LadiesGym is a fitness center network dedicated exclusively to women. Women who want to prioritize their health, appearance, and achieve personal physical goals. The brand emphasizes individualized approaches and motivation to ensure regular training, while creating a comfortable and empowering environment. Member acquisition was a key focus in designing the membership program, ensuring that pricing strategies would attract new members and boost initial sign-ups. Understanding your audience and business model is crucial for effective membership pricing strategies, and LadiesGym prioritized this from the start.
Gyms are located in Warsaw and they offer a wide range of fitness services - from standard gym access to group classes and physiotherapist consultations. In this community, members can feel valued, supported, and empowered. LadiesGym's membership program was designed to offer a range of services and benefits tailored to women's needs, with flexible options to suit different preferences and lifestyles.
Selecting the right membership pricing model was essential for increasing revenue and ensuring long-term sustainability. Conducting market research and understanding the audience were key to shaping a pricing strategy that aligned with member needs and market trends.
We independently developed pricing tiers for our services, and over time, we noticed our fitness centers were reaching full capacity. However, despite offering extensive services, our revenue wasn’t aligning with the expectations. Our initial goal was to increase profitability by 20 percentage points. To achieve it, we have decided to reach out to the Valueships team for assistance with growth. We wouldn't have managed it so well without Damian Foks and his team. They conducted a thorough analysis and redesigned our packages with professional precision. Damian’s approach was to focus on maximizing our brand’s revenue while delivering more comprehensive services to our clients. The results went well beyond our expectations. Profitability increased by close to 30 p.p. It was a bull's-eye!
LadiesGym’s leadership team recognized that their current pricing model was not reflecting the true value of their services. The gyms were reaching full capacity - a clear sign that demand was strong. But despite high occupancy rates, the company was not fully capitalizing on its revenue potential.
This is a pattern we see across subscription businesses, not just in SaaS but in fitness, wellness, and membership-based services. When your product is at capacity and customers are satisfied, but revenue doesn’t match the demand, your pricing is the bottleneck. The value is there - the pricing just isn’t capturing it. To address this, conducting a competitive pricing analysis is crucial—this involves identifying both direct and indirect competitors and gathering total landed price data, including shipping and discounts, to ensure your pricing aligns with the market.
LadiesGym had developed their pricing tiers independently over time, without systematic price sensitivity analysis or competitive benchmarking. The pricing structure had three tiers, but they weren’t aligned with distinct customer segments or use cases. When setting effective prices, it is essential to analyze competitors' pricing strategies and consider all operational costs, including both fixed and variable costs, as well as hidden fees and mandatory support charges. Traditional cost plus pricing, where a markup is added to total costs, is simple but often fails to account for perceived value and customer willingness to pay, making it less effective than value-based approaches. Effective pricing strategies should consider both operational costs and the perceived value of the offerings to customers. The result: most members chose mid-range or lower packages, revenue per member was below potential, and there was no long-term commitment mechanism in place.
The goals were ambitious but clearly defined:
Regularly revisiting and updating pricing strategies based on customer feedback and market trends is essential to enhance membership retention and satisfaction, as well as to ensure pricing remains competitive and profitable.
A successful membership pricing strategy starts with a deep understanding of the target audience. For fitness studios like LadiesGym, this means going beyond basic demographics to uncover the financial capacity, motivations, and unique needs of potential members. By conducting thorough market research and analyzing customer data, fitness businesses can gain valuable insights into what drives their audience’s decisions and how much they are willing to pay for different services.
A well-designed membership pricing model should offer multiple options that reflect the diverse preferences and expectations of the target audience. This could mean providing flexible plans for students, premium packages for professionals, or specialized offerings for those seeking wellness services. The key is to align your pricing model with the real-world behaviors and financial realities of your members.
By leveraging customer data and ongoing market research, fitness studios can continuously refine their membership pricing strategy to ensure it resonates with both existing and potential members. This approach not only enhances customer satisfaction but also supports long-term business growth by ensuring that your pricing structure remains relevant and competitive in a dynamic market.
For LadiesGym, we started with a strong focus on external market data to precisely define an optimal fitness pricing strategy and service differentiation. Conducting market research to understand customer preferences provided valuable insights for pricing decisions and helped us stay aligned with market trends. We deployed three complementary pricing research methods:
Price Sensitivity Meter (Van Westendorp PSM). This method determines the acceptable price range by asking customers four key questions about price thresholds. It gave us the pricing corridor - the zone where prices are neither “too cheap to be credible” nor “too expensive to consider.” For a fitness business where perceived quality matters enormously, knowing these boundaries was essential.
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Conjoint analysis. The most advanced statistical technique in our pricing research toolkit. It helped us understand how customers value different features that make up the membership - gym access, group classes, personal training, physiotherapy, and more. Instead of asking “would you pay for this?”, conjoint forces respondents to make trade-offs between feature combinations, revealing their true preferences.
Concept testing. Before implementing any changes, we tested the appeal of new service concepts through surveys and interviews. This reduced the risk of introducing packages that looked good on paper but didn’t resonate with real customers.
Throughout the process, we used data analytics and monitored customer feedback to inform and adapt our pricing strategies. This approach ensured that pricing decisions were based on real-time insights and could evolve with changing customer preferences and market trends.
This triple-method approach is unusually thorough for a fitness pricing project. But LadiesGym’s ambitions justified the investment - and the results proved it.
Alongside the customer research, we conducted a competitive pricing analysis of the Warsaw fitness market. As part of this process, we identified both direct competitors (gyms offering similar services to the same target audience) and indirect competitors (businesses solving the same problem differently). We gathered total landed price data, including shipping, discounts, hidden fees, and mandatory support charges. Additionally, we tracked historical trends, seasonal promotions, and discount cycles to gain a full financial picture of the competition. We mapped how other gyms - both women-only and general - structured their pricing, what services were included at which price points, and where LadiesGym sat relative to competitors. Analyzing competitors' pricing strategies was crucial for setting competitive and data-driven pricing aligned with market expectations and customer value.
The analysis confirmed what the customer research suggested: LadiesGym was underpriced relative to the value it delivered. Notably, 90% of businesses that actively monitor competitor prices report significant improvements in market positioning, and companies using competitive pricing analysis can achieve up to 25% higher profit margins. Companies use competitive pricing analysis to position themselves through premium pricing, price parity (matching competitor prices to avoid price wars while differentiating through customer experience and branding), or market penetration. The combination of women-only environment, individualized approach, and service quality created a differentiated position that the pricing didn’t reflect.
Based on the data, we made several structural changes to the pricing model.
Adopted subscription models with multiple tiers, including a basic plan. We expanded from 3 to 4 pricing tiers, introducing a clear basic plan as an entry-level option and higher membership tiers at different price points to cater to diverse customer needs. Each membership tier was aligned with a specific customer persona and use case, ensuring that customers pay for the level of access and benefits that best fit their fitness journey. Notably, gyms that offer three or more membership tiers see a 15–20% higher retention rate than those with just one or two. This approach also allows us to offer more value at each higher tier, encouraging upgrades and maximizing revenue potential.
Introduced 12-month memberships and flexible payment options. For the first time, LadiesGym offered annual memberships alongside monthly subscriptions, providing flexible payment options to suit different budgets and preferences. This was a critical subscription pricing strategy move—shifting the revenue model from short-term, uncertain monthly commitments to predictable, long-term relationships. The success was immediate: within a few months, 12-month plans accounted for 40% of all memberships. A successful tier system meets members where they are in their fitness journey while still giving them room to level up.
New professional services and packaging, including a freemium model. We helped LadiesGym introduce additional services such as group classes and physiotherapist consultations. These weren’t random add-ons—they were services our conjoint analysis identified as high-value differentiators that customers would actually pay for. In addition, we considered a freemium model as a customer acquisition strategy, offering free trials or limited access to attract potential members and convert them to paying customers through targeted premium offerings. When designing packages, it’s important to consider how much revenue can be generated from different pricing strategies and customer segments, using metrics like ARPU to measure efficiency. Price is meaningless without context; it should be mapped against perceived value. Identifying unmet needs or feature gaps in competitor offerings can also justify a higher price point for our own product.
As our partnership deepened, Valueships transitioned from a pricing advisor to a strategic partner. We noticed that LadiesGym had untapped potential in business measurement—manual calculations and untracked metrics that hindered quick decision-making. By leveraging data-driven decision-making and analytics, we helped LadiesGym optimize pricing to better match customer expectations and market conditions.
We identified key areas where analytics could add value and proposed developing internal analytics capabilities. After creating a process map, we uncovered opportunities for quick wins and cost-saving optimizations that would streamline operations and reduce tool usage. Regularly reviewing and adjusting the pricing strategy became essential to remain competitive and meet member needs. We also found that revisiting and updating pricing based on data led to increased average revenue per user (ARPU).
Through regular monthly meetings, we fine-tuned the pricing strategy and addressed emerging challenges, ensuring that LadiesGym remained on track with its goals and continued to optimize its business model. Looking ahead, the adoption of AI-powered tools will allow businesses to dynamically monitor and adjust prices every 20–30 minutes, further enhancing their ability to optimize pricing and respond to market trends.
The results exceeded the original profitability target significantly. Within just a few months of implementation:
Implementing loyalty programs further incentivized members to stay engaged and renew their memberships, supporting long-term member retention. Communicating the unique value proposition of the membership was essential for justifying its price and attracting new members, while clear communication with existing members helped maintain trust during changes. Retaining existing members and customers proved crucial for sustainable growth and maximizing average revenue.
What makes this case stand out is the speed. Most pricing optimization projects take months to show measurable impact. LadiesGym saw 30% MRR growth within the first month - because the value was already there, it just needed the right pricing structure to capture it.
The shift from 40% to 75% in higher packages deserves special attention. This is how to increase ARPU without raising prices aggressively - you redesign the packaging so that the higher-value option becomes the natural choice. Customers aren’t paying more for the same thing. They’re choosing a better option that genuinely fits their needs.
30% growth in MRR
Increase share of higher packages from 40% to even 75% resulting in higher ARPU
Conversion remains almost the same
Pricing Professional with over 10 years of experience in the world’s leading consulting firms and the financial institutions. Passionate about helping clients and sharing knowledge about pricing and strategy especially in SaaS companies and Custom Software Development teams.
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Pricing Professional with over 10 years of experience in the world’s leading consulting firms and the financial institutions. Passionate about helping clients and sharing knowledge about pricing and strategy especially in SaaS companies and Custom Software Development teams.
