Today's health club (or martial arts school) is a
one-stop center for fitness and all its associated
amenities.
Members expect convenience and ideally, they can have
their wants and needs fulfilled as they arise, in the club's
pro shop. The club that is willing to expend extra effort —
and space — on the pro shop will be rewarded in
profitability and with satisfied members. Some clubs have
successfully maintained the pro shop as part of the overall
scheme of the club rather than as a separate entity. Others
have turned their pro shops into profit centers having gone
that extra mile with regard to placement, layout, product
offering and management of the shop as a business — a
successful one — in and of itself.
OPTIMAL PLACEMENT
From the outset, if you want something more than clothes
hung on a wall, placement of the pro shop space is a
determining factor toward profitability. Rudy Fabiano, of
Fabiano Designs, prefers the main street approach when
designing a facility — placing the pro shop adjacent to the
circulation desk area, between it and perhaps, the water
coolers — another high traffic area. He juxtaposes it out in
the open, so that one has to go through it to get to the
drink coolers.
“The art of merchandising is the art of interaction,” he
contends. “The more likely people are to interact with the
merchandise, the more likely they are to buy.”
Bruce Carter is qualified to offer two points of view in
discussing the profitability of the health club pro shop. He
is the owner of Optimal Designs Systems International and
the consultant firm, Fitness Business Success, through which
he's opened more than 200 clubs. He agrees that the success
of the pro shop is a function of design and how it is set up
within the club.
Carter compares the optimal positioning of the pro shop to
the high visibility of a shopping mall, where it's easy to
walk by and see product. If the club has a strip shopping
center facade, it's critical to draw people in from the
outside by having the pro shop up front with visibility to
the outside. This invites people who are not members of the
club to be able to walk in and out easily and increases
numbers substantially.
A large club can sustain the pro shop with sales to
membership only. But a smaller club needs to cater to
outside business.
RELATIVE SIZE
Depending on the size of the club, a good size pro shop is
usually between 300 square feet and 500 square feet. Fabiano
recommends not dedicating a huge amount of footage to the
pro shop, typically less than 1 percent of the total club,
unless it's located in a tourist destination spot.
APPEALING LAYOUT
The layout of the pro shop needs to be colorful, exciting
and inviting so people will want to go to the space and be
involved in it. The foundation upon which to build the
chosen effect is a display system. A little extra money
might need to be spent here, but to sell product it has to
be displayed in a fashion that draws people into the space.
Fortunately, many of the suppliers of the whole realm of
display items and systems that exist, the shelves, racks and
mannequins, conveniently have design consultants on their
staff adept at setting up such display areas.
Even working with just 200 or 300 square feet, the
consultant can introduce a professional look and design to
the pro shop.
Stephen Roma, chief executive of WOW! Workout World in
Bricktown, NJ spent considerable time in Manhattan with a
consultant trying to find store fixtures that were not
commonplace. His clubs are wacky and eclectic and each has a
WOW! factor so the club wanted something different — not
just another pro shop. They found a manufacturer of high-end
modular store fixtures and installed the new system in all
of the clubs. Their purpose was to make the area feel like a
high-end women's boutique.
It's recommended having a dressing booth in the pro shop,
rather than having customers go into the locker room to
change, especially if they're not members. And Carter
advises including the capacity to lock up at the end of the
day in the design layout of the pro shop.
PRODUCT OFFERING
When considering product offering, there are various
viewpoints on how much to stock, which depends on market
demands. Research is in high order. For example, the need to
know what is hot in women's clothing because women use the
pro shop as more of a place of retail than just to buy
t-shirts. You also want to know what the shop down the
street is carrying so you don't duplicate. Then look at the
product lines you carry relative to their price point and
your type of membership. You would not carry a high-end line
if your members were not purchasing that level of product.
It will just sit on the racks.
Whatever end of the spectrum, there has to be a unique,
attractive, exciting product offering, which fits into the
price point of the membership base, something they won't
find down the street at a lower price. A health club pro
shop cannot purchase on a volume basis like a Target. That's
all the more reason to do the research, but many clubs don't
want to go to the trouble.
To substantially augment retail sales, Bruce Carter suggests
hiring a graphic designer to develop a catchy, eye-appealing
logo with the club's name on it. Put the logo on a variety
of items such as t-shirts, tank tops, sweatshirts, warm-up
suits, bags and hats. It will have more appeal than just the
name without any design aspect. The beauty of a
logo-designed product is it becomes free advertising when
worn.
Another aspect up for dispute is volume. Fabiano recommends
“unless the club is in a highly trafficked tourist
destination spot to ‘keep the shop lean and mean.’ The idea
is to not overstock. Often it's thought that if you put
things out, people will buy. But the truth is people are
going to go to clothing stores for clothing and to
department stores that sell active wear cheaper.
It's good to be attuned to the art of retailing. If no one
is buying and merchandise is sitting there for a month, and
you don't know what to do with it, you may decide to put it
on sale. The product always has to look fresh. By keeping
the merchandise down to smaller convenience items, t-shirts,
shorts, hats, vitamins, bars, a lot more product will move.”
What works for Tom Hatten, president and CEO of Mountainside
Fitness Centers in Arizona, is almost the opposite approach.
But then his are reportedly the biggest locally owned health
clubs in Arizona.
“The more you put out, the more you will sell. Volume begets
buying. Have a large selection of different types of
clothes, with different styles, colors and brands,” Hatten
says. “Treat it like a sporting goods store, stocking
everything from earphones, gloves and rafts, to yoga mats,
and gel seats, not just a place to sell a few t-shirts.”
Typical health club pro shops can be profitable if they
stock impulse items or those items that supply members'
immediate needs. A member may get to the gym having
forgotten a lock, or he or she may need a gym bag, a water
bottle, hand-grips for a workout, shorts, t-shirt or a cap.
Other items to stock would be health bars and drinks.
“So the thing to do,” Fabiano suggests, “is to think about
what you're selling, decide if it makes sense to be selling
it and if it can be sold in any kind of competitive nature.
Ask the question if you should be selling something like
Spandex clothing as an expert on that item.” But no matter
what your level of expertise, you can never go wrong with
health and convenience items.
Aimee Morris, director of retail at Crunch Fitness asserts,
“the initial reason people come into a pro shop is because
they forgot something, whether shorts, t-shirt, towel or
yoga mat. They do not go to the club to go shopping. Crunch
also offers items to suit their own brand, fun brand
t-shirts so that people that forgot theirs can get a Crunch
t-shirt at a lower cost than any others at retail.” In
addition, there is the double benefit that once the shirt is
worn outside the gym there is brand recognition and that
once the person has entered the store for the initial
purpose, other items catch the eye.
MANAGEMENT
To hire a manager or not, that is the question. Again, what
works for some clubs may not work for others. Club general
managers and owners look at the pro shop as one aspect of
the entire club operation, whereas designers have a
conceptual perspective.
Carter is adamant that the club wanting to turn the pro shop
into a true profit center will employ a manager for it; that
it can't be something the front desk staff does on the side;
that it just won't have the same impact.
“The manager does not have to be full time; the manager will
perhaps have another role in the club, but should know the
retail business, know what the product lines are, what to
buy, and what the price points are,” says Carter. “All
that's involved in the retail business from ordering
inventory to theft, preventing stock outs, selection of
product line, is all beyond the scope of a typical club
owner. Besides the need for a manager with expertise in
retail, the staff must be trained to deal with the needs of
the customers, answer their questions, make recommendations,
as is done in a small boutique, not a massive department
store where customers are on their own.”
For the 27 Crunch locations around the country, however,
having the pro shop incorporated into the overall design of
the club is working very well. Morris, attributes the
profitability of the Crunch pro shop to the fact that they
don't run a separate store with separate payroll. The staff
at the front desk handles sales. She explains, “There are
usually two people working the front desk so if someone is
browsing in retail, there is someone who can go over and
offer assistance if they need it.”
“For optimal operations,” Carter offers further, “club pro
shops should obtain a good retail software cash drawer
system, an inventory control system as does the retail
industry, which also has software for accounting and
bookkeeping instead of trying to control inventory through
their regular club system. Pro shops that do well are set up
as a business within a business.”
Whatever you decide is the best placement and operations for
your pro shop, you can maximize its profit potential by
identifying the most profitable blend of products that are
attractively displayed and maintained by someone who is
well-versed in retail operations. In other words, run it as
professionally as the rest of your club and you'll see big
returns.
.
