What September’s Benchmark Numbers Mean for Your Business

A salon can grow its revenue while making only a small gain in the number of visits it serves. September’s KIM Report offers a useful example, and a reason to look beyond the sales total when assessing the health of a business.

Across the report’s full panel of 10,785 U.S. salons, average revenue per salon rose 3.5% compared with September 2025. Visits increased about 1.0%, while the average service ticket rose 2.6%. Retail revenue declined 1.3%, and the number of products sold fell 7.9%.

These measures describe different parts of the business. Looking at them together gives owners a better starting point for understanding their own results.

Start with a relevant comparison

The September results varied considerably by salon size. Revenue declined 2.3% in the group with one or two stylists. It rose 1.9% among salons with three or four stylists, 5.5% among those with five to nine, 6.5% among those with 10 to 19, and 6.1% among those with 20 or more.

Those differences matter when you compare your salon with an industry headline. Nearly 60% of the salons in this panel fall into the one-to-two-stylist group. The full-panel average can therefore tell a different story from the group most relevant to your business.

Begin with salons of a similar size. Then consider your market, service mix and staffing. Size provides context, but it does not explain every difference or prove that one business model is stronger.

Understand where revenue growth comes from

September’s full-panel figures show visits increasing more slowly than revenue. That is a prompt to examine the sources of growth in your own salon.

Review visits, service tickets and service counts together. A higher ticket may reflect pricing, a different mix of services or changes in what guests purchase. The report alone cannot tell you which explanation applies to your salon.

If sales are rising, find out whether the business is also serving more guests, generating more repeat visits or making better use of available appointments. Each answer points toward a different decision about marketing, coaching or capacity.

Look at retail units as well as dollars

The retail figures deserve attention. Across the full panel, the decline in products sold was larger than the decline in retail revenue. Looking only at dollars would miss part of that change.

The pattern also varied by size. Salons with five to nine stylists sold 12.6% fewer products than a year earlier. In the 10-to-19-stylist group, units increased 3.1%; among salons with 20 or more, they rose 7.2%.

For an owner, a useful next step is to review units sold alongside retail revenue and guest visits. Then discuss the experience behind those numbers. Are recommendations consistent? Are products in stock? Do guests understand how the recommended home care supports their salon result? The findings give us questions to investigate, rather than a single explanation for every business.

Give color its own review

Color generated about 41% of total revenue across the full panel in September. Its importance varied by size, reaching roughly 51% in the group with 10 to 19 stylists.

That makes color worth examining separately. Review the number of color services, their revenue and the costs involved in delivering them. Revenue growth alone cannot establish profitability. Product use, service time and compensation all affect what those services contribute to the business.

Use the findings with your team

KIM has joined us at Spring Gathering and Fall Atelier, helping bring more evidence into our business conversations. The value for salon owners comes from connecting that information with the decisions we make every week.

Choose one measure to discuss with your team. Explain what it shows, invite their observations and agree on a practical action. Review it again after a reasonable period. This gives people a way to participate in improving the business and developing their own understanding of it.

Industry data helps put our experience in perspective. Our knowledge of the people, clients and communities behind our numbers helps us decide what to do next.

Source: September 2026 KIM Report, average basis, September compared with September 2025. Percentages rounded. These findings describe the participating panel and its salon-size groups, not every U.S. salon. They do not establish causes or measure profit. Staffing groups should not be treated as proof of employment status.
Disclosure: Gordon Miller serves on the KIM Report Advisory Board.