clients / case studies / businesses

Fitrex

Goal

To take advantage of the power of the Internet to bring benefical, tailored and effective fitness plans to a mass audience, while creating a new business in the fitness industry

Solution

A robust and tailorable set of web-enabled fitness programs for a wdie range of goals (weight loss, strength training, body-building, sports training, etc.); outfitted with a content management solution so they were easily modifiable by a top-flight strength and conditioning coach, without his knowing a programming language; with data capture and customization options on an individual basis; with an astonishing word-of-mouth growth rate.

Results

Introduction

An entrepreneurial new company, Fitrex, was looking for a way to tap into the power of the internet to provide personalized fitness programs to a mass client base. While the company’s two founders had an abundance of expertise in conditioning and strength training, they had no expertise in internet and e-commerce technology.

Ephibian was retained to develop a technological solution to turn their goals into reality.

What did we do?

  • Developed a fully web-enabled customizable solution to allow members to select from a variety of programs such as weight loss, bodybuilding, various sport-specific training programs, and women-specific programs
  • System incorporated individualized programs for members, the tailoring of which was based on their beginning strength and condition levels, and the number of days per week they can allocate towards training, and modifiable by any pre-existing injuries/limitations they had
  • System incorporated a “feedback” mechanism to help participants to track and tailor their workout
  • Incorporated videos and written documentation that demonstrated the proper form to perform the exercises
  • Created an e-commerce tool for the site for supplemental sales
  • Created a web-based, database-backed content management authoring tool to create new exercise programs, answer e-mails, develop supplement stacks, and post them to the web site

How did we do it?

  • We partnered with Fitrex at its infancy to support the project
  • We integrated shopping cart technology, credit card interfaces, order entry and tracking systems and a distributor interface
  • We incorporated a customized Authoring Tool with embedded data administration features

What was the result?

In a matter of a few months, Ephibian saw Fitrex acquire over 14,000 members and a monthly membership growth rate of 125% based almost exclusively on word of mouth advertising alone. The subscriber base was truly international.

This attracted the attention of Asimba, a highly funded and the most successful online fitness web site in the nation at the time. Asimba purchased Fitrex as a core component for several of their internal modules; including their workout engine, their personal training tool, and their nutrition model. Ephibian continued its relationship by providing integration and development support to Asimba until Asimba was, in turn, purchased by Weider.