Before opening a beauty care business to franchisees, decide how company-owned store experience will transfer to independent operators and how consumables and take-home products will enter a continuing, traceable supply process.
Franchising can expand faster with less direct store investment. Yet after several dozen openings, daily problems often surface: inconsistent accounts, unclear service-card sales and outstanding services, and franchise replenishment still handled manually. Together, these problems slow expansion.
Prepare before the first franchise store opens. Identify the operating methods to replicate and the activities the system should record and execute. This article focuses on operating decisions for brands considering or beginning franchising.
Franchising replicates two business relationships
Company-owned stores often rely on experienced managers and close headquarters support. Franchising introduces independent owners and new teams who must reproduce the approach repeatedly. Personal supervision becomes harder as the network grows.
First, capabilities move from headquarters to stores: customer acquisition, service standards and operating experience must become daily practice. In a service-led business, inconsistent care affects the entire brand.
Second, sustained store activity supports recurring supply revenue. Successful franchisees complete more services and sell more take-home products, normally increasing legitimate purchases of consumables and merchandise. The initial franchise fee is only one part of the relationship; its longer-term value depends on viable stores.
Systems record both relationships. The records remain trustworthy only if stores follow consistent operating rules.
Four capabilities to transfer to franchise stores
For each capability, first assess the maturity of the brand’s method, then what the system can record or execute. Software cannot supply missing operating rules, while methods dependent on constant supervision are difficult to scale.
Customer acquisition and in-store follow-through
Offer design and campaigns on Meituan, Dianping and Douyin remain the brand’s operating responsibility. When a customer arrives with a voucher, the store verifies it, delivers the service and settles the transaction. The system records the store, service and subsequent spending, allowing headquarters to compare arrivals and redemption without another round of spreadsheets. Channel connections and returned data depend on the platforms actually used.
Service standardisation
The brand defines service items, packages and consumable quantities. Confirmed items and packages become store workflows with service and redemption records. Mini-program feedback can help headquarters compare stores. Complex treatment courses, therapist scheduling and care records require separate tests with real processes.
Keep merchandise and services distinct. A take-home product creates a retail sale and stock deduction. A treatment may redeem a service package, consume professional-use products and create a service record. Combining these into one record type obscures revenue sources and inventory changes.
Training
The brand supplies training content and techniques. Personnel, store, service and sales records can support comparison of service conversion, attachment sales or repeat purchase before and after training, using the same store, role and comparable periods. Traffic, campaign intensity and staff changes also affect results, so these measures provide observations rather than proof of training impact. Record training cohorts and attendance to make comparisons more meaningful.
Repeatable operating rules
The brand must document how its model store succeeds. Systems can embed confirmed rules for price changes, refunds, product and service records, packages and reporting definitions. Turning knowledge held by a few individuals into explicit rules reduces the work of opening the next store.
Make recurring franchise supply traceable
Service activity and retail sales create ongoing demand for consumables and take-home products. As the network grows, manual orders produce omissions, errors and time-consuming reconciliation, affecting replenishment and dispatch.
A typical manual process involves WeChat or telephone orders, re-entry by sales staff, account-specific prices in spreadsheets, separate payment checks with finance and shipment enquiries to the warehouse. Even a monthly purchasing total may require a fresh manual compilation.
The PEKON B2B Ordering Platform brings these activities online. Franchisees order directly, with pricing and promotions matched to account rules. Headquarters continues payment and fulfilment processing and can inspect ordered items, payment and logistics progress.
In a national beauty care franchise project, self-service ordering and account-based promotions replaced fragmented communication and repeated entry with order-based processing. The evidence concerns franchise ordering; appointments, complex service packages and cross-store settlement require separate project assessment.
Translate both relationships into system preparation
Start with daily store decisions: who can change prices or refund, how products and services are recorded, and where packages can be used. Confirm permissions, business configuration, reporting definitions and exception ownership before problems arise.
Then walk through ordering to receipt. Which products can each franchisee buy, at what prices, who approves orders, and how are payments and returns handled? Existing ERP, WMS and finance responsibilities must be clear so one order does not acquire competing versions.
Before launch, test the first franchise store’s real products, packages and purchase orders. Follow a customer voucher through redemption and service; follow a franchise order through payment and dispatch. Record every step that still requires missing data to be supplied through a chat group.
Two areas need specific review. Separate recommended retail prices, coordinated campaigns and franchisee pricing discretion; imposing or limiting resale prices can raise competition-law issues. Separately determine access to loyalty and care records. Skin conditions, body data and photographs may require sensitive-data assessment by legal and security owners. Personal-data purposes, required fields and headquarters versus franchise access should be explicitly defined.
How PEKON products divide the work
| Product | Main business scope |
|---|---|
| PEKON Smart Retail System | Store checkout, product and service records, inventory operations, package and channel-voucher redemption |
| PEKON CRM | Member identities, tiers, points, coupons and loyalty operations |
| PEKON B2B Ordering Platform | Franchise orders, account rules, order approval, payment and logistics status |
| PEKON WeChat Mini-Program Suite | Customer access to membership, benefits, appointments and service feedback |
Acquisition campaigns and training content remain with the brand and its specialist teams. Complete cross-store settlement, complex commission rules, package transfers and freezes, and conditional refunds need separate discussion using actual policies. The systems primarily make transactions, services, loyalty and franchise ordering traceable by store and progress.
The beauty care chain solution provides further context for appointments, scheduling, package redemption and franchise management.
Start by proving the first franchise store
Store appearance is only the most visible part of replication. Headquarters must transfer acquisition, service and operating methods while establishing recurring consumable and merchandise supply. Successful franchise operations support sustainable purchasing and legitimate supply margins.
The first implementation does not need to anticipate every complexity of dozens of stores. Prove redemption, packages, service and ordering in the first store, identify manual dependencies and replicate the validated approach. Contact PEKON to review the first franchise store against existing packages, services and supply arrangements.
Frequently asked questions
When should system preparation begin?
After deciding to franchise and before large-scale opening. Retrofitting systems later adds historical migration and inconsistent-store-definition work.
Can a company-owned store system be copied directly?
Usually not unchanged. Franchise permissions, supply orders and data use between separate businesses require additional decisions.
Can headquarters set every franchisee’s retail prices?
Distinguish recommended prices, coordinated marketing and independent pricing, and review the proposed rules with legal advisers.
How much member data should headquarters and stores see?
Identify each party’s purpose and service needs, then assign field-level viewing, editing and export access. Assess care photographs and body data separately.
How should cross-store packages work?
Establish sales value, used and remaining benefits, and eligible stores. Cross-store service also involves revenue attribution, consumable cost, commissions and inter-store charges. Test redemption, refunds and adjustments with real packages after agreeing the rules.
Does the B2B Ordering Platform replace ERP?
Generally no. It primarily supports franchise distribution and online ordering. Existing ERP or WMS responsibilities for products, inventory and dispatch should be agreed in the project.
How does the system support franchise revenue?
Revenue structures differ. For supply-led beauty care brands, viable franchisees generate continuing demand for consumables and take-home goods. Recording products, account pricing, orders, payments and logistics makes purchasing visible and reduces manual order-taking and reconciliation.