Yelp expands Platform to include spas and salons

Steven Loeb · April 8, 2014 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/362d

Yelp Platform allows businesses and consumers to make transactions directly on the site

Last year, Yelp decided that it was sick of just being the site that told you where to go; it wanted in on the action and, more importantly, the money! And so it launched Yelp Platform, which allows users to buy goods and services directly from Yelp.

Yelp first partnered with delivery.com and Eat24 to offer food delivery services, while promising that other verticals would be coming. Now, nine months later, it is finally expanding to its second category: spas and salons.

Yelp has entered into a partnership with Booker, a company that enables service business to sell their services online, to allow users to schedule their appointment directly from the Yelp website or mobile app, it was revealed on Tuesday. 

The spa or salon simply has to be supported by Booker. In addition, users will also have the ability to choose to save their payment details for future appointments, given that such services often get repeat business.

"Before consumers decide to spend money at a local business, they turn to Yelp -- whether it’s to help them discover the best pizza joint, a trustworthy locksmith or a quaint B&B for a weekend getaway," the company wrote.

"This is exactly why we introduced Yelp Platform last year, to give people a seamless way to transact directly with the businesses they’re already discovering on Yelp."

Other categories that Yelp outlined last year that it plans to expand to include yoga studios, salons and dentist appointments starting with Booker, Intuit’s Demandforce and MindBody.

A select number of spas and salons are already available for booking on Yelp Platform as of today, including Yelo, which is located in New York, and more will be rolled out in the coming weeks.

Another revenue stream

It makes a lot of sense for Yelp to expand its services to become a marketplace. After all, it has a huge database of businesses, perhaps the biggest on the Web. And a lot of people already rely on the site to see which businesses to give their money to. So why shouldn't help Yelp also get a piece of that business?

Yelp Platform gives the company another revenue stream. Right now, Yelp makes most of its money off of business accounts and local advertising. It's full year revenue for 2013 went up 69% to $233 million, while local ad revenue grew 71%.

While Yelp Platform hasn’t had much of an impact on revenue yet, J.P. Morgan analyst Kaizad Gotla sees promise.

“We expect Yelp to continue adding additional service providers over the coming months, further solidifying Yelp’s position as a destination for local content and potentially local commerce in the future,” Gotla wrote in a research note.

(Image source: studiomsalonandspa.com)

Support VatorNews by Donating

Read more from our "Trends and news" series

More episodes

Related Companies, Investors, and Entrepreneurs

Yelp

Startup/Business

Joined Vator on

Yelp is the fun and easy way to find, review and talk about what's great (and not so great) in your world. You already know that asking friends is the best way to find restaurants, dentists, hairstylists, and anything local. Yelp makes it fast and easy by collecting and organizing your friends' recommendations in one convenient place.

Yelp is...

...the ultimate city guide that taps into the community's voice and reveals honest and current insights on local businesses and services on everything from martinis to mechanics.

...just real people, writing real reviews, and that's the real deal.

...a fun and engaging place for passionate and opinionated influencers to share the experiences they've had with local businesses and services.

...the definitive local guide in the San Francisco Bay Area and a force to be reckoned with in Chicago, New York, Boston, Los Angeles and Seattle. But really, we're everywhere. From Austin to Madison and everywhere in between, reviews are coming in from all over the country!

...word of mouth marketing - amplified. Savvy local marketers now have a great channel to effectively target local consumers.

Since July 2004, co-founders Jeremy Stoppelman (CEO) and Russel Simmons (CTO) and their Yelp crew have been striving to make life better for people who love to patronize great local businesses. Discovering accurate information on local establishments has never been this entertaining. Writing reviews has never been this fun, easy and addictive!