Customer insights for sports nutrition brands

If you run a sports nutrition brand on Shopify, these are the seven questions worth asking your customers. For each one: the exact wording, what the answers tell you, and what to do with them. Copy them straight into your post-purchase survey.

Why ask

What your analytics can’t tell you

Sports nutrition is sold through the sport itself. Someone hears your name on a cycling podcast, sees you at a race expo, asks their club, then searches for you a week later. Your analytics says “Google”.

It can’t tell you which sport they do, what they’re working towards, or why they picked you over everyone else. You have to ask.

The 3 questions every shop should ask

Whatever you sell, these three tell you where customers come from, what nearly lost you the sale and whether the product delivered. 

Standard question · Marketing

“How did you first hear about us?”

What it tells you

Which channels really bring in new customers. Sports nutrition gets discovered through podcasts, events, athletes and training partners, then bought after a Google search, so your analytics gives Google the credit.

What to do with it

  • Put the answers next to your spend every month, including sponsorships and podcast ads. Move budget towards the channels customers actually name.
  • List your actual podcasts, events and ambassadors as answers, so you can see which ones earn their fee.
  • People who came from a friend or their club get a referral code in their second email.

Ask it: thank-you page, first-time customers.

The 4 questions made for sports nutrition

These tell you which sport your customers do, what they’re working towards, why they chose you, and whether it worked when it mattered.

Made for sports nutrition · Who they are

“Which sport do you mainly do?”

What it tells you
Who you’re really selling to. A marathon runner, a triathlete and a gym-goer need different products, advice and timing, and the split shows whether your customers match the sports you market to.

What to do with it

  • Build a Klaviyo segment for each sport, so product picks and fuelling tips match the person reading them.
  • Time campaigns to each sport’s season, like spring marathons or summer triathlons.
  • Put sponsorship and ambassador budget behind the sports your customers actually do.
  • A sport that keeps growing but that you barely market to is your next audience.

Ask it: thank-you page, first-time customers.

How they fit together

Seven questions, and no customer sees more than four at once

What to ask new customers

Someone has just bought from you for the first time. They’re still on the thank-you page, they’re happy, and they’ll answer a few quick questions. It’s your best chance to learn what your analytics can’t tell you.

  1. How did you first hear about us? Shows which channels really bring in new customers.
  2. Which sport do you mainly do? Tells you who you’re selling to.
  3. What are you working towards right now? Tells you the goal they want help with.
  4. Did anything nearly stop you buying today? Shows you what’s losing you sales.

Four questions take under a minute. Use a display rule so only new customers see them. Every answer goes straight to their Klaviyo profile, so their welcome emails can talk about their sport, not everyone’s.

Ask your own AI Assistant

Connect Grapevine to Claude or ChatGPT with our MCP connector and ask about your answers in plain English. See the full prompt library.

  • “Has anything changed sharply in my survey answers this week that I should look at?”

  • “Which channel brought in the most first-time buyers last week, and how does that compare with the last four weeks?”

  • “What are people writing in ‘something else’ for what nearly stopped them buying? Group it into themes.”

  • “Which sports do first-time customers mainly do this month, and how has that changed?”

  • “What do returning customers say matters most when they choose sports nutrition? Rank the answers.”

Closing the loop

The survey isn't the point. What changes because of it is.

Ask

The seven questions, at the right moments. Answers arrive every day.

Segment

Every answer lands on the customer’s Klaviyo profile, so the segments build themselves.

Act

Every month, fix the biggest “nearly stopped me” answer. If “not sure it would suit me” drops after you add a which-product-for-which-session guide, it worked.

Review

Every quarter, swap any question that’s stopped surprising you. Try “Which other sports nutrition brands do you use?”

How Precision Fuel & Hydration does it

Precision Fuel & Hydration markets through dozens of specialist channels: event sponsorships, athlete ambassadors, cycling and triathlon magazines, podcasts and YouTube, plus a lot of word of mouth. To see what was actually working, they ask every customer “How did you first hear about us?”, with answers covering their whole marketing mix. Grapevine’s Shopify Flow trigger sends each answer and the order’s UTM tags to one Google Sheet, so they can compare what customers say with what tracking shows.

“Understanding where our customers are coming from is essential. Grapevine helps us connect the dots between spend and results so we can make smarter decisions across all our campaigns.” Precision Fuel & Hydration

Read the story

How can I launch this?

1. Install Grapevine and add it to your thank-you and order status pages.

2. Build two thank-you page surveys, one for first-time customers and one for returning customers, using display rules.

3. Add two one-click email surveys to your Klaviyo post-purchase flow.

4. Switch on the Klaviyo integration and build your segments from the answers.

Install GrapevineBook a demo

Frequently Asked Questions

Start with seven. Three work for any shop: how did you first hear about us, did anything nearly stop you buying today, and how likely are you to recommend us. Four are made for sports nutrition: which sport they mainly do, what they’re working towards, what matters most when choosing sports nutrition, and how it worked on their last big session. Together they tell you where customers come from, who they are, why they buy and whether it’s working.

Yes. A marathon runner, a triathlete and a gym-goer need different products, different advice and different timing. Knowing their sport lets your emails talk to each one properly, and shows you which sports to sponsor and which athletes to work with.

Three or four at most. Customers are happy to answer a few quick questions straight after buying, but fewer people finish as a survey gets longer. Use display rules to show new and returning customers different questions, so nobody is asked something they’ve already answered.

Once customers have trained with the product. Asking at checkout measures excitement rather than whether it worked in a real session. Send it as a one-click email in your Klaviyo post-purchase flow, so customers can answer with a single tap.

Switch on Grapevine’s Klaviyo integration. Every answer is added to the customer’s Klaviyo profile, so you can build segments like “triathletes” or “found us on a podcast” and use them in your flows and campaigns.

Usually not after a purchase. Customers on the thank-you page are already happy to help, and a discount can attract rushed answers and cost you margin on people who would have bought anyway. A small incentive can make sense for abandoned cart surveys, where it may also win back the sale.

Still have questions?

Drop us a message and we will be on hand to help. Whether it's a demo, a few more questions or you just want to speak to someone before installing, we're always happy to chat.

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