Fitness Retail Strategies to Propel Your Brand and Attract New Members
Have you ever thought of creating and selling branded fitness merchandise? Maybe you opened a fitness gear store before the pandemic and have yet to pick it back up. The fitness clothing industry is growing rapidly on a global scale. It’s expected to reach $325.77 billion US by 2032. So there’s no better time to open or reopen shop.
Fitness and clothing go hand-in-hand in today’s social media-rich fitness industry where fitness influencers and gymgoers alike want to show off their fitness routines.
With the right niche, products, and marketing strategy, there are many ways that fitness merch can improve your business and brand. Here are just some of them:
- Selling fitness merch online and in-store can diversify your fitness studio’s revenue.
- Branded fitness gear can increase brand awareness and improve brand image.
- Offering fitness merch as a reward through your loyalty program shows members you value their patronage.
- Brand ambassadors and members who wear your merch outside the studio can attract new members.
Fitness merch is more than just the items in your fitness store. Adding this line of business can fuel your studio’s growth. In this post, we’ll discuss what you need to know about selling fitness merchandise. With a strong strategy, you can optimize your sales and reap the revenue and brand-related benefits.
Here’s what we’ll explore:
- Develop a strong fitness retail strategy
- Fitness merch management essentials
- Engage your customers with fitness merch
- Gym merchandise ideas: How to meet your members’ needs
- WellnessLiving makes managing every part of your business easier
Develop a strong fitness retail strategy
How can you use fitness merch to your studio’s advantage? Your fitness merchandise can accomplish many business goals. In order to achieve those goals, you need a strategy. Here are some ideas:
- Make your merchandise available on your website and mobile app to entice current members and attract new ones.
- Offer free or discounted merchandise for certain membership tiers, sign-ups, or as part of a loyalty rewards program.
- Have instructors wear the merchandise in online and in-person classes.
- Create opportunities for members to spread the word about your business.
Fitness merch management essentials
Manage inventory efficiently
As you develop a retail strategy, you’ll also consider your approach to operations. This includes managing inventory, design variations, and selling platforms. Make sure your products are well-stocked and readily available. A tool like our Inventory on Hand Report makes inventory management seamless. You can view specific date ranges, find summaries, and even print barcode labels directly from your reports.
Before you start selling merch, you should also decide which sales platforms work best for your customers. You can sell merch on your website, mobile app, or in-studio.
Consider selling online only at first
Keeping sales online can help you save inventory space because you won’t have to keep the products in stock yourself. Opening your online store will be a lower-cost commitment than any physical storefront. Starting online only also makes it easier to monitor sales. With sales data, you can stick to your bestsellers and eliminate low-performing items to optimize profits.
A custom-branded mobile app is another way to introduce fitness merch virtually. It may sound like a lot of work, but our Achieve Client App makes it easy for members to book classes, see their schedules, and buy merch all in one app.
Center your brand values
A clearly defined brand will help you design individual items and create a cohesive client experience across selling platforms.
What are your brand values? If you promote accessibility and sustainability in your studio, for example, that should translate into how you source, produce, and sell your merch. Partnering with local suppliers can keep costs down and increase sustainability, which is a growing consumer concern in the fitness industry. Be sure to emphasize your core values when you promote your fitness gear on social media too.
Engage your customers with fitness merch
Better customer engagement is the greatest benefit you can get from selling fitness merch. When you creatively incorporate merchandise into the customer experience, you can increase memberships and member visits. Leverage social media and stay tuned into popular trends among your customer base.
Ambassadors and influencers
To really take your customer experience to the next level, try to focus on community building. One way to do this is to work with brand ambassadors. A good ambassador will benefit your business by passionately promoting your brand, testing out new products, and more. This means customers are more likely to love the new products and services you introduce.
Social media plays a pivotal role in today’s fitness industry. To excel in this fast-paced space, it’s important to use social media to your advantage. Recruiting influencers to become brand ambassadors is an effective way to increase brand exposure among your target audience.
Micro-influencers are also worth considering since partnerships with them yield unique benefits. They tend to have higher engagement rates despite having a smaller following and they’re more affordable to work with. You can also reach out to existing members or even instructors who have an engaged fitness-focused audience on social media. The key to any fruitful partnership is shared values and authentic relationships.
Rewards Programs
Rewards programs can improve your relationship with clients on an individual level. Customer experience is increasingly critical to earning loyalty. You can give free or discounted merch to members who achieve certain goals. These tangible rewards are an excellent way to keep members motivated and make them feel valued.
Common categories for earning rewards include class attendance, birthdays, social sharing, review posting, and more. Members can earn points for these occasions and achievements and use those points to purchase fitness merch from your store.
Gym merchandise ideas: How to meet your members’ needs
Now you might be wondering which fitness products to sell. Workout clothing might seem obvious, but your clients’ needs always come first. Think about what you can provide for your members inside and outside the studio for a more balanced health and fitness routine.
Start broad
When you first venture into fitness merch, you’ll want to keep costs low and appeal to as many clients as possible. Some of the top fitness gear for promoting your brand include water bottles, towels, gym bags, and yoga blocks.
Water bottles are a great product to start with because no matter your fitness studio’s specialization, hydration is essential. Members are also likely to use water bottles outside of your studio advertising your brand wherever they go.
Consider the types of workouts you specialize in
Depending on what your studio offers, you can sell branded boxing gloves, hand wraps, exercise mats, and more. These products are especially helpful for beginners. Just having them available for purchase can make your studio feel more welcoming to first-timers.
Stay curious about your members’ needs
Fitness trends change over time. You don’t have to chase every micro trend, but be privy to new workouts, equipment, and supplements your clients care about.
Instead of trying to keep up with trends, communicate with your members. You can use surveys and polls to simply ask what new products and services they want. This type of open communication also makes members feel heard.
Incorporate steadily growing trends into your offerings
Recovery, in particular, is gaining traction as a trend and foundational part of regular workouts. If you sell branded fitness equipment that helps your members with recovery, they’ll see your brand even more positively. They’ll view your brand as one helpful and knowledgeable about fitness.
WellnessLiving makes managing every part of your business easier
Selling fitness gear may not be the highest-earning part of your business in terms of revenue, but it’s still worth pursuing for:
- How it improves your brand image and customer experience to increase member signups and member loyalty.
- The way it diversifies income streams for your fitness business.
- The community-building opportunities it provides for your business.
WellnessLiving makes the process simple. Our software helps you track and manage your merch inventory, run your rewards program smoothly, and optimize your mobile app.
When you start your fitness merchandise line it should be an exciting process, not a stressful one. Book your no-commitment demo today to make all aspects of managing your business more efficiently.
