Mighty Pilates Standardizes Purchasing to Support Growth and Reclaim Over 40 Hours Monthly

The challenge

Mighty Pilates, a boutique pilates business in California, managed purchasing manually with limited visibility over spend across its locations. If studio managers needed to buy more towels, cleaning supplies, or grip socks, they’d log into a supplier’s portal and use a company card to make the purchase. While this process worked across one or two locations, it broke at scale when they more than doubled in size to eleven locations in 2025.

Additionally, tracking who bought what, or for which location, required significant manual work. “Visibility was nearly impossible,” Michelle Hatsushi, VP of Operations, shared. “There were dozens of hours spent trying to match credit card receipts to credit card statements, and then the back and forth between the managers, accounting, and finance to make all the books right.”

That manual reconciliation pulled studio managers’ time away from their primary focus: delivering a consistent, elevated experience across locations. “Clients will notice that one studio had something and the other studio didn't,” Michelle noted. From the mints at the receptionist’s desk down to the eco-friendly soaps in the bathroom, every little detail shaped the experience — and protecting that experience meant every location had to buy the same brand-approved products.

With Mighty Pilates’ rapid growth showing no signs of slowing down, Michelle knew it was critical to build repeatable purchasing processes that could scale with the business while upholding brand standards.

The solution

In September 2025, Mighty Pilates implemented Order.co to gain visibility and control over spend as they prepared to expand. Michelle worked with a dedicated implementation team to get acquainted with its features and custom settings. “Our implementation consultant patiently answered every question we had, no matter how small, and stayed with us until we felt completely comfortable,” Michelle highlighted.

A critical step of the implementation process was populating Mighty Pilates’ catalog. To do so, Michelle simply connected their existing supplier accounts to Order.co, automatically populating a single curated catalog with the products their team regularly purchases. As a result, studio managers can browse, request, and track purchases across all their vendors in one place. Centralizing purchasing also gave Michelle better control and visibility over spending. “One thing that drew me to Order.co is the ability to set budgets by location, supplier, or category, so I can keep a close eye on spend wherever I need to,” Michelle shared.

On the finance side, the team connected Order.co to their QuickBooks instance so that all expenses are automatically categorized upon purchase, significantly reducing reconciliation time. “It's been really easy to track [spend] by location and make sure that reporting is accurate,” Michelle shared.

The outcome

Time back to focus on the client experience

With everything the Mighty Pilates team needs to keep locations stocked — from pilates equipment to cleaning supplies to grip socks to toiletries — in one place, studio managers save time on purchasing. “Their time is spent being the face at the studio and engaging with the clients,” Michelle said. “Something that would take dozens of hours can whittle down to a quick fifteen minutes. The amount of time that [Order.co] has saved is mind-blowing.”

Further adding to the time savings, if an item that employees typically purchase is out of stock or would be delivered late, studio managers no longer have to scramble. Order.co’s sourcing agent taps its network of over 40,000 reliable vendors to surface substitutions automatically — so a stockout or late shipment becomes a non-issue.

Team autonomy with leadership oversight

The Mighty Pilates team configured custom approval workflows, replacing back-and-forth email chains. As a result, studio managers get what they need quickly, and Michelle doesn’t have to choose between speed and visibility. “Any team member that comes on has autonomy, and they have some guidelines to follow,” Michelle highlighted. “At the same time, leadership can get all the oversight and information we need to keep the business strong and successful. Order.co is the backbone that gives the studio managers some autonomy without micromanaging them."

One unique feature of Order.co’s approvals: when an item deviates from previous purchasing patterns — such as being an atypical quantity or price — AI flags it for additional review. This gives leaders like Michelle the visibility she needs to keep budgets on track without extra work. "If something looks off, like an unusually large quantity, or if an item's already been purchased recently, it'll flag it," Michelle explained. "The studio managers can see when their orders aren't approved, and they learn from it."

Tracking information across vendors is also centralized on Order.co, eliminating the need to search through old emails and log into supplier portals to find the status of an order. "Managers can track their own orders without having to come to me or anyone else for updates,” Michelle shared.

Consistent brand standards across locations

For studio managers, knowing which products to buy no longer relies on guesswork. The only items available in Order.co are ones that Michelle selected, making compliant purchasing the only path forward. “Even when it comes to toilet paper and paper towels, here are the approved ones that fit Mighty Pilates standards,” Michelle said.

“From the minute you walk in the door, no matter what Mighty you are at, we want to make sure that the experience is the same from front to back,” Michelle described. Whether a client takes a class in San Francisco or Los Angeles, they find the same grip socks in the reception area and the same complimentary coffee at the front desk. Creating this reliable experience helps establish Mighty Pilates’ unique brand identity while encouraging clients to return for future sessions.

Scalable processes simplify expansion

As Mighty Pilates prepares to open the doors to new studios, purchasing everything they need for the new locations is easier than ever. "We have a [new studio openings] catalog list that we can just add to cart, and that's one and done," Michelle said. With those repetitive tasks off their plate, teams can focus on attracting new customers and building rapport when they walk in.

As a whole, having the right system in place gives Mighty Pilates what they need to collaborate efficiently across teams. “Order.co has really given us the infrastructure and the visibility to work as a one cohesive company rather than eleven locations — and growing — operating individually,” Michelle shared.