Lululemon Athletica shop exterior, Ponce Metropolis Sector.
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Lululemon is launching a membership plan — and it’s about extra than workout outfits.
The athletic apparel retailer will debut two tiers of memberships, one particular free of charge and just one paid, in a bid to construct a more powerful base of loyal clients. The offerings appear with distinctive access to objects, occasions and physical fitness courses.
Lululemon claims the move could enable the retailer decrease its price tag to obtain clients, as it makes the “most immersive fitness marketplace” in the field.
Even though Lululemon certainly isn’t really the very first retailer to start a exclusive loyalty system, not quite a few clothing corporations present an option that shoppers pay for every single thirty day period. Lululemon could set an illustration for many others to follow as the organization and its peers request new earnings streams over and above the rack.
The totally free membership possibility will give consumers early access to Lululemon product drops and exclusive products, as nicely as invitations to in-particular person community situations, the corporation announced Wednesday all through an analyst working day event.
The second possibility will price users $39 for each month, the same value as an all-access membership to Lululemon at-household fitness platform, Mirror. Recent Mirror consumers will be rolled into this new subscription tier at no further cost, the enterprise explained, which will also offer you exercise routine material from a selection of studios that Lululemon is partnering with, which includes Rumble, Y7, Pure Barre and DogPound.
Paid subscribers will also receive all of the benefits provided in the no cost tier, when both selections officially debut in the tumble.
“We want to proceed to add as significantly value as we can in that $39 membership tier as doable,” mentioned Michael Aragon, main executive officer of Lululemon’s Mirror, in his first media interview considering the fact that becoming a member of the business. “It really is getting to be a growth engine for Lululemon over-all.”
Aragon, a former Amazon government, took over the main government function for Mirror in mid-January. His occupation is to also oversee Lululemon’s broader digital health and fitness aspirations. Lululemon acquired Mirror for $500 million in 2020, at a time when related fitness providers these kinds of as Peloton, Tonal and Hydrow were being observing explosive progress with buyers stuck at residence and gyms noticed as unsafe.
Lululemon has considering the fact that rolled out Mirror shop-in-stores, where by consumers can exam out one of Mirror’s $1,495 devices, in roughly 200 spots across North The us.
With its membership push, Lululemon hopes to introduce the Mirror model to a broader viewers, even though also supplying current Mirror subscribers a lot more bang for their buck.
Lululemon experimented with a loyalty system in 2018, in advance of the Covid pandemic and the retailer’s Mirror deal. In the trial — which ran in a handful of towns across the U.S. and Canada — customers have been billed $128 on a yearly basis for perks such as free shipping and delivery, work out courses and specific activities.
Nikki Neuburger, Lululemon’s main brand name officer, said the company was ready to discover from the pilot what its buyers benefit most: precedence entry to merchandise, invitations to functions and one of a kind exercise information.
“The objective below is to make one related community throughout Lululemon and Mirror,” she claimed.
According to Neuburger and Aragon, Lululemon is attracting new buyers through Mirror who hadn’t shopped at the retailer before. Mirror subscribers also expend “appreciably more” on typical than the normal Lululemon customer, they claimed.
“These bargains usually are not just about information deals,” stated Aragon. “It can be about having [people] into the Lululemon life style, and that features donning our equipment.”
Lululemon’s expanded exercise presenting could make the retailer a nearer rival to a firm like ClassPass, now owned by Mindbody, which lets buyers indicator up for exercise courses from a range of boutique studios as effectively as national chains — on a membership basis.
It’s not entirely unheard of for athletic clothing models to enterprise down this route, either. Alo Yoga, regarded for its yoga attire and endorsed by actuality Television set movie star Kendall Jenner, has a $20-per-month subscription method to its individual yoga classes. Gap’s Athleta model teamed up with Obe Fitness to increase a health and fitness element to its loyalty software.
Lululemon also on Wednesday introduced new economical targets for 2026, forecasting annual revenue of $12.5 billion by 2026.
Its shares closed the day down nearly 5%, at $385.40. The stock has fallen around 1.5% calendar year to date.