I ride my bike a lot, so nutrition is key! And since I just finished my post ride meal, I thought I would review and share thoughts about the website that I use when purchasing supplements that keep me fuelled up. Science in Sport (SIS) is a British sports supplement company that produces supplements and trades online as a Business to Consumer (B2C). The brand operates as a transactional e-commerce business and sells various products to supplement hungry consumers.
I’d heard about the brand from other sources, but the thing that grabbed my attention the most was the information about how their products are produced, the elite organisations they partner with and their constant focus on quality, which I believe adds to their strong business model.
If your shopping for supplements, you want to know about what you’re buying and feeding yourself (especially when it comes to food sources). Think about it, your essentially buying food online… Do you buy your groceries online? Majority would say no, probably because when it comes to food, we like to touch and feel before thinking “yep, I’m happy to eat that” right? So, quality and trust are major factors when operating this type of online business, yet I think SIS have nailed it!
The business model is effective. SIS constantly advertises its focus on quality as its value proposition. The site contains information about its sourcing process, quality control processes and outlines various awards they have won. The company also works with elite athletes and teams such as Team Sky (who just won the tour de France), the British Cycling Team, Australian Cycling Team and the US Cycling Team. All pretty legitimate elite partners.
I had a look at two competitor's websites, Muscle Tech https://www.muscletech.com/au/ and Beast Sports https://www.beastsports.com. However, when I searched their websites I couldn’t find information about their quality standards or business focusses. They just seemed to be an online store with supplements, prices and some other bits and pieces. Yeah you could say SIS is the same, but I think SIS provide additional information that supports their products. Consider this simple example:
Your mindful of quality and lets say your purchasing apples. You find two sections with apples, one area has a sign stating apples, the other area also has a sign, but it shows where the apples came from, how they are grown and that there organic (OMG organic!). Both look similar and both are the same price… which apples are you going to buy and why?
This is where I think the SIS business model excels. For an online platform, customer buying behaviour is driven by many factors and I would say quality is an important one when purchasing supplements (food) online. The audience predominately has a focus on healthy eating, good diet and products that are going to serve as a benefit to their health, so executing a business model that demonstrates high quality is a sure way to help build a strong value proposition.
The revenue model for SIS is simple in that they generate income from sales. The website doesn’t have external advertising and is purely focussed on promoting sales of SIS products. There are a few marketing strategies that I could see for promoting customer purchases, of which included sales promotions and even a loyalty scheme for repeat customers.
Whilst this is just a short piece, all in all I think SIS produces a strong value proposition and executes a simple, yet effective business model.
Your thoughts?
Kris
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