Fitness Superstore marketplace case study: book a demo to start yours
Fitness Superstore is a retailer that focuses on fitness gear and accessories, providing an extensive selection of items for both home and commercial gym use.
If you’d like to start your own marketplace like Fitness Superstore, you’re facing a buy vs build decision. So before you decide to build it in-house on top of Spree open-source, consider using Vendo, which is the feature-rich Enterprise Edition cutting your time-to-market to a few weeks.
Build vs Buy a marketplace?
Open-source offers many benefits, including full ownership and the ability to tailor freely, but these come at a price. The process of developing a complete marketplace solution is both time-intensive and costly, typically requiring several months or even years. This understanding is based on our experiences with a range of marketplace initiatives.
Unless you have a significant amount of funding, it’s generally more advantageous to use a ready-made, all-in-one marketplace solution like Vendo, as suggested by an expert who has long charged for marketplace development work.
Back to the Fitness Superstore marketplace case study
Fitness Superstore, established in 1994, has grown to be the UK’s largest retailer of specialist fitness equipment. The journey of Fitness Superstore towards becoming a market leader involves strategic implementation of technology and personalized marketing, showcasing an exemplary case of business adaptation and growth.
One significant step in their growth trajectory was the adoption of Spotler’s all-in-one personalization solution. This strategic move led to a remarkable 11X return on investment, demonstrating the power of targeted and personalized marketing in today’s competitive retail landscape. Fitness Superstore capitalized on this technology to save time and money while significantly improving their business results.
Another key aspect of Fitness Superstore’s strategy was the implementation of cloud. IQ’s cart recovery email technology. This technology played a crucial role in re-engaging customers who abandoned their shopping carts, encouraging them to complete their purchases.
Through the partnership with cloud.IQ and PayPal, Fitness Superstore increased its campaign reach by 33%, successfully re-engaging a significant proportion of customers, including those preferring PayPal as their payment method. This initiative not only boosted their online revenue by over 5% but also enhanced the customer shopping experience by providing personalized attention and offers.
The effective use of email marketing and personalization has given Fitness Superstore an edge over competitors. Their approach, combining technology with a customer-centric focus, has been instrumental in driving sales and customer loyalty. Fitness Superstore’s story is a testament to the potential of digital marketing strategies and the importance of staying adaptable in a rapidly evolving retail environment.
How to emulate Fitness Superstore marketplace success?
To somewhat follow the path of Fitness Superstore’s success, think about starting your marketplace in a few weeks rather than several months. Evaluate how well your product catalog approach aligns with what your customers want. Adjust how you attract customers based on actual outcomes. Try out the market before you commit to creating it on your own.
Here’s what you’d be getting with a Vendo free trial:
- Book a marketplace demo call: We’ll set up your demo marketplace and populate it with products, so you could give it a try and start selling in 14 days
- Customize your Storefront: Use the drag & drop page builder or custom CSS
- Onboard Brands: Invite your brands or choose brands from our catalog
- Select Products: Curate products and collections manually or automate it
- Embed products: Make your content, newsletters, social media shoppable
- Get Paid: Get paid as soon as products are shipped by the brands
- End-to-end automation: Brands sync, fulfillment, payouts, invoicing, taxes
When you’ve tried all that and it works, start thinking about building your own, custom-made marketplace project based on Spree Commerce. First, by decoupling the storefront and going headless with Vendo marketplace API, and later with your own backend, if you decide you really need it. Just lift and shift the storefront.
Nobody has to know what’s under the hood, right?
