Retail is one of the most under-optimized revenue streams in fitness facilities. I’ve seen it a hundred times. Operators throw up a display of T-shirts, mark them up randomly and then wonder why nothing sells. People try it half-heartedly, and it fails, so they assume retail doesn’t work and move on.
We ran retail in our clubs. We came up with clever stuff like “I Survived Boot Camp” shirts, fun merchandise for different classes, anniversary shirts, branded gear that resonated with people. It was fun and it worked.
Looking back, however, I don’t think we ever maximized retail the way we could have. We were doing retail by instinct, not by strategy.
When I started writing this article, I thought of a good friend and colleague who’s built this at scale, and I knew I wanted to get her take on it. Meredith Rosson is the founder of Elevated Versions Enterprises, a consulting service that helps fitness facilities build profitable retail programs that strengthen member experience and the bottom line. She spent 18 years at Cooper Aerobics Center, the world-famous fitness facility in Dallas, in leadership roles spanning operations, business development and programming.
More importantly, she recognized a gap that most operators miss: While clubs invest heavily in programming that supports member wellness, retail is often treated as an afterthought or ignored altogether. Her philosophy is simple but powerful. Retail isn’t a side business. It’s another member program.
Based on my chat with Meredith, here are five keys to making retail actually work.
1. Start with why
The first thing you need to do is answer one question: Why are you doing this? It’s a question most operators skip right over. They jump straight to “What should we sell?” without asking “Why are we selling it in the first place?”
Is this about generating revenue? Building your brand? Creating member convenience? Improving retention? The answers shape everything that comes after. A T-shirt operation designed for brand awareness is much different than one built as a revenue stream.
At our facility, we had an instinct about what we wanted, but we didn’t think about it with those goals in mind. We just knew we wanted to get our brand out there. We wanted to have fun with it. We wanted people wearing our stuff all over town. That was the goal. It wasn’t necessarily about creating a revenue stream, though we did turn a small profit. We wanted members to feel like a part of something bigger, but we didn’t strategically map that out. It just happened. Greater clarity about our “why” would have made our retail operation so much more successful.
Meredith sees this constantly. “Most operators can’t answer much more than they think they should offer retail,” she says. “But there is a right mindset, and that mindset determines whether leadership will invest in retail the way they invest in every other program.”
The most successful clubs treat retail like personal training or group fitness. It requires strategy, investment and management.
2. Curate your product selection
Don’t try to be everything. Be intentional. Your club has one advantage traditional retailers don’t have — consistent, recurring foot traffic from highly engaged customers. That’s huge, but what you put in front of them matters just as much as the fact that they’re there.
At our facility, we just picked things we thought would be fun and fit our brand vibe, but we never actually asked members what they wanted to see. We relied on instinct. If we’d taken the time to ask, I guarantee we would have added items we never thought of. We left money on the table because we didn’t take that extra step.
Meredith’s approach is simple. Every product should answer one question: How does this improve the member experience? Sometimes that’s logo apparel members are proud to wear. Sometimes it’s recovery tools, swim accessories or yoga equipment to enhance their fitness experience. The strongest retail programs ask members what they want to see before making purchases. Says Merideth, “Just like anything else in your club, initial and ongoing member feedback is ideal.”
This isn’t complicated. Just ask your members. They’ll tell you exactly what they want.
3. Create eye-catching displays
Merchandising matters, and it starts with location. A great product hidden in a corner doesn’t sell. This is visual marketing. Your retail space should be part of the natural member journey, not a destination people have to remember to visit. Position it near check-in or along high-traffic pathways to increase exposure and create opportunities for staff conversations.
At our facility, we put up fencing on the wall and hung things from little hooks. The problem was people couldn’t touch it to feel the material. They couldn’t hold it up in front of themselves in a mirror, because we didn’t have good mirrors in the front reception area, and our locker rooms were too far away to make trying things on convenient. Eventually, we bought two half-mannequins and put shirts on them, which helped, but we missed out on a lot of sales because we made it hard for people to actually engage with the products.
Meredith breaks it down into three things: layout, product rotation and social media. Great merchandising creates visibility before sales. Rotate displays every one to two weeks to keep the experience fresh and align with seasonal programming.
4. Track inventory performance
This is where most retail programs succeed or fail. Cash sitting on shelves is cash that cannot be invested elsewhere. Successful operators monitor inventory performance as closely as membership sales, using POS reporting to understand sales velocity, inventory turns, product mix and seasonal trends.
For us, this was always a struggle. We were in the fitness business, not the retail business, and we were always guessing. How many do we order? How often? When do we run a sale to clear old inventory? We naturally got better over the years, but it took a long time to figure that stuff out. If you understand this formula from the start, you’re going to be much more successful than we were.
Meredith recommends starting with timeless, versatile products from vendors offering low minimum order quantities. “This reduces risk and allows inventory to grow alongside demand rather than ahead of it,” she says.
It’s tempting to stock heavy and hope for volume, but that’s backward thinking. Start lean. Rotate based on what actually sells. Let your members tell you what works through their purchasing patterns, not your assumptions.
5. Make it sell
This is where pricing strategy, staff training and culture come together. Your pricing needs to align with your “why.” If your goal is to get members to wear your gear and represent your brand, you might price items on the lower end or even give them away as a welcome gift.
At our facility, we wanted everyone in town wearing our stuff, so we invested in quality products and kept margins small. But if you see retail as a revenue stream, you need to be strategic about margins.
The reality is that most facilities can’t afford a dedicated retail staff member. Your welcome desk, personal trainers and group fitness instructors handle retail alongside everything else. One strategy we used was to have our staff wear new pieces when they came in. We’d give it to them because we wanted our members to see it on them. That helped them sell it. Our group X instructors especially wore the new gear because they’re in front of 40 or 50 people in every class. We didn’t realize at the time that this was actually a strategy. We just thought it would be fun. It worked because our team became walking advertisements.
“Product knowledge drives member experience and trust, not just sales,” Meredith says. “When your team genuinely believes in the products they use, retail becomes an extension of coaching rather than a sales transaction.”
Your staff should be product ambassadors, not salespeople. The best conversations don’t start with “Would you like to buy this?” They start with “Based on what you are looking for, here’s what I recommend.”
Build a culture in which retail lives throughout your club. Members trust recommendations from instructors and trainers far more than displays.
The bottom line
Retail, when done intentionally, becomes both a profit center and a cultural asset. The clubs that consistently succeed aren’t the ones with the biggest retail spaces. They’re the ones that approach retail with the same discipline they bring to every other program they offer.
Take an honest look at your current retail strategy. Is it simply occupying square footage, or is it actively contributing to your members’ experience, helping them achieve their goals and supporting your club’s long-term success? Retail requires strategy. It requires discipline. It requires clarity about what you want it to accomplish. Whether your goal is brand awareness, member convenience or building a robust revenue stream, you can achieve it. You just have to be intentional about it.
Thanks to Meredith Rosson for lending her expertise to this discussion on retail. Now, go build a retail program worth selling.
