There are two things that are a guarantee during the holiday season:
- Less active leads are around, as many people are not thinking of joining a gym during the rush and gluttony of the holidays.
- People are looking for unique and great gifts to buy for others.
With these facts at play, often times it’s easy to see slower months in November and December revenue wise. Since things like rent and coaching costs do not go down with slower season making up that revenue is important.
The Problem With Retail
Retail can be a much needed revenue line for most gyms. However, there’s always the fact that you have to take a hit in cash flow to buy inventory.
Since your cash flow is generally a little tighter during the holidays, it’s hard to pull off a big apparel or supplement purchase. Sitting on excess inventory is a KILLER of cash flow.
But - in the long haul not having retail as a revenue center is also going to be a killer of potential cash flow.
Pros and Cons of Pre-Orders
Pre-Orders, if run effectively can alleviate all of the issues with retail. They can free up your cash flow and allow your members to purchase products from you without you running the risk of stocking inventory that demand dries up for.
The only potential downside to running a Pre-Order is how much time and energy it costs you to run it.
Taking payments, tracking who’s paid you, and making sure everyone gets the products they paid for. These are going to be the headaches associated with running a Pre-Order successfully.
Generally speaking you can do this with the payment provider / system of choice and a handy excel spreadsheet. PushPress clients, you stand to benefit from the built in solution we offer.
If you are not a PushPress client, never fear! You can download this simple .csv template which will help you manually run a Pre-Order!
A Sample Pre-Order
Product: Logo Zip up hoodie
Retail Price: $50
Wholesale Cost + Printing: $25
Net Profit: $25 per unit
To entice your members to prepay for this piece, you would offer a slight discount (part of the Pre-Order system).
Pre-Order Discount: 10%
Pre-Order Price: $45
Pre-Order Profit: $20 per unit
After placing the Pre-Order for sale for two weeks, you have obtained 55 sales.
Gross Revenue: $2,750
Net Revenue: $1,100
In this above example, you have just generated an additional free $1,100 of cash flow for the month. The best part about this is you did it risk free, and without stocking any excess inventory after the fact.
We think like owners, because we are owners.
