1. Lock in. The online store option is not a "set it and forget it!" tool. It is a tool that requires a herculean effort every day to generate sales. So, when you're offering an online store, your only priority should be promoting and pushing that product. Make sure your staff understand how to buy something. Make sure you've purchased an item yourself so you can get a feel for the check out process.
   
2. Limit the options. You do not need 3 different tanks, 5 different tee colors, and 2 different long sleeve options. We have discussed this before. You are taking a bunch of great ideas and trying to offer too much. Most folks only have a budget for one new gym item a month. As much as clients ask for different colors and styles, if you offer too much in one offering, you won't reach anyone. Offering too many options is "paralyzing" and there are plenty of examples of this phenomenon across various industries and studies. Just google choice paralysis. If you must offer some variety, I would recommend 1 tee and tank style in 2 colors. That would be 4 options for people...and even that feels like too much.
   
3. Promote it. A single facebook and instagram post is not promoting or marketing your preorder. Chances are your members did not see that post. Between the newsfeed and timeline algorithms and all of the other micro changes to social media platforms, it is becoming less and less common that business posts find their way organically into their clients social media lives. You need to advertise through all channels: email, text messages, whatever you have in your arsenal for contacting people, you need to utilize it. We came up with a system for doing the marketing for you. You need at least one social media post for every day you are leaving the preorder window open. You can check out those messages here:
   https://foreverfierce.com/blogs/news/let-us-sell-your-apparel
4. Set a deadline. 365/24/7 store options do not work. Those items simply find their way on a wishlist. Wishlists don’t convert. They are a placeholder for “things I’d like to buy when I have time”. Deadlines spur action. It is ok to have a 7 day preorder window. The people who are most likely to buy will cycle through your messaging within 7 days and they will be aware of the store. When setting deadlines, I know it may feel counter intuitive, but shorter deadlines are better.

Ready to start your own online store? Click here!

2020 is off to a fast start here at Forever Fierce and with new clients come new thoughts. After about 2 dozen calls a little over half way through January 2020, here are my thoughts on simplifying things and making the apparel process easy again:

Avoiding Stupidity: Many of the issues that new clients are facing pertain to the lack of structure with an order. The story goes something like this “my old vendor used to give me a vendor website and told me to pick some stuff from the website”…. This is a nightmare for anyone to sort through. 

Variety is fine. Variety is important. Finding something YOU like is important….but you are not the apparel expert. You are a gym owner. You do not want to turn the gym into an apparel business. Warren Buffet says it is “…easier to avoid stupidity than seeking brilliance”. Save your brilliance for your programming and approach to nutrition. Avoid stupidity with apparel. New styles are fine but there is a tremendous amount of education and effort that goes into trying to promote the latest and greatest crop top. How does it fit? How does it feel? How does it handle a tough workout? Will it shrink? I have a seam issue- I need a refund…these are all questions that you should not have to answer. You can have confidence knowing that our curated list of garments will limit your risk. We know what works. We what is popular. They have been tried and tested thousands of times at other gyms so we’re confident that they will hold up.

Slam Dunks: When we work with new clients, I encourage everyone to place a slam dunk order and get back to basics. A basic tee or tank order will get you back on track and give you confidence knowing the basics still work and provide 95% of the results you’re looking for. If you’ve worked with me in the past, you know we have a ton of variety when it comes to tees, tanks, long sleeves, and hoodies. There are very few clients who come close to exhausting all the options. Don’t be afraid of launching a slam dunk. No need to shoot from half court every time you run an apparel order. 

For gym owners, Q1 was always an easy layup for apparel orders due to the Open taking up much of Q1. Now that the Open has been permanently moved, what now? In this post, I hope to provide some direction was to what you should be doing for for the next 6 months. I know most owners like to offer apparel “when it feels right”, but we’re going to take the guess work out of this and tell you exactly when to order.

February/March- This will be your last shot for ordering hoodies/zip ups/crewneck until the Fall.  If you dropped the ball on offering something in the beginning of winter, this is your last shot to try and sell a high ticket item like a pullover or zip up. From April-September, it is usually all tees and tanks.  If you’ve already offered a hoodie this year, this is the perfect time to offer a longsleeve or baseball tee option to help bridge the gap between Winter and Spring. 

April/May- This is a slam dunk time to offer apparel. Memorial Day provides an awesome opportunity to create a new design that is specifically geared towards the patriotic holiday. Whether you are doing a specific hero WOD or a RED themed month, we can help here. 

June/July- Summer designs. This is a great opportunity to switch things up and get away from the black, dark grey, and other dark colors that tend to dominate gym apparel. Summer designs are usually brighter garments (bright blues and greens) and different tank options. Will this appeal to everyone in the gym? Nope. That is not the point. The point is to stimulate some variety and break up the monotony of dark colors. This is a very strategic apparel idea and it will set you up for a bigger and better Fall.

That is 6 months worth of apparel. As always, stay tuned for our new design ideas. We’re working on new design ideas every month and we have a ton of new designs for 2020 in the works already. 

If you prefer some individual planning and something a little more specific to your gym, shoot us an email,  and we can carve out time for a quick phone call to go over your needs.