What will we cover in this article?
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Taking a break from our mainline series of articles about independent gyms and their websites, we’ve decided to focus on a smaller topic today that keeps coming up whenever we talk to independent gym owners.
The online store, or webstore.
Specifically, does every independent gym need an online store?
It is a good question. As we covered in our broader article on websites, while many independent gyms have made their website a cornerstone of their business, many others have either failed to integrate or maintain them and an alarming number of independent gyms still don’t have a website at all!
Roughly the same category breakdown can be made when it comes to independent gyms and their online stores. The same three camps.
- Cornerstone of the business
- Set up but poorly maintained/integrated
- Non-existent
And that is understandable, not only are there a lot of misconceptions about the nature of an online store for an independent fitness facility, but the task itself also seems inherently daunting to many. We’ve spoken to plenty of intelligent gym owners who believe that an online store would represent far too much time spent in administration and management.
Others imagine that the infrastructure, organisation and manpower required to fulfil orders by post or even in-gym customer collection would be an unnecessary distraction and hassle when they are busy trying to run their fitness facility’s main floor.
However, these people are forgetting that by owning a gym you already have a captive market. That is to say, you already have access to a number of potential customers who have an interest in health and fitness in the form of your members. Why have these members shop for products through large corporations when they could be supporting the gym that they love so much!
So today we will be taking a dive into the reasons why nearly every independent gym in the country should be considering either setting up an online store or taking steps towards making an online store feasible.
The Core Reasons Why Any Independent Gym Can Benefit From An Online Store
Good things come in threes, so here are the three core reasons that any independent gym should be able to benefit from an online store.
Additional Revenue:
You probably saw it coming but it was obvious for a reason. It is true.
When an independent gym doesn’t have an online store, it is leaving money on the table. In a poll taken this year, 89% of people had purchased something online.
When you delve down that number into ‘gym going demographics’, it becomes as close as you can reasonably expect to 100%. Online shopping is a huge business and it isn’t just relegated to the online giants of Amazon and eBay anymore.
People want to buy from independents in their area, even online. Customers want high quality products from somewhere they can trust. And where should they trust more than their local gym, right?
Opening an online store allows independent gyms to open up a second front when it comes to generating upsell value.
A Broader Audience:
Unless you have a specific front of house setup, normally the only people engaging in secondary spend are the people involved in your primary spend (your members).
This will feel like stating the obvious, but it is an important factor. Your gym is, short of some sorcery, a finite space. You can only have so many members in a day. That isn’t the case with your web store/online store.
Never underestimate the power of word of mouth. The number of times I’ve heard of gym members buying their non-member friends something is beyond count.
But why put this artificial barrier in place? We are supposed to be breaking down the barriers to trade. Someone shouldn’t need to know someone at your gym to buy your product. And not everyone is going to be cavalier enough to walk in and just buy what they want.
Recognition:
So much like our first point, this comes down to leaving money on the table.
But it is more than that, gym owners that don’t have an online store deny themselves valuable web presence and legitimacy as well as some marketing potential.
Any theoretical non-member that starts buying from your webstore has started to build a positive association and trust with your brand. It is also safe to say that if they are buying from your store, they hopefully like fitness.
Who is to say, when their gym membership next goes up or runs out. Maybe your gym’s name will stick in their head just a little bit better.
Incentive:
By offering membership discounts on their webstore, an independent gym can ensure that it is incentivising it’s members to stay.
We often talk here at the Gym Owner’s Forum about offering value beyond the four walls of a fitness facility and this is honestly one of the easier ways to do that.
In the same way that being charged extra for legroom or luggage on an EasyJet or RyanAir flight feels bad, discounts feel good. Member discounts feel great. I get to belong to something AND I get a discount for the pleasure? Sign me up!
Not only does it help keep members loyal and boost all important retention numbers, it can help draw in new members.
As we covered above, a webstore will naturally boost the web presence and public profile of a gym. If a gym is going to be drawing people in, why not show them the benefit of a membership above and beyond access to the gym? We’ve seen from the run-away success of subscription services that people are in the market for this. Add another great selling point to membership of your gym with a 10% discount.
How To Set Up Your First Online Store
Which unsurprisingly leads us neatly onto how to set up your first, basic online store.
It might sound daunting but there are really only two factors to this:
- Build the framework of the store
- Host the store on your gym’s website
How to get your first webstore up, running and hosted on your website
This part will vary a little depending on whether you handle your own website or you have a web developer working on it for you. So we will try to keep it short and sweet.
Adding a store if you run your own website is going to largely depend on the software, but many of the popular options have already integrated the appropriate templates for building an online webstore quickly and easily.
For example, if an independent gym has their website hosted on such popular options amongst gym owners as SquareSpace or Wix, both of these site builders already have pre-existing and comprehensive online store templates ready to use.
At that point it becomes as simple as activating or purchasing the requisite online store add-on (for these two options it comes at quite a reasonable price). Once that is done, setting up an online store becomes as easy as filling in information, finding appropriate pictures and coming up with item descriptions.
Conversely if you’ve built it yourself on such services like WordPress, there are a plethora of plug-ins that can be used. Just by searching online for a webstore plug-in will result in dozens of options.
From there it is simply a process of sorting out the pros and cons of the ones that catch your eye. They will range from free to paid, from ornate to very simplistic.Find something that fits your speed, tone and goals.
Our personal recommendation would be the WooCommerce plugin, but we have heard tales of independent gym owners having great success with over half a dozen different options.
And finally, for those independent gym’s that employ the service of a web developer. The whole process becomes that much more streamlined. Simply ask them to do it for you. If only everything was that easy!
Or an External Store?
If you aren’t interested in the above, feel you don’t have the technical know-how or just simply prefer another option. Then fear not, now we can talk about the ‘external store’ we mentioned earlier.
The name can sound a little alien at first. Are we building a shack outside the gym to sell protein powder and t-shirts? Not quite.
If we say the name ‘Shopify’, it might start to be a little more understandable.
But there are loads of different external stores out there. But as with many things, Shopify is the most well-known and the easiest to use.
In easy terms, external stores are just website builders with one function in mind. Building a store page.
They are designed to be very easy, for those with a product range to sell but perhaps not the expertise to set up their own website.
It is a niche that needs filling and one that many independent gym owners can relate to. And we are pleased to say Shopify rises to the challenge well.
It is a great system for complete beginners, and can create fantastic looking web fonts quickly.
For a small monthly fee it is possible to create a complex, professional looking webstore structure for your independent gym that can be linked to your existing site and put onto your social media pages.
What to sell
Market Research: What do your members and non-members want to buy ?
But setting up the store was only ever going to be half the challenge.
Understanding what to sell and what to leave out is the other half. This is where our good friends market research and self-reflection come in.
Consider the type of facility you are running. If there is a particular focus on bodybuilding, perhaps a broad selection of protein supplements are the way to go, if you are particularly renowned for a strong selection of personal trainers, gift certificates and coupons could be a great choice.
Then we have the products you already sell in the gym. Do you throw all of them up onto the webstore to see what sells?
As long as you are okay with posting it, there is little reason not to. Unless it is the sort of bulky item that makes a better profit sold in your in-gym store.
But in theory, there is little to stop independent gyms from putting the majority of their in-gym offerings onto webstore and opening it up to a national audience.
The only reason not to is perhaps to add some exclusivity to certain items, something that several gyms have reported success with. Who doesn’t love a bit of artificial scarcity and inclusivity?
Recently we have seen great success with giving these away as part of a membership, but putting a small price on them or offering physical copies can be one way to make their value known. It is well documented that something given for free or as part of a membership is more likely to be ignored. Even charging 99p can make the difference. This is a practice frequently used to great effect by companies like Apple and nearly every mobile phone app.
But ultimately, aside from these guidelines and speculations. The main way is to ask your members.
Surveys and market research will always trump trope-guessing. So we recommend getting out there and asking the questions you want answers. It isn’t just about what they want to buy, it is about what they want to buy from an institution they trust. Use the combined expertise of your staff to put interesting ideas into the survey.
This is a surefire way to build a line of products that will appeal not just to your members, but prospective members and non-members across the country. An online store is a chance to show people beyond the local area that your gym is an institution to be trusted to supply the best material for improving fitness and health.
Need some help?
Here at the Gym Owner’s Forum, we are all about two things. Getting independent gym owners together, pooling wisdom to improve the fitness industry and helping independent gym owners get the most out of their businesses.
We’ve talked a lot about how online stores and web stores can help take your gym to the next level, but maybe you’d rather talk to someone about it? If so, drop us a message. We are always keen to talk to independent gym owners who want to improve their business. Perhaps there is something we can recommend that can’t go in a broad-form article like this. Our inbox is always open, so feel free to leave us a message today about your independent gym and what you want to do next!
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