Let's Analyze

After an amazing summer vacation ☀️ with the family, I'm refreshed and ready to share the final installment of Grow Golf's AI series. I hope you've learned a thing or two over the past few newsletters, while taking the custom AI Assistants out for a spin.

Over the last few weeks, we've explored how to build a custom GPT for marketing and membership professionals packed with ideas, content prompts, and strategy shortcuts. You can continue test our Marketing AI Assistant and Membership AI Assistant, click here and ask it any question you want.

In the last week of our AI Series, we’re off to the Pro Shop to better understand our members (or customers) to find ways to gain incremental value from pre-existing purchase trends. It's time to dive into: Merchandising.

Think about it... What if you had an AI assistant that could analyze your shop’s sales data, flag underperforming inventory, surface buying trends by member type, and even suggest targeted promos before your gear drop?

This week, I’ll show you how to build a merchandising-focused GPT that helps you make smarter, faster retail decisions—without needing to be a data analyst. Let’s unpack what it can do.

If this isn't for you, I'd love it if you'd forward this newsletter to your Merchandising teammates.

Pour another ☕ and Let's Grow Golf.

How to Get Started with Your Own Club Merchandising GPT

If you want to experiment with building your own custom GPT for your membership role, I've made it easy to use my test data first before you spend the time organizing your data.

Here's exactly what you need to do if you'd like to try building one on your own:

STEP 1: Download the Starter Files

I've built a sample dataset for an imaginary club (cleverly named Grow Golf Club) using my Grow Golf Data Checklist. You’ll use these files to practice and test a custom GPT before committing time to organizing your own club’s data.

📋 Download the Grow Golf Club Merchandising Dataset
Use this spreadsheet as a guide to help you create a foundational club membership datasheet that you can update every month or quarter. I created a fictional—but realistic—merchandising database for a 450-member club. It includes:
- Member ID
- Member Demographics
- Style Preference
- Product Type
- Total Spend
- ...and additional data points.
👉 You can download the dataset here (Google Sheet, download as Excel/CSV)
📖 Download the Grow Golf Club Summary
This document includes member and club info (location, membership details, traditions). It helps GPT tailor responses, as if it "knows" your club, such as the name of official name of your official dining room, the road that the club is located on, or the types of trees that are prominent at your club. The more you can provide it, the more it can sprinkle the finer details into its responses.

👉 You can download the club summary here (Google Doc, download as Word/PDF)

STEP 2: Watch the Walkthrough Video

Once you've downloaded both files:

📹 Watch This Video Tutorial
I’ll show you step-by-step how to upload these files into ChatGPT, build your own GPT, and start using it for time-saving marketing tasks. Note: this is from a previous week's marketing walk-through, but the same setup applies!

👉 Watch the walkthrough using OpenAI’s ChatGPT

STEP 3: Try It Yourself

💡Use the Files to Build Your GPT
Inside ChatGPT, selected "GPTs" from the left sidebar, and then select "Create GPT" in top right corner. Then watch my walk through! You'll follow some prompts and then upload your data and summary document. You'll see how GPT can answer questions, brainstorm ideas, or automate key membership analyses.
Private GPTs Require Subscription: To create a custom, private GPT (that doesn't allow Open AI to train off your data), it requires a subscription to ChatGPT ($20 a month). However, I think that once you view this tutorial, you'll quickly see the value and how you can save time to focus on the tasks you love most at your job.

Did You Find This Series on AI Helpful?

Yes

Just Want To Use Mine?

Not ready to build your own AI Merchandising Assistant? No problem. The Grow Golf Club GPT is live and open to the public—so you can try it out for yourself. Ask it anything, explore its features, and see how it could help your team. Just click the button below to get started.

Try Grow Golf Club's AI Merchandising Assistant

10 Prompts to Analyze and Act

Once you upload the files into ChatGPT or try the GPT I created, try these prompts:

1. Segment Your Members

“Which member segments (by age, gender, or size preference) have the highest average yearly spend, and how can we target them with personalized offers?”

"Which members respond most to sale, promotion, or holiday offers, and how should we time communications to drive conversion?"

2. Product Strategy

“Which product categories are most popular among high-frequency shoppers, and which categories have low frequency but high transaction value?”

"Analyze apparel purchases by size and style preference to recommend future inventory orders?"

"Find members who consistently buy from one brand. What similar or complementary brands/products should we recommend to them?"

3. Identify Upgrade Opportunities

“Find members with high average spend but low purchase frequency. What retention or loyalty programs might increase visit frequency?”

"Highlight members who have completed equipment fittings but haven’t made a major equipment purchase yet.”

"What’s the average spend for members who make equipment purchases vs. those who don’t?"

4. Impress Your GM

"Create a purchasing memo that highlights trends and opportunities in sales to send to my GM"

Conclusion

Whether you're trying to track shopping behavior, aggregate key brands and items, or better understand your best spenders, AI can help you get there faster—and with more confidence. By turning your member data into smart, actionable insights, a custom merchandising assistant can unlock the kind of incremental revenue that adds up over time. If you'd like to test it out or talk about how to build your own, the Grow Golf Club GPT is just a click away.

That's it for our AI series. I hope you enjoyed it, and if you missed a week, all of the past AI newsletters are linked below. Thanks for reading!

See you next week.