Webstores Are Harder

“Wow! All these cool items my members will be sure to love! On top of that, a nice website to go with it! This will be a slam dunk!”

With the rise of the web site service offering comes a nice shiny new toy to distract clients. While these services and web sites may seem like a no brainer, clients who use web stores see a reduction in apparel sales by about 20-30% per order. This is significant and this is a major problem.

How can we fix it?

 To tackle it, we need to examine a key reason why people buy apparel from their favorite business in the first place: an opportunity to promote and “rep their tribe”. 

While they are in the gym, you have their undivided attention. Think about how rare and powerful that is in this day and age. To have someone’s attention for about an hour 3-5 times a week is one of the most unique advantages a fitness business has today.  It is the perfect sales environment. It’s low stress, it’s supportive, and it is an opportunity for them to thank you for all your hard work. You want people to have opportunities to “join your team”. Offering apparel officially invites people join the team as an initiation of some sort. 

Now, if we give members a link, they have to purchase this item “when they get home”… the issue is really this…when people leave the gym, all hell breaks loose. So while they had great intentions to buy the new hoodie you just released, they totally forgot because they had a million other things on their brain after they left the gym. The next day rolls around and wash, rinse, and repeat. Same thing. While they wanted to buy one, they simply forgot. Every time they went to log on, something got in the way. Then when everything lands, they ask if you bought any extras. You probably didn’t in their size. And now you have an unhappy member for something that absolutely is not your fault. 

The issue isn’t the design or the style tank top or the amount of options you offered. The issue is simply attention span and driving demand. If you can make the most of someone’s attention span, you will a huge uptick in retail sales.