Evaluating the digitalisation of the Professional Hairdressing Industry and the impact on value chain stakeholders

Abstract

Pandemic fear during COVID-19, as defined by Tarn (2021), has caused hairdressers, beauty salons, and distributors as well as the producers of professional hair care and colouring to come together to adapt the value chain of professional services to the new ways of operating to get the services, products, and experience to the consumers, due to the market shift to do-it-yourself and self-care beauty products (which would be ordered online during the heavy lockdowns) as per the RCA theory (Guthrie, FossoWamba & Arnaud, 2021)

The research into the digitalisation of the professional hairdressing industry of South Africa, and the impact on the value chain stakeholder’s, makes use of sequential (Quantitative-Qualitative) mixed method methodology. Data collected from the online monkey survey responses were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The interviews were conducted online (virtually) with industry participants who form a pivotal part of the hairdressing industry value chain.

The findings concluded that digitalisation has influenced and transformed business and how business interact and transact with consumers, having created a convenient and an enhanced consumer experience with how the consumers interact and transact with business

The influences digitalisation has on the key stakeholders within the professional products and services value chain, can be seen as positive and while there is industry value chain participant highlighted threats, there are also admitted opportunities raised through transformation by the industry value chain participants.

While there are identified problems and barriers to digitalisation, there are also value adding solutions the digitalisation of the professional hairdressing industry comes with, simply summarised by the high encouragement and belief in their being value by industry value chain participants. The research provides an understanding into how digitalisation has influenced and transformed business according to value chain stakeholders. It also, identifies the influences digitalisation has on the key stakeholders within the professional products and services value chain, and recommends solutions in relation to the digitalisation of the professional hairdressing industry according to value chain stakeholders.