The Honor System for Retail – Is it Worth it?

You’ve been there…your student forgot their water, so needs to buy a bottle during class. Or helping a student buy a protein bar means you can’t answer another student’s question about a technique from class. You want the revenue from these small ticket items (it adds up, after all), but how do you know everything is being recorded and processed properly?

Here are a few tips to making the honor system work in your gym:

Keep the dollar value and available quantities small

When deciding what to allow your members to purchase “on their honor”, keep the per-item cost low. Save the big ticket items for purchasing through your staff, and buy water or bars in bulk, so that if one or two go unaccounted (as you know they will) the impact on your business is low. Also, know how many of each item you typically sell, and keep the quantities easily available small so that you can keep an eye on your inventory.

Price it right

When you set your prices, make sure you factor in enough markup to cover the costs of processing these transactions. Factor in the time your staff spends keeping your inventory updated and processing transactions (if you’re doing that manually), as well as any transaction fees charged by your merchant processor.

Keep your payment method simple

Are your students paying for these items with cash? On file account? Offering too many options for how students pay quickly becomes complex. Instead, keep it simple. If your members keep accounts on file for their recurring memberships, simplify the process by allowing them to charge their items to their account on file. Your customers will love the freedom to leave their wallets in the car, and your staff will appreciate how much easier it is to keep track of everything at the end of the day. [clearfix]

Restock on a schedule

If your staff restocks your shelves whenever there’s downtime, it’s harder to keep track of which items are the most (or least) popular. Instead, make it a practice to update what’s available for self-service on a schedule. This way, you can keep ahead of re-orders and easily tell what your members do, and don’t, like best.

When you keep it simple, allowing your members to purchase low-cost items “on their honor” can be a big win for your business, and for your members. Interested in trying a self-service retail process in your fitness business? Check out Kiosk Mode on the Staff App, which includes check-in, registration and self-service retail capabilities. To see it in action, schedule your free demo with one of our Software Specialists today!