Maher Diab opened his first tennis pro shop in 2001. Over the next 15 years, he expanded to pro shops across Montreal and built a vision for online growth. In 2017 he launched Tennis Giant. The vision was to combine the pro shop model with an online presence and become a significant player across Canada. Following the difficult years of the COVID-19 pandemic, Maher brought in a couple of partners to the business in Michael Ghazal and Alexis Kavanagh.
Eight years after inception, Tennis Giant is now one of the premier racquet sports retailers in the country, and their growth shows no signs of slowing down. Today, Tennis Giant runs multiple pro shop locations inside private tennis clubs, a flagship showroom, pop-up retail at major professional tournaments, and a growing online business—all through Shopify’s unified commerce platform, implemented in partnership with Shopify Plus Partner Retailogists.
With Shopify, Tennis Giant has achieved great results, including:
Nearly 200,000 transactions processed since launch
More than 100% sales growth over past four years
Generated over 300% of typical weekly sales in single week during pop-up at National Bank Open
Pivoted to 100% online sales for 18 months during pandemic without losing sales momentum
Gained remote business management capabilities through real-time visibility and reporting
The Challenge: Inefficient workflows limit growth trajectory
By 2016, Maher had built a successful business running three pro shops inside prestigious tennis clubs across Montreal. But he admits that he had “no real system in place” to help him efficiently manage and scale the business. Each store processed transactions independently, with no connection between locations or to business tracking. Maher kept track of performance through Excel spreadsheets he’d designed himself with formulas to calculate sales.
This manual tracking approach meant Maher couldn’t easily pull reports or analyze business performance across locations. “When you’re selling $400K-$500K a year it’s manageable. But the goal was to sell five, ten, $15 million,” he says.
Maher’s ambition extended far beyond local retail. He envisioned becoming a major online retailer serving customers across Canada, while maintaining the pro shop presence he’d built. In 2017, he took the leap, launching Tennis Giant and rebranding the business to build the omnichannel operation he’d envisioned.
The problem was that the existing patchwork of disconnected systems were a constraint to Tennis Giant’s growth. Before hitting that million dollar mark, Maher knew he needed a system that would help the business scale for decades to come.
This transition would also mean fundamentally changing how he worked. “Historically I was always in the store managing it and seeing what was happening,” Maher says. “But I had to let that go.” The new model of operating from a central office or warehouse while managing multiple pro shops would require real-time visibility into transactions, inventory, and sales across all locations, which was impossible with spreadsheets on a single computer. That’s when he turned to Shopify.
The Solution: Shopify provides unified platform to better serve customers
When launching Tennis Giant, Maher put the entire business on Shopify from day one—the online store and all three pro shops. “It wasn’t a small task, but it had to be a system that could sustain growth,” Maher says. Instead of running stores as separate islands, he built one inventory system. Every sale—online or in store—updated availability everywhere, and staff could see inventory across locations in real time.
Tennis Giant deployed eight Shopify POS devices across their pro shops, the main showroom, and pop-ups. At tournaments like the National Bank Open, they ran four POS stations plus one in the stringing room while regular stores stayed open. “We just need internet and we’re all set,” says Maher, highlighting the flexibility to sell anywhere provided by the wireless POS software.
At the main showroom, staff used two POS devices: one tied to store inventory, the other to the warehouse. That exposed the full catalog even when floor space was tight. Maher explains how this was a game changer for customer service. “Customers don’t see something on the floor and think we don’t carry it, but we can show them we have it in our warehouse,” he says. “95% of the time that order will be in the inventory that we have here.” Customers can pick up at the showroom, have items delivered to the pro shop, or order online.
The team automated wherever possible to reduce the probability of errors, which were common with their manual systems of the past. They entered barcodes for all products, automated staff scheduling, and designed workflows that would scale. Barcode scanning on transfers prevented mistakes with size or color variants.
They maintained critical functions unique to their business model by leveraging the Shopify third-party app ecosystem, and the support of Retailogists to design workflows that would scale: Smile.io for loyalty points customers could earn and redeem everywhere, Apntly for booking appointments on the indoor court (demos or lessons on tennisgiant.com), and Kbite for back-in-stock alerts on sought-after items.
As the business grew, Shopify Capital helped ensure momentum continued to accelerate by providing multiple funding rounds to boost inventory and increase sales without requiring the team to navigate the complexities of applying for a traditional loan.
The Results: Giant growth ahead
Tennis Giant’s unified commerce strategy paid off fast. Since launching on Shopify, the brand has processed nearly 200,000 transactions and scaled into a multimillion-dollar business serving all of Canada. Revenue has more than doubled in recent years, and they aim to double or triple again through targeted market expansion. Their brick-and-mortar footprint has expanded from the original three pro shops to include a 30,000-square-foot flagship that houses the warehouse, showroom, and indoor courts (tennis, badminton and pickleball). They are an authorized Canadian online retailer for the industry’s leading racquet sports brands.
Shopify has proven to be a key partner in fostering resiliency. “When the pandemic hit, the business turned to 100% online for 18 months, and we managed it thanks to Shopify,” Maher says. Because their inventory, orders, and customer data were unified, they were able to pivot seamlessly to continue serving customers even as their physical locations closed.
Tennis Giant is the official retailer for the National Bank Open, Canada’s premier professional tournament. During the week-long event, pop-up sales are significant revenue generators. Staff sell the products they bring and can place orders on the spot for items not on hand through Shopify POS, capturing sales that would otherwise be lost. Maher says the most recent pop-up at the Open generated “more than a month of sales” in a single week.
Despite frequent solicitation from competitors, Tennis Giant is fully committed to Shopify.
Our focus is not on trying to make changes to save a couple of bucks. We want to keep growing and we believe Shopify is the best partner to help us achieve that growth.
Tennis Giant
Maher Diab — Founder and Co-President
We needed a platform to manage our business all in one place. We couldn’t treat our pro shops like separate islands. Everything needs to be counted and entered into the system once so we can then decide where it goes. Shopify gives us that ability, and they’ve been a good partner. We’ve never had any doubts or regrets.
Tennis Giant
Maher Diab — Founder and Co-President