3 Strategies to Increase Revenue in your Golf Pro Shop

The landscape in the golf retail market continues to shift and evolve. Companies that are adapting are seeing that reflected in their bottom line.

According to the 2019 Golf World report, the golf equipment business grew by 4.1 percent in 2018 compared to 2017, reaching $8.41 billion. While that number is a significant boost over 2017’s down numbers, it remains down 3.5% from 2014 when sales were 8.72 billion.

Although you may be in a seasonal market, your team has seven months or more to build a successful season with merchandise. A 2009 survey of the American golfer conducted by Golf Magazine found that the average golfer spent $2,776 per year on golf-related expenses. You and your team want to make sure that you can increase these numbers by adding new and exciting selections in your shop.

A great Pro Shop carries a variety of new merchandise and unique merchandise that will create interest, excitement, and sales.  They always search for new Treasure Hunt items that will keep customers coming in to see what’s new. Never stop digging for that next item that excites you. If you and your team see the value, your members/golfers will too.

Offer Branded Merchandise

One of the easiest ways to directly increase your revenue, improve your customer loyalty, and gain new customers is to sell branded merchandise. Create golf shirts, umbrellas, hats, and visors that bear your brand’s logo, and have fun with the logo and overall design. Designing merchandise that breaks the mold and offers a more modern and trendier look that will allow your members to rep your brand regardless of the circumstance. Be sure to give your customers the option to purchase these items at your golf course or online, which will bring you another source of revenue.

You could also incorporate free or discounted merchandise into an incentive program, which will encourage your customers to make visits and purchases. Customers who wear your merchandise are likely to feel more connected with your company, helping them to become repeat and lifelong customers.

An added benefit to creating merchandise with your logo is that your brand is being advertised whenever your customers wear your clothing or use your branded products. Designing and selling merchandise can increase your brand awareness, customer loyalty, and profitability.

Add Health and Wellness Products

Think about it, keeping golfers healthy and on the course is very important and should not be overlooked.

Let’s say twenty of your regular season golfers are not able to book tee times because of injury or pain. That is a significant amount of lost revenue.  Let’s look at this example:

A once a week average green fee of $75.00 x 20 players not playing due to injury or pain = $1500.00 in lost revenue.  Times that by 4 weeks of missed play, a loss of $6,000 a month and let’s say they normally play for 7 months out of the year now you are looking at $42,000 no longer going to your bottom-line.

To date most of the focus in a pro shop has been equipment and apparel which though important is not the only need of a seasoned or even beginner golfer.  Golf is a sport unlike most that can be played by people into their late 80’s. It is no secret as we age aches and pains come with more activity.  It’s not a secret that brick and mortar retailers in all industries are looking for ways to increase instore and online sales, new out of the normal categories should not be overlooked.

Educating and offering products to get golfers back on the course not only shows you care for your clientele but also adds to your bottom line.

Natural Pain and Recovery products are a growing pro shop category addition.  This includes products like pain roll-ons and creams. Also, additions of electrotherapy products have recently become more accessible to athletes everywhere and serve as a safe, addiction-free, drug-free relief to pain, long and short term. TENS/EMS electrotherapy for golf injuries works by sending gentle pulses of electricity through the skin and to the nerves where the pain is, effectively deflecting the pain signals away from the brain.  Units like the  PlayMakar wireless electrotherapy allows players to ease pain and recover while on and off the course.   These are the same units’ pro sports players be it Golf, CrossFit, Basketball, Football, and Baseball are now using to keep themselves game ready.

Add an E-Commerce page to your website

Think about the high volume of traffic your website gets every single day. Consider how anyone who visits your website to purchase golf packages, gift certificates, or rounds of golf is also likely to be in the market for golf-related products. This captive audience can be monetized with an e-Commerce page that sells pro shop products directly.

Use this strategy to offer a high level of service with in-store pickup and use customer data collected in your golf POS to help position and sell products online and in-store. Knowing a customer's history before they walk into the store to purchase or pick up an online purchase is valuable both for service and selling.

An e-Commerce site opens an avenue to provide creative discounts through online bookings and with a well-optimized website complete with call-to-actions you'll be able to steer online traffic towards spending money on new products.

Whether your facility is private, semi-private, public, municipal, or resort, you rely daily on multiple strategies to generate revenue. The key is to use all these strategies in tandem, don’t focus solely on one. Also, try to combine different departments of your facility as much as possible.  Examples; New item announcement posters in the clubhouse as well as the men’s and lady's lounge, announcement in your newsletter to members, handouts with scorecards and try to have your clubhouse manager keep the members of all your committees informed ….word of mouth is very powerful.

Keeping your customers aware leads to happier golfers and a happier bottom line.