How to Pivot Your Online Brand Towards Selling Activewear

Activewear & athleisure are trending in the fashion industry because they allow you to work out, run errands, & relax without having to fully change your outfit. If you love the activewear look & want to introduce it to your ecommerce business, you can successfully pivot & elevate your brand with the right strategy in place. Here’s how to get started.

Integrate Activewear Into Your Existing Products

You can go big & bold & completely pivot your business to introduce activewear, or you can integrate it slowly to test the reaction & figure out how to scale. If you already sell workout accessories, your shift to activewear is straightforward & simply expands your products to the target market you already serve. But what if you sell something unrelated, like work-from-home office gadgets?

The truth is you can pivot to activewear from almost any niche with some ingenuity. Promote your activewear as a comfortable way to get work done from home & introduce it alongside items like treadmill desks or office-friendly workout tips. The idea is to consider what your audience will find valuable instead of throwing something new at them that they haven’t asked for.

Launch a Test Run of New Merchandise

Building up new inventory takes time & resources, even if you’re just planning a small beta launch with a handful of activewear products. Instead of risking your profit margins, partner with CustomCat to create white-labeled, done-for-you activewear that we drop-ship directly to your customers. You make money when your items sell without worrying about leftover inventory sitting around that you’re not sure what to do with. 

Show, Don’t Tell

The “Show, don’t tell” mantra is common practice in copywriting, but you can integrate it directly into your overall content marketing strategy. Instead of waxing poetic about your new activewear products, show your audience how amazing they are. Make sure to show yourself, or your lucky models, in action instead of simply telling what the product is like. Develop Instagram stories, get busy pinning on Pinterest, & create workout videos on YouTube to showcase your best products, how they look & how they work.

Make It Super Niche

Just like any successful ecommerce business, your activewear product needs a rock-solid niche. However, it’s more than just refining your marketing language; it also helps open up new ideas of what to sell & expand your business. After all, marketing your clothes to active women is broad when you’re trying to compete in a saturated market. Instead, market your brand to women dog owners who enjoy hiking with their furry friends. Now you can sell hoodies, jackets, leggings, & socks to the dog-mom audience while simultaneously introducing a new dog line for active pups. 

Get Empathetic

The best sales & marketing strategies always point back to focusing on the features & benefits of your products. Instead of rounding up a list of bullet points walking customers through how great your products are, get into their wants & needs instead. How does your activewear make people feel? Why would someone want to wear it? How does it impact their lives for the better? Once you’ve identified all of the “why’s” behind your activewear line, lean in & take an empathetic approach to your marketing. Show your customers you “get it” & understand where they’re coming from. 

If you’re having trouble figuring out all of your customers’ “why’s,” head to social media & do some sleuthing. Pay attention to what your target market is saying in like-minded Facebook Groups, on activewear influencer’s channels, & in Reddit threads. You’ll get intimate insights into what your customers really want, the language they use to describe it, & their unique challenges in life.

Recruit Brand Ambassadors

If you’re new to activewear, you need help getting the word out that your business is pivoting. Brand ambassadors help generate buzz about your products & position your brand in the best light possible. Some brand ambassadors are paid, & others are given free products, VIP access to sales, & other perks. Get started by reaching out to your current, loyal customers to get on board as brand ambassadors or announce your search on one of your social media channels. Brand ambassadorship could also blend with a social media influencer campaign that taps big names in your target market to wear & promote your products for you.

Sell It Live

Selling ecommerce products live is a growing business model that could lead to a windfall of profits. China’s live-stream retail is booming with over $151 billion in gross merchandise value as of 2022. If you have a robust social media following, generate buzz about your upcoming activewear launch or flash sale for an upcoming Facebook Live or YouTube Live. If you don’t have the benefit of a strong following, try partnering with influencers, affiliates, & brand ambassadors to do the selling for you & raise your brand awareness at the same time.

Tie in a Fitness Challenge

Make your new activewear line about challenging your customers instead of strictly promoting your products. The goal is to provide your customers with a way to engage with your company, consequently raising more awareness about your new line of activewear. 

The goal is to put the word “active” into activewear with a free challenge potential customers can’t resist. Launch a challenge to work out for an hour every day, jog an extra mile every week, or take up a new sport. Your audience benefits from the group support & accountability while your brand offers more value to your customers. Use your email list or a free Facebook group to get started & build a foundation for your customers to gather.

Get Offline

Just because your ecommerce brand lives online doesn’t mean you can’t spread the word about your new activewear offline. However, think bigger than the local farmer’s market & boutiques. Look for events, conferences, & summits targeted towards customers in your niche. Whether it’s a networking group for active singles who love long-distance cycling or busy business execs trying to get fit, find your people en masse offline. Sponsoring an event & offering some fun giveaways is also a way to gain broader exposure for your business where your target market is focused on your products.

Test, Tweak, & Repeat

Introducing new products & branding can take some time to catch on but also requires a steady approach & persistence. Choose one strategy & test your results instead of jumping from TikTok marketing to Facebook ads & Instagram Stories all in the same week. If you’re not seeing much traction from your efforts, make small changes, like changing the copy or image, then repeat the testing. Changing too much too soon without seeing what’s working will likely derail your efforts & motivation to continue your quest to build an activewear empire.

How are you launching & building your ecommerce brand? Let us know by leaving a comment below!