Gymshark Ltd. as a company attract a specific target market through their image and branding. Unlike other gym-wear companies, Gymshark has solely grown from social media, and remains heavily based around the increasingly popular phenomenon of using influencers as a marketing tool, giving them the title of ‘GymShark Athletes’.

(Source: Gymshark Instagram, 2018)

In the era of millennial marketing, social media remains at the forefront of many campaigns, and their website is the perfect example of this. An article by Forbes discussing millennial marketing identifies, ‘inspire them to act’, as one of the eight main strategies, (2017). GymShark aims to inspire, with their slogan, ‘be a visionary‘, in the centre of their landing page. The website appeals to millennials by using only young, athletic models, as well as more physical attributes such as their landing page and site being mobile-friendly.

(Source: Gymshark Instagram, 2018)

They have inevitably caused significant market segmentation through their specific branding. By segmenting the market to attract a younger customer with interests in fitness, they are relying heavily on appealing to such a small percentage of the market.

 

Competitors

Competitors such as ‘Lulu Lemon‘ and ‘Adidas‘ appeal to a much wider audience through their website branding, using a more diverse range of models/bodies/demographics, and age.

(Source: Adidas.com)

Despite this, GymShark have excelled in their approach, with 7.2M visits to the webpage so far this year, (similar web, 2018).

The site is set out with a ‘user centred design’, (Preece, 1997). It is clear, with pragmatic ads, and a user-friendly online chat option, allowing customers to engage with a GymShark representative. Both competitors  have also taken this approach.

The site differentiates itself through the GymShark central page, creating an effortless opportunity for customers to experience ‘flow‘, (Csikzentmihalyi, 1997). GymShark central is a hub for sharing journeys, blog posts, and more on the website, where the user – most likely fitness orientated – can get lost in a world of GymShark. Competitors, ‘Lululemon‘ or  ‘Adidas‘ who both attract a larger customer base do not have anything like this on their main site.

( Source: Gymshark.com)

The importance of designing specific web environments, leads to responses including ‘enjoyment, purchase, and satisfaction’, (Mckinney, 2004).

The GymShark desktop page offers an extra option for express checkout, yet this feature is not offered on the mobile platform. If Gymshark integrated this feature for their mobile customers, they could engage with a wider customer base, potentially increasing sales. As according to Bullock, ‘the more quick and easy to use your website is, the more likely customers are to return’, (2018).

With such an influence over social media it would be easy for them to measure the success of any changes by checking the difference in comments or social shares.

 

Analytics

Their site analytics as according to similar web, (2018), show almost half of their traffic is from search, with 98.77% of this total being organic searches. Such a high proportion of organic searches suggests their social media campaigns and influencer impressions are a success. Unlike competitors, all of their sales – aside from their very occasional pop-up shops-  are solely conducted online, which has a colossal impact on increasing web traffic.

(Source: Similarweb, Nov 2018)

GymShark’s website bounce rate is currently 27.83%, (2018). This is the lowest by far in comparison to  both competitors – Adidas being 48.02% and LuluLemon at 33.47%.  According to a blog by Peyton, a bounce rate under 30% is ‘indicative of a well built, professionally designed website that is meeting its users’ needs’, (2014).

With such specific segmentation, three very possible web personas can be formed.

1 (Lily) 

  • Young woman, 20
  • Frequent Gym User – Runner
  • Fitness lifestyle
  • Introduced to GymShark through GymShark influencer she follows online

2 (Tom) 

  • Young man, 23
  • Frequent Gym User – Bodybuilder
  • Saw another man at the gym, wearing full GymShark outfit

3 (Jess) 

  • Young woman, 18
  • Starting fitness journey
  • Saw Viral Promo vid

These persona’s will all have their individual customer journeys through the website.

As seen on all three journeys, the website is a gateway to open communication with customers through future email marketing, introducing users to the ever-growing world of GymShark.

 

 

References:

  1. Bullock, L. (2018). Why your website is not converting into sales – and what to do. [online] LilachBullock. Available at: https://www.lilachbullock.com/website-converting-sales/#usability [Accessed 8 Dec. 2018].
  2. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1997). Finding flow in everyday life. New York: BasicBooks.
  3. https://www.similarweb.com/website/gymshark.com#search
  4. McKinney, L. (2004). Creating a satisfying internet shopping experience via atmospheric variables. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 28(3), pp.268-283.
  5. Millennial Marketing. (2018). Who Are Millennials | Millennial Marketing. [online] Available at: http://www.millennialmarketing.com/who-are-millennials/ [Accessed 8 Dec. 2018].
  6. Oppland, M. (2018). Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: All About Flow & Positive Psychology. [online] Positivepsychologyprogram.com. Available at: https://positivepsychologyprogram.com/mihaly-csikszentmihalyi-father-of-flow/ [Accessed 10 Dec. 2018].
  7. Peyton, J. (2014). What’s the Average Bounce Rate for a Website?. [online] Rocketfuel2014. Available at: https://www.gorocketfuel.com/the-rocket-blog/whats-the-average-bounce-rate-in-google-analytics/ [Accessed 12 Dec. 2018].
  8. Pixlee. (2018). Definition: What is a social media influencer?. [online] Available at: https://www.pixlee.com/definitions/definition-social-media-influencer [Accessed 4 Dec. 2018].
  9. Preece, J. (2000). Online Communities: Supporting Sociability, Designing Usability. 1st ed. Lincoln; United Kingdom: John Wiley & Sons.
  10. Support.google.com. (2018). Bounce rate – Analytics Help. [online] Available at: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1009409?hl=en [Accessed 10 Dec. 2018].
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