A fractional CTO for salon/spa groups and beauty DTC brands
Platform strategy, vendor management, data strategy for multi-location salon/spa groups and beauty DTC brands. $4,500/mo Advisory, $8,500/mo full.
Who this is for
Multi-location salon/spa group owner or beauty DTC brand founder where booking, retail, CRM, and logistics are across many tools with no platform owner.
The pain today
- Booking, retail, CRM, logistics across many tools
- No unified customer view across service and product
- New-location launches require tech setup from scratch
- DTC brand scaling into physical retail creates integration gaps
- Full-time CTO premature at current scale
The outcome you get
- Fractional beauty CTO at $4,500 to $8,500/mo
- Platform strategy for booking + retail + CRM unification
- Vendor consolidation plan
- Data and reporting infrastructure
- Hiring plan for technical capability
Beauty CTO topics
Four topics. Booking — Vagaro, Boulevard, Square Appointments, or custom. Retail — Shopify for DTC brands, POS-integrated retail for salons/spas. CRM — unified customer data across service and product. Logistics — for brands, fulfillment and inventory; for spas, backbar ordering and consumable tracking. Fractional CTO at $4,500 to $8,500/mo covers these for multi-location groups and scaling DTC brands.
Vendor consolidation
Beauty operations accumulate vendors — booking, POS, retail ecommerce, CRM, email, SMS, loyalty, payroll, logistics, inventory. Stack audit reveals redundancy. Consolidation to platforms with integrated capability (Boulevard covers booking + retail + CRM for salons) or best-of-breed specialists. For brands at scale, Shopify Plus plus specialty tools.
Data and reporting
Unified customer view across service bookings and retail purchases. LTV by channel. Inventory visibility across locations and retail. For multi-brand operators, brand-level reporting plus group-level consolidation. Data strategy investment sequenced based on operational ROI and growth bets.
Pricing tiers
CTO Advisory $4,500/mo. Fractional CTO $8,500/mo. 14-day money-back guarantee. Cancel anytime.
Case: LAK Embalagens and Instill
LAK Embalagens: B2B manufacturer with catalog-first approach and strong brand expression. Instill: self-initiated platform with structured content. Between them, patterns for beauty-brand CTO work covered.
When a head of ecom is right
For DTC beauty brands where ecommerce is the primary channel and operations, head of ecom may be the right first leadership hire. CTO complements by covering platform architecture.
Recent proof
A comparable engagement, delivered and documented.
Turned a B2B manufacturer into a digital showroom
Designed and developed a high-performance institutional website to showcase packaging solutions and generate qualified leads.
Frequently asked questions
The questions prospects ask before they book.
- Vagaro or Boulevard?
- Boulevard for upscale salon/spa groups wanting integrated retail and CRM. Vagaro for broader mid-market. Square Appointments for smaller or Square-native operations. Decision on brand fit and scale.
- How do you handle DTC + physical retail?
- For beauty brands scaling from DTC into physical retail, integration between Shopify and in-store POS matters. Shopify POS simplest; specialty retail POS with Shopify integration for larger operations.
- What about loyalty?
- Loyalty tied to unified customer data across service and retail. Platform-native loyalty (Boulevard, Vagaro) or specialty (Loyalty Programs by Yotpo, Smile.io).
- How do you handle multi-location?
- New locations as config changes, not projects. Standardised tech stack with per-location configuration. For franchises, franchisee-facing tools and reporting.
- Can you help with DTC brand growth?
- Platform architecture, performance, conversion work. Growth strategy from marketing leader; technical delivery from CTO.
Ready to start?
Tell me what you need in 60 seconds. Tailored proposal in your inbox within 6 hours.