Home Gym Delivery for a Fitness Brand: 90+ Homes in Eight States

Most of our case studies follow one project to one address. This one follows a home gym delivery program across eight states. A connected home-gym brand has run its in-home delivery through Elite Anywhere for a long time, and still does: its stock arrives by ocean container, is received and held in storage, and goes out to customers' homes as the orders come in. The figures here are a sample: the orders finished over eight months, January to August, which took home gyms into more than 90 homes in over 70 cities and towns from Miami to Portland.

The program at a glance

From container to customer

A brand that sells a large product online needs three things from one company: somewhere to receive its stock, somewhere to hold it, and a delivery that finishes inside the customer's home. Here the units arrive by ocean container and are received into storage, and units that come back from customers are received back into stock. They stay there until a customer orders, and then go out on a delivery booked at the level that customer bought.

Holding the stock in the same network that delivers it keeps the hand-offs short. There is no second warehouse to ship to and no gap between the unit leaving storage and the delivery being booked.

What a home gym asks of a delivery crew

A connected home gym is not a parcel for the porch. Each one is a tall cabinet with a screen on the front and a set of weight plates that rack inside it, and it travels in a tall carton of its own. Boxed, each unit weighs roughly 300 to 480 pounds, according to the brand's inventory records. That makes every order a crew job inside the home, not a curbside drop. It has to get from the truck, through the front door or the garage, and into a particular room without a mark on the screen, the cabinet or the house.

Our white glove deliveries follow a set order for exactly that reason. The customer gets a text about 30 minutes before the crew arrives. The route in is protected first, with blankets and coverings on doors, railings and anything the carton will pass. The unit moves on professional moving equipment rather than being wrestled through by hand. Then it goes where the customer wants it, up the stairs if the room is upstairs, the delivery is photographed, and the crew leaves with the packaging.

Three service levels in one program

A brand rarely sells just one kind of delivery, and this one did not. Most customers got white glove. Some had a lighter service, and the program also covered the other direction: collecting a unit from a home.

Every level ran through our delivery network, so the brand had one company to call whether the order was a full white glove placement or a collection. If the difference between the levels is new to you, our guides to threshold delivery, room of choice delivery and what white glove delivery includes set out where each one stops.

Ready for the January rush

January was by far the busiest month, and the program had to be ready for that rush. The lesson for a brand planning its own program: a delivery partner has to be ready for the peak month, not the average one. Put the expected busy months in the plan before the first order ships.

Ten regions, eight states

The orders were spread across ten of our dispatch regions: Austin, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Portland, San Antonio and San Francisco.

Our own crews handled San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Denver and Austin from our staffed warehouses. The other regions, including Miami, went through our wider delivery network, which pairs our hubs with vetted partners in other markets. Florida was the busiest state. Its deliveries ran from Naples, Fort Myers and Punta Gorda on the Gulf Coast to West Palm Beach, Boynton Beach and Coral Gables on the Atlantic side.

Where the home gyms went

These are the cities and towns on the orders, as recorded, grouped by state. A few are neighborhoods rather than cities: Corona, Elmhurst and Glendale are in Queens, and North Hollywood and Toluca Lake are in Los Angeles.

• California: Beverly Hills, Colma, Culver City, Cupertino, Dublin, Elk Grove, Inglewood, Long Beach, Los Altos, Los Angeles, Montclair, Mountain View, North Hollywood, Oakland, Oxnard, Rancho Cucamonga, Redwood City, San Jose, San Leandro, San Rafael, Stockton, Toluca Lake, Walnut Creek
• Colorado: Aurora, Castle Rock, Colorado Springs, Denver, Littleton
• Florida: Boynton Beach, Coconut Creek, Coral Gables, Coral Springs, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Lauderdale Lakes, Miami, Miami Lakes, Miami Shores, Miramar, Naples, Plantation, Punta Gorda, Royal Palm Beach, Wellington, West Palm Beach, Weston
• Illinois: Palatine
• New Jersey: Hillside, West Orange
• New York: Brooklyn, Centereach, Corona, Dix Hills, East Rockaway, Elmhurst, Freeport, Glendale, Greenlawn, Lindenhurst, New York City, Plainview
• Oregon: Gresham, Happy Valley, Portland
• Texas: Crowley, Dallas, Fort Worth, Godley, Hutto, McKinney, Nolanville, Northlake, Pflugerville, Red Oak, San Antonio, Schertz, Waco

In place: garages, living rooms and spare rooms

The delivery photos show where the gyms ended up. Several went into garages, one with a barbell and collars racked on the side of the cabinet. Others stand in living rooms, spare rooms and home offices, on wood, carpet and tile. Some are still in their protective film. In a few the doors are open and the colored weight plates sit racked inside, and one has its screen switched on. One photo shows a gym still in its tall carton, standing upright inside the home.

What customers mentioned

Customer feedback on the program has come back to the same three things: the delivery arriving on time, the text before the crew arrived, and the packaging being taken away.

What made it work

• One company from container to customer. Receiving, storage and delivery sit with the same network, so the brand has one contact across all eight states.
• Every delivery level under one roof. White glove, standard and threshold deliveries all ran through the same network.
• The room the customer chose. On the white glove orders, each gym was placed where it would be used, and the packaging left with the crew.
• Room for the peak. January was by far the busiest month, and the program was ready for it.
• A photo record of each delivery. The pictures above come from it.

Our gym equipment delivery and placement page describes the service for home gyms, fitness rooms and multi-site programs. Brands that also want stock held near their customers can read about white glove fulfillment and our receiving warehouse for online sellers. For another program that ran across more than one city, see our med spa rollout in Dallas and Houston.