Yoga Retail 101

Adding retail sales to your studio or private business can boost sales—or create headaches. Experts weigh in on retail success strategies.

By Jodi Mardesich

Ten years ago, Vanessa Lee took a risk: She invested $10,000 on yoga mats, bags, and blocks, plus T-shirts and hand towels bearing her studio's logo. That risk paid off: At One Yoga now sells $1 million a year in yoga clothing, props, jewelry, and lifestyle items at boutiques in its Scottsdale and Phoenix studios.

It's not an effortless task, however. To keep the retail machine primed, Lee spends about 20 hours a week overseeing the boutiques, following trends, buying new products, and tracking inventory.

Lee's success is not the norm. While retail contributes almost half of At One's revenues, retail usually makes up a smaller percentage of most yoga businesses—about 10 to 20 percent of overall sales at studios that sell products, says Beverley Murphy, a former studio owner and a consultant to MindBody, Inc., which is a provider of business management software for yoga studios and spas. "In some rare situations, where the owner has a retail background or the studio is a storefront on street level, retail sales can make up to 70 percent of the studio's gross revenue," Murphy says.

Despite hard economic times, yoga practitioners plan to spend more on yoga classes, clothing, and accessories this year. According to Yoga Journal's most recent Yoga in America survey, American yogis are spending $5.7 billion a year on yoga classes and products, almost double the amount in the previous survey, completed in 2004. By offering products your students want, you can boost your business, especially if you understand your customers and know what they want to buy. But beware: A retail venture can be a money-losing, energy-sucking drain if you don't pay attention to business fundamentals. To succeed in a retail operation, do your homework to know what customers will want to buy, keep abreast of trends, price your products right, and keep the inventory moving.

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