Today we’d like to introduce you to Amal Hantash.
Hi Amal, thank you for sharing your story with me – can you please start by bringing us up to speed on how you got to where you are today, both personally and professionally.
Before I set up the business in 2017 it is fair to say that the entrepreneurial fire was already burning in my belly.
As a young teenager I set up a website that sold cosmetics. A keen gym-goer, I then partnered with MP and launched three fitness and nutritional programs, one of which earned her around $8,000.
The idea for Amal Hantash Fitness followed; an online retail business aimed at fitness fanatics that originally sold fitness programs.
I was going to the gym and basically was interested in, and wanted to be involved in, the fitness industry. I wanted to combine that with making a transactional website.
When I found that the profit margins from selling the fitness programs were limited, I dived into another area – clothing.
I remember creating a contest and offered a collection of training and nutritional programs as free prizes to the purchasers. A lot of people showed interest but they were suggesting to me to add more items than just programs. So I said, ‘let’s answer my fans request.’
Enlisting the help of surveying my fans to understand thoroughly their specific needs, and my expertise in programming, I designed and developed the site and started to order gym vests, t-shirts and pants from factories.
My dad had Brown Shoes stores in the middle east, so he taught me how to run a business. I remember thinking I had orders to fulfill from day one I launched, organically, and it was so much fun doing it.
I admit that after Amal Hantash Fitness first moved into clothing there was no immediate grand plan regarding growing the business. It was more a case of ‘I really want to fulfill my fans request to add variety of fitness related products,’ so I made it.
And so the company started to offer body builder tracksuits and yoga sets that matched tops and bottoms in a stylish and trendy way, because most on the market offer tops and bottoms separately.
I would also guess on how much to price items. It was literally a case of what would we want to pay for something.
There was no considered approach. we were like, ‘we would pay $100.’
After four years, Amal Hantash Fitness now has more than 40 premium brand that cater to all your sport needs under one roof. From undershirts to tracksuits, you name it and we have it!
So how has the firm been able to grow so quickly? In short, it has been a very savvy user of social media.
More specifically I decided it would send free clothing to key “influencers”.
The hope was that such stars would talk positively about the products to their followers on YouTube and Instagram.
The idea worked better than I could have dreamed, and sales soon skyrocketed.
At the same time I worked hard to ensure my own social media accounts were as interesting and visual as possible. Today it has about three thousands followers on Instagram and seven thousands on Facebook. This year we entered the tiktok world as well.
Another key factor in the continuing success of Amal Hantash Fitness is partnering with a more experienced pair of hands to help me run the business.
The influencers give shoppers a reason to buy into Amal Hantash Fitness over other brands, because they feel a personal connection. But we needed more than that to scale up.
Because Amal Hantash Fitness is an online-only and direct-to-consumer brand, it is able to remain nimble, react quickly to market changes, and isn’t weighed down by expensive store costs.
As for the future, the plan is to scale up Amal Hantash Fitness overseas sales. Already 95% of its sales come from the US and Canada, and it aims to target other international country-specific clients by 2021, up from 5% at present.
At the core of who we are, it is a willingness to help one another that drives us to enrich the lives of children around the world.
Through UNICEF Canada, our values are matched by our actions: supporting an organization that helps children survive. That defends their rights. That keeps them protected, healthy and educated. That gives them a fair chance to fulfill their potential.
Amal Hantash Fitness, now, donates %2 of the company yearly profits to UNICEF.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
No. It wasn’t smooth, specially at the beginning. With the lack of online business experience & the use of a payment processing platform that is unsuitable to our business, we got hit by fraudulent transactions. Soon, with the support and the advice we got from the platform experts, we recovered. Since then, we reduced fraudulent transactions to 0%.
Another hit was the different sizing from the standard US size charts. We faced a noticeable number of exchanges at the beginning. People, unfortunately, don’t look at size charts. They assume we follow the US one. With time, with reviews mentioning customers’ experiences with the different sizing charts, online shoppers now follow more our factories sizing tables.
There is always ways to improve the online business experience to make it easier and smoother for the customers.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
We specialize in offering fitness & bodybuilding clothing for men and women enthusiasts… We are very careful is choosing the trending today, fun to wear, comfy, items that can sustain the hardest workout.
We keep our site fresh bringing new experiences to men and women who love sports around the world.
Our return exchange shipping is FREE to the customers.
Conductive to more efficient focused sports.
We educate and motivate our clients and fans. So, we have a knowledge-based menu to help our followers in their fitness & bodybuilding journey.
How do you define success?
When you set a goal and you reach it, that is success.
Contact Info:
- Email: support@amalhantashfitness.com
- Website: amalhantashfitness.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amalhantashfitness/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmalHantashFitness
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/amalHantash
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/AmalHantash
