Gift cards are a useful tool for fitness studios and gyms to leverage as they continue to grow their marketing and sales strategies. When you offer gift cards, you can attract new customers, strengthen member loyalty, and increase upfront and continued revenue.
In fact, research done in 2025 shows that 61% of consumers spend more than a gift card’s value when redeeming! That means that adding gift cards to your studio or gym’s repertoire can lead to more revenue than the price of the actual gift card.
With TeamUp, you can now easily offer gift cards right in the platform as well as in-person with your POS system. Gift cards are fully customizable by amount and time and easy to set up so you can have them ready for the holiday season and beyond.
In this guide, we’ll outline the benefits of offering gift cards for your fitness studio or gym as well as best practices to make the most out of them.
Gift cards: Benefits and best practices
1. Attract new customers
Benefit: Gift cards are a great way to introduce your studio or gym to new customers. Current members can buy gift cards for friends and family and then you get the upfront revenue as well as new customers in the door.
Best practice: Make gift card customers feel comfortable and welcome in your space. Follow up with them via email and text to encourage them to book more classes or sign up for a membership when their gift card is finished. These are customers who have experienced your space: It’s your job to get them to keep coming back!
2. Increase revenue during key seasons
Benefit: Gift cards help you boost revenue during big moments and seasons. One of the best times for gift card sales is the holiday season. 64% of U.S. consumers buy gift cards as holiday gifts, according to research. Likewise, connecting gift cards to your outreach around milestones, birthdays, and referral programs can help increase revenue.
Best practice: Include gift cards in your Black Friday promotions, milestone and birthday communications, and holiday offerings. You can even bundle gift cards with other items like discounted classes, merch, and more to encourage more customers to buy.
3. Generate upfront cash flow
Benefits: When a customer buys a gift card, you get the money spent upfront. This is very helpful for fitness studios and gyms, which often have a seasonal ebb and flow to the business. If you can get a good number of gift card sales during your busy season, you can use that extra revenue to help you through the slower times.
Best practices: Gift cards are always a good sales and marketing strategy, but make sure you leverage them during busy seasons to help you increase those incremental sales.
4. Strengthen member loyalty
Benefits: Your current customers are often your best marketers. Modern consumers rely on recommendations and reviews from their peers when making buying decisions. When you offer gift cards, you give your biggest fans a chance to share their love of your studio with their friends and family.
Best practices: Add gift cards to your referral program and encourage customers to buy them for their loved ones. Reward current members who buy gift cards as a way to keep the momentum going.
How to activate gift cards on TeamUp
Ready to start offering gift cards to your customers and see the benefits? It’s easy to activate gift cards on TeamUp. Head to the Help Center for the instructions.
Ready to grow but still have questions? Book a demo and learn how TeamUp can help you spend more time with your customers and less time on administrative tasks.
