
Disclose your links
If you earn from a link, say so. In the US, the FTC's endorsement guides expect a clear disclosure when you have a financial relationship with a brand you recommend, and Amazon's own program has disclosure terms. A plain line such as "I may earn a commission from some of these links" near the products is the usual approach. Check the current FTC guidance and each program's terms yourself, since they change.
Disclosure also helps trust. Clients know you sell products. What they want to know is that you would recommend this one anyway.
Where plans come from
A shoppable plan should come out of every place you give advice:
- After every treatment, as part of the visit summary.
- At the end of every virtual consult, so the consult ends in something they can act on. See virtual skin consultations.
- Inside your guides and courses, so a routine lesson links the products it names. See esthetician courses and guides.
Keep it honest
The fastest way to lose a client is to recommend something because of the commission. Recommend what you would recommend anyway, at a few price points where you can. A client who trusts your picks will keep buying from your links for years, and that is worth far more than one high commission.
How SlickChart handles it
In SlickChart, treatment notes, consults and guides all build a homecare plan that lands in your client's own app. Each product you send carries every way you sell it: in office, your shop, your vendor affiliate links, and Amazon with your own Associates tag connected. The client picks the one that suits them. SlickChart never takes a cut of your sales.
Start with your three most recommended products. Find a buy link for each, add a disclosure line, and send your next homecare plan with them inside.