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8 fitness ecommerce website examples

1. Altitude Sports: visual ecommerce searches

Altitude Sports started as a small shop in Montreal, Canada in the 1980s. Today it is a leader in online retail for sports and fitness. The journey of Altitude Sports began as a small store in Montreal, Canada. Today it is a multi-million dollar online retail leader for sports and fitness brands.

Its success has been largely due to the fact that it has embraced the digital world. Altitude Sports took a different path than many other retailers, who began with physical stores before struggling to transition to ecommerce. Brand growth was no longer solely dependent on word of mouth and foot traffic.

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Launching its online store in 1998, it made its first leap into the digital market. It has evolved continuously with technology since then, always keeping ahead.

The Altitude Sports site’s predictive search feature is one of its most innovative features.

This feature, powered by SearchSpring offers visual suggestions for merchandising so that customers can view their options before they click.

Nobull: Dropping products at midnight to loyal customers

You have to be on your A-game when you are competing with big players such as Adidas, Nike and Rebook. NOBULL is a fitness brand that does exactly this. Its slogan says it all: For people who work hard without excuses.

This is evident in the midnight product launches that are such a big deal and often sell out very quickly. Website problems are not acceptable during these times of stress.

Marcus Wilson, NOBULL co-founder, explains: “We launch at midnight because demand is currently exceeding supply.” This helps our loyal customers to get what they want .”

The products may sell out quickly, even with this plan. They can be gone before people have a chance.

The experience of NOBULL teaches us a valuable lesson. Your ecommerce platform must be able to handle the demand, particularly if you are selling high-demand items online. Customers should only miss out if a product is out of stock, and not because your site can’t handle traffic.

3. Women’s best: localized experiences for visitors

Women’s Best, a brand that specializes in vitamins and supplements for women, has grown to be a household name around the world by customizing its ecommerce platform. It has created 10 customized storefronts around the world, showcasing products in local languages and currencies.

Women’s Best has also embraced social media. Women’s Best created Instagram accounts specific to regions such as Poland, Italy and the Middle East. Each account is tailored to their audience and includes links to localized ecommerce stores.

Women’s Best offers a separate account, Women’s Best wear, for its clothing. Women’s Best is able to build customer funnels specific to customers’ interests or locations by creating targeted accounts.

Women’s Best also has an Instagram account that is dedicated to the Women’s Best wear apparel line. This allows Women’s Best to better cater to the diverse interests of its customers and their locations.

This multifaceted approach highlights a key point for global ecommerce: adapting and acknowledging the unique preferences of different customers from different regions. Women’s Best’s diverse Instagram accounts are a strategic approach to engaging with its international client base and satisfying their specific needs.

4. Crossrope: Scaling up efficiently with a replatforming

Can a business built around jump ropes be successful? Crossrope’s story of success is a resounding “yes”. People were forced to work out at home when the pandemic struck. Crossroad’s team seized this opportunity and heavily promoted its jump rope exercise.

This was a smart move. Crossrope saw a dramatic increase in online sales as a result of the soaring demand for its products. The company was not confident that its ecommerce platform could handle the surge of orders.

Srdjan Popovic, chief marketing officer of the brand, reflected on a decision that was made. “Switching to our ecommerce platform at a time when sales were booming was a risky step… but one that paid off big-time.” It helped us to expand our international reach .”

Crossrope’s switch to Shopify Plus marked a pivotal moment in its growth. The company saw a 90 percent increase in revenue, and a 94 percent increase in transactions.

Crossrope’s story offers an important lesson to upcoming fitness and sportswear brands: There’s never a “right” moment to make major changes. Even in times of uncertainty, taking bold steps can lead to greater success.

Gymshark thrives with O2O trade

Gymshark is a global brand that has millions of loyal customers in 131 countries. Its approach? Sheryl Sandberg mentioned a multichannel online presence that has a consistent brand aesthetic during a Facebook earnings conference call.

Gymshark is a leader in the online-to-offline commerce (O2O). Pop-up shops were set up where fitness enthusiasts could meet fitness experts and influencers, and purchase Gymshark’s products.

Daniel Knight, the website manager at Gymshark, highlights this strategy’s impact. “Our pop-up shops create a unique customer experience,” he says. “They connect our digital presence with physical world, and offer emotional experiences to customers that online interactions alone cannot provide .”

This strategy demonstrates Gymshark’s ability to integrate digital and tangible experiences seamlessly, which resonates powerfully with the customer base.

6. BPI Sports: Establishing a D2C Presence

BPI Sports products are found in major fitness retailers such as GNC, Vitamin World and The Vitamin Shoppe. This Florida-based brand of nutritional supplements is a wholesaler with a majority of its revenues coming from B2B sales.

BPI Sports wanted to achieve more. BPI Sports wanted to improve its direct-to consumer (D2C), and make BPI Sports more than a brand on a store shelf.

The journey was not without its challenges. The original website was disappointing, having cost over $6,000 to develop. Customers and staff were frustrated by frequent problems like unreliable data and crashing shopping carts.

Oliver Haroun is BPI Sports Director of Technology. He describes the pains associated with growth: “We were constantly pushing the limits. We reached a point when our infrastructure could not keep up with the growth.

BPI Sports took a different path to deal with this problem. BPI Sports decided to move away from its old platform and opt for Shopify Plus in order to simplify its D2C channels. This led it to improve online sales and provide a better customer experience.

7. Fabletics – leveraging data from customers to customize its products

Fabletics’ VIP membership is changing the fitness apparel market. This subscription service offers customers specially selected monthly outfits at a discounted price.

Dustin Netral is the senior vice president of Fabletics. He explains their strategy. “We analyze previous purchase patterns and link them to transactions.”

Seven precise questions are asked to get to know the new member’s lifestyle and style preferences. Also, they look at past purchases to predict future tastes. Fabletics can then customize outfits for each member.

Fabletics also uses its online data to enhance the customer experience in-store.

What is the takeaway? You can make something unique for your customers when you understand what they are about.

8. SweetLegs – simplicity is the key to success

SweetLegs understands the power of simplicity. SweetLegs sells leggings for women of all sizes. But it is not only its inclusive products that set it apart. It chooses simplicity over complicated enterprise ecommerce platforms.

In 2016, the website of SweetLegs crashed on Black Friday, which is one of the busiest shopping weekends. This was a huge wake-up for the multi-million dollar brand. It knew that it could not risk another crash in the next holiday season.

Just a month prior to Black Friday, the company made a bold decision to replatform.

On October 16, we selected a standard template. By November 1, we had our data migrated by a company. , says Chris Pafiolis.

This decision was a wise one. Chris says that in our busiest ever month, we had $2 million worth of sales and more than 10,000 transactions. We had a lot of traffic but no worries this time about the site crashing. We could concentrate on growing our business !”

SweetLegs’s shift towards simplicity has been a game changer. This has allowed SweetLegs to focus on the things that matter, fueling growth and ensuring smooth transaction ever since.

Create your own fitness ecommerce site

A well-written plan is essential to building a successful online fitness brand. Begin by identifying your niche, proving that there is demand and building a solid foundation for the growth of your business. Once you have a niche, you can start building your ecommerce setup and marketing strategy for rapid growth.

How to start:

Find out what you can sell

Fitness is a huge industry with many opportunities. It can be difficult to decide which products you want to sell . You may be wondering whether you should sell physical products, digital products, subscriptions or a mix of the two.

It depends on your target audience and what problem they are trying to solve. Before you launch your fitness ecommerce site, consider your target audience and their needs.

Tips on choosing products:

Solve the real problem
Search for a niche
Let your passions be a guide
Sell Your Expertise
Keep an eye out for fitness trends to keep up with demand and growth

You can sell physical products such as fitness equipment, clothing or supplements. If you are a fitness professional, consider offering online classes, exercise plans, or subscriptions.

Choose your business model

Choose your business model after deciding what product you want to sell.

Retail, wholesale, subscription, and private label are all common models. Consider your product and target audience to determine the best model. You can even combine different models, such as combining subscription-based classes with retail.

Also, consider sales and marketing techniques. It could be building up a community or using social media to sell.

Selecting an ecommerce platform

Choose your commerce platform. Consider software-as-a-service (SaaS), on-premise, or cloud platforms. SaaS platforms are often recommended for their scalability, ease of use and flexibility.

Choose a platform which offers:

High Reliability
PCI compliance
Sales channel integrations
Inventory management
Scalability
Payments and Quick Checkout

Shopify , for example, provides reliable hosting with a high conversion checkout experience.

Launch your store

When your site is complete, you will go live. Test everything before you go live. Plan your launch, ensure someone is ready to troubleshoot and have a back-up plan. After launch, continue to test and monitor everything from checkout functionality and SEO to traffic.

Is fitness ecommerce growing?

The fitness ecommerce industry is growing at a rate of 38.2% per year. It’s estimated that by 2028 the market will reach $64,57 billion. This trend shows the growing interest in online fitness and their potential to grow massively.

Entrepreneurs with drive and vision can take advantage of the fitness ecommerce industry. Scaling up your business is exciting when you have the right strategies.

Get ready for fitness ecommerce success

What lessons can we learn from the successes in this sector?

Using online and offline strategies to solidify customer relationships.
Building loyalty requires that users remain engaged.
Smartly using customer data can help you make business decisions.
Offering localized experience is the key to creating a global impact.

It’s more than just stepping onto the market. Make a big splash. Consider thinking outside the box. Connect, innovate, and watch as your fitness ecommerce business takes off.

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Author: Adeel Qayum

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