How Therabody Is Revolutionizing Product-Based Retail With A Service-Based Concept

Retail stores for product-based brands traditionally focus on selling products. However, with newer digital brands, those locations likely also have some sort of experiential and service aspect. For instance, Warby Parker provides eye exams at many sites, and jewelry brands like Mejuri and Astrid & Miyu provide ear piercing in-store. However, even the newest product-based brands rarely create a concept dedicated to service. But that’s precisely what Therabody, the wellness technology industry leader known for its famed Theragun, is doing with its latest retail concept—Reset.

Reset locations provide a spectrum of tech-centric health and wellness services, including massage and stretch sessions, TheraFace PRO facial, cryotherapy, whole-body red light therapy, sound therapy, IV hydration, hyperbaric chambers, and more. Reset is open in Philadelphia’s Fishtown, Los Angeles’ Brentwood, Manhattan Beach, and Houston. By the end of the year, the company plans to have over 20 physical locations, including Resets and traditional retail stores.

“We designed Reset to give people access to the best wellness technologies that most people don’t have at their disposal. While many people use our products at home, our Reset Wellness Specialists design and administer a customized combination of technologies to help our clients with their personal pain points,” shared Benjamin Nazarian, CEO of Therabody, adding that “the team curates the clients’ treatment based on how they want to feel when they leave – whether that’s relief from physical pain, mental stress, or poor sleep.”

According to McKinsey, the global wellness market is about $1.5 trillion, with services making up about 30%. However, the consulting firm anticipates services to become a trend that will enhance the product wellness space rather than replace it, indicating the growth potential and longevity of product-based brands like Therabody providing services.

Product-based brands opening service-based concepts is rare but growing in popularity.

Service-based brands selling products seem to be more popular than vice versa. Go to a concert, resort, or spa, and there will likely be branded products for sale. Even digital service brand, Rowan, known for its ear-piercing services by licensed nurses, sells direct-to-consumer hypoallergenic products in-store and online. Or trendy vet clinic, Bond Vet, sells its own branded treats and treatment products online and at its various East Coast locations.

On the other hand, few product-based retailers have committed to a service-focused physical presence, but one of those brands is RH. The home retailer has numerous creative service initiatives, including hotels, jets, and yachts for rent, assumedly furnished in RH products. Similarly, Shinola has a hotel in downtown Detroit and Madison Reed, the direct-to-consumer home hair coloring brand, has opened over 60 hair color bars across the US, with plans to open more. In addition, the company recently announced another fundraising round of $33 million, bringing its total fundraising to over $230 million. It plans to use this latest round to ramp up its Hair Color Bar growth, aiming to operate 80 locations by the end of the year.

Service retail locations facilitate an experiential bond with a brand.

Despite the growing popularity of digital product brands providing physical services, it isn’t yet ubiquitous, which makes these retail experiences unique, facilitating a one-of-a-kind bond between consumers and brands.

In the case of Therabody’s Reset, the service-based retail concept likely allows the brand to develop a personal relationship with its customers. “We encourage people to visit Reset when they need a break from the daily stressors in their lives and want to improve their physical and mental well-being. The variety of treatments we offer gives our clients options to help them feel better, whether they are experiencing muscle soreness after a tough workout, recovering from an injury, or suffering from chronic pain,” stated Nazarian.

The pandemic and the isolation it brought the world have magnified the need for physical and mental health. Wellness brands are noticing the unprecedented vulnerability of humans regarding health and are creating physical experiences that address it. Ritual, a Los Angeles-based healthcare brand known for its vitamins, similarly recently opened its first store, intending to use the space to get to know and educate its customers.

Therefore, more brands, especially wellness ones, will likely open service-based retail concepts in the future. As Nazarian says, “consumers are more focused on their overall health, which is no longer only about fitness or nutrition, and this trend has accelerated during COVID and is here to stay. In the health and wellness sector, brands need to provide customers with the science to show how their products and services are helping people take care of their bodies in a way they can’t get elsewhere – and Reset does just that.”