Most gyms sell something over the counter - protein, drinks, shakers, gloves, T-shirts. It looks like easy money. In practice, supplement retail is where a lot of gym margin quietly disappears, because it is run on a cash box and memory. This guide covers how to run it as a real business line.
Start with what to stock
- Fast movers: water, electrolyte drinks, a protein shake or bar.
- Core supplements: two or three protein options at different price points.
- Accessories: shakers, gloves, straps, towels.
- Merchandise: branded T-shirts if your members want them.
Stock what members ask for repeatedly. Supplier “schemes” that push you to over-order are how shelves fill with stock nearing expiry.
Price for margin, not just to match online prices
Members can buy most supplements online, sometimes cheaper. Your advantages are convenience (post-workout, right now) and advice. Price for a sensible margin on convenience items, be competitive on big tubs, and do not race online discounters on price alone.
POS discipline: every sale through the system
The most important rule: no sale outside the POS. Every item scanned, every sale invoiced, every payment recorded. Without that, nothing else in this guide works.
| Without a POS | With a POS |
|---|---|
| Cash box, no record | Every sale invoiced |
| Stock guessed | Stock deducted automatically |
| Margin unknown | Retail revenue in reports |
| Shrinkage invisible | Shrinkage visible at stock count |
Barcode scanning speeds up the counter and removes “I picked the wrong flavour” errors.
Stock counts: the boring habit that protects margin
- Count fast movers weekly, everything else monthly.
- Compare counted stock with what the system expects.
- Investigate differences: samples, damage, expiry, theft, unrecorded sales.
- Fix the cause - a samples policy, locked storage, clear counter responsibility.
Expiry management
Supplements expire. Sell oldest stock first, check dates at every count, and move near-expiry stock with a member offer rather than writing it off.
Purchasing
Raise purchase orders to suppliers rather than ordering by phone, so you can check deliveries against what was ordered. Use low-stock alerts to reorder before best-sellers run out - an empty protein shelf is lost sales and a member buying online instead.
Measuring retail
Track monthly retail revenue, cost of stock purchased, shrinkage from counts, and the margin after all three. Record supplier purchases as expenses so retail appears honestly in net profit.
How Torzil handles the counter
Torzil’s Store module includes a POS with barcode scanning (in the Admin Portal and Staff App), invoicing, automatic stock deduction, stock counts, vendor purchase orders and low-stock alerts. Each sale rings up against one branch at a time, so branch stock stays accurate. See gym POS software and gym inventory software.