Alunen

Alunen is a Finnish online marketplace for sport, outdoor activities and wellbeing, with an online course platform built into it. Coaches, instructors, personal trainers and wellbeing businesses open their own shop inside it and sell bookable sessions, remote coaching, events, equipment rental and online courses, while customers browse one catalog of services from many providers. The company, Alunen Oy, gives its address in Kuluntalahti, Finland, and describes the service as "suomalainen liikunnan ja hyvinvoinnin verkkopalvelu ja alusta" (a Finnish sport and wellbeing online service and platform). The provider page puts the idea in its title: "Löydy, myy, ohjaa ja repeat" (get found, sell, coach and repeat).

The site is in Finnish, prices are in euros including VAT, and the payment methods are the ones Finnish buyers use. It is a marketplace for the Finnish wellbeing sector rather than an international course store: the home page says the providers are "yrittäjiä ja yhdistyksiä, joilla on suomalainen y-tunnus" (entrepreneurs and associations with a Finnish business ID), and only sellers with such an ID can sell on it.

How selling works

Alunen calls its model a shop in shop. Every merchant gets its own shop page at an address of the form alunen.fi/kauppa/ followed by the company name, with a profile where the provider tells its own story. Product pages and the shop page are written to be found by search engines, and providers can share them on Facebook, Instagram and their Google Business Profile or add the shop page to their own website, so a customer arriving from any of those lands directly on the product. Shops also turn up in the marketplace's own product and provider search. A provider who only wants visibility can have a shop page without using it as a sales channel.

What a provider can sell is broad for a course marketplace. The provider page lists face-to-face services, including bookable ones such as coaching, instruction and advice; remote services such as nutrition counseling, exercise counseling and coaching; digital products, meaning e-books, online coaching programs and online courses; events held in person or remotely; and rental of equipment and spaces. Alunen says it takes care of the technical side of the shop, its maintenance and its development, and that putting a product on sale is quick.

Getting started has three steps. First, the provider picks the service package that suits it and registers as a merchant. Alunen then contacts the applicant by email to check that the products fit its sport and wellbeing theme, and if they do, it opens a sub-merchant agreement with the payment company Paytrail Oyj; the payment channel itself is free to open ("maksuton"). Second, the provider fills in its shop details, prices its services as it wishes, sets its own delivery terms with tips from Alunen, and builds online courses if the chosen package includes the course platform. Third, customers buy, and Paytrail pays the sales into the provider's account minus a transaction and service fee ("vähennettynä välitys- ja palvelumaksulla"). The site does not publish the package prices or the size of that fee. Alunen does claim that using Paytrail through the marketplace costs less than in a standalone webshop.

Alunen also runs online sales events and fairs for the sport and wellbeing sector, meant to make providers better known and to sell their services. The provider page says the platform suits anyone producing sport, activity or wellbeing services, including people just starting a business and those whose sales are occasional or seasonal, and pitches it as a low-threshold way to test the market.

The online course platform

The course side is a separate tool inside the same service. Providers who want to run online courses or coaching programs on a sport or wellbeing theme build them on Alunen's course platform, and each course gets a product description in the shop. They can build courses on their own, together with Alunen's Anne, or ask for a quote on a "tunnukset käteen" (keys in hand) service in which Alunen shapes the course from content the provider supplies. Two related products sit in the shop. "Tee se itse (DIY) laadukas verkkokurssi (sis. 1h konsultaatio)", a do-it-yourself quality online course including a one-hour consultation, costs 155 euros. "Tuotteista osaamisesi verkkokurssiksi ja aloita myynti" (turn your expertise into an online course and start selling) is marked as coming soon and out of stock, at 260.40 euros, down from 290 euros. A four-hour future workshop for sport and wellbeing operators sells for 149 euros.

The platform is not tied to the marketplace. Alunen says providers can use it for training they do not sell in the Alunen shop, for example a program delivered directly to an organization, and that providers who run their courses on other apps can still use the marketplace for selling and marketing. To see what a course looks like from the inside, the Startti-verkkokurssi (starter online course) holds open sample content on running the shop, selling and building courses, including tips on using a Google Business Profile.

What customers find

For buyers, Alunen is a catalog of wellbeing services from many sellers. Product groups include sport and athletics, skiing and ski holidays, body care, rest, sleep and recovery, mental wellbeing and mindfulness, workplace wellbeing, local food and small producers, training, remote services, in-person services, online courses and coaching, intangible gifts and online fairs. Customers can save items to a favorites list, and purchased online courses sit in the customer's own account next to past orders. If nothing fits, a customer can leave a request and Alunen looks for a provider who could offer it.

The listings on the home page show the price range. A guided forest walk costs 25 euros, guided mountain bike rides in Vuokatti 50 euros, a one-hour personal breathing session 69 euros, individual coaching 80 euros and a 60-minute solution-focused coaching session 105 euros, with a package of four such sessions marked down from 504 to 400 euros. Online formats start lower: guided asahi health exercise classes online cost 7 euros, a short asahi exercise is free, LempiYin and LempiRest from Lempi Coaching & Yoga cost 39 euros each, a group ride with mountain bike technique tips for women costs 19 euros, and a mountain biking starter course online costs 24.90 euros. Several items carry discount badges of 10, 13 and 21 percent.

Payment runs through Paytrail Oyj, which the site says works with Finnish banks and credit institutions. Buyers can pay with the online payment buttons of all Finnish banks, by card, by invoice or installment, and with MobilePay. Merchants set their own delivery terms on their shop pages, so cancellation and refund rules depend on the provider. Customer service is reachable by chat on the site, by email and by phone, and the site notes that its server is in Finland.

Who it suits

Alunen suits Finnish coaches, personal trainers, yoga and mindfulness teachers, outdoor guides and small wellbeing businesses that want a ready webshop, a public shop page and an online course tool without building their own site. It fits especially well when a provider sells a mix of bookable sessions, remote coaching and a course or two, or sells only occasionally or by season. Providers who want help making a first course can buy Alunen's guided course packages or ask for the keys-in-hand service.

It is a narrower fit for a creator outside the sport and wellbeing theme or without a Finnish business ID, since Alunen screens new merchants against its theme. For customers in Finland, it is a convenient place to find local guided activities, coaching and online wellbeing courses from several providers in one shopping cart.