Will the epidemic bring spring to the fitness equipment industry? After the epidemic, where is the development path of the industry?
The sudden new Crown epidemic has changed the daily life trajectory of Chinese people. Many consumption scenes are “forced” to move online, which also brings new opportunities to the traditional consumption industry. The epidemic has led to a sharp decrease in people’s outdoor activities, so “Homestead economy” has pushed the tepid fitness equipment industry up against the market.
However, whether the fitness equipment industry can continue the growth trend of volume, there are still two voices: optimistic and bearish. People think that the epidemic will lead to a new round of fitness equipment consumption boom, while those who are short-sighted believe that the stimulus of the epidemic to the industry is only temporary. Until the end of the epidemic, the industry will return to the normal development track.
Then, will the epidemic bring spring to the fitness equipment industry? After the epidemic, where is the development path of the industry?
The rebound and upward movement are predictable
The epidemic is also a profound national health education, and the citizens are expected to continue to increase the consumption expenditure on Sports Health, the importance of sports has increased significantly.
Jingdong big data shows that during the Spring Festival alone, the turnover of rope skipping on the platform increased by 56% year-on-year, dumbbell increased by 60% year-on-year, and chest expander increased by 109 percent year-on-year, rowing machine year-on-year growth of 134%, self-operated yoga mat year-on-year growth is as high as 150%. The sales growth of these categories is more obvious among small town residents, indicating the awakening of the fitness boom in low-tier cities.
According to the statistics of Pinduoduo platform, the sales volume of fitness, leisure and entertainment products has increased significantly since the outbreak of the epidemic. Among them, multi-functional sit-up equipment, treadmill, dumbbell, elastic string and other products have increased significantly year-on-year.
The data analysis agency CASDON consulted the special report of “the crisis and opportunity of all walks of life under the epidemic” released previously. After the occurrence of major epidemics, people’s attention to their own health and the awareness of participating in sports to enhance physical fitness will rise sharply. Therefore, people can’t help predicting whether the fitness equipment industry will rise due to the epidemic in 2020? In this regard, we can find the answer from the development process of fitness equipment industry after SARS in 2003.
△Data Source: Suning Financial Research Institute
in the relevant statistics after the SARS epidemic, 85% of consumers want to enhance immunity through exercise. After the epidemic, about 20% of consumers in Beijing bought new sports fitness equipment. According to the data of Suning Financial Research Institute, in the outbreak period of SARS from April to May, 2003, although the retail sales of sports and entertainment products industry had a short fall, it began to rebound from June and continued to go against the trend until the end of the year.
The Outline of “Healthy China 2030” proposes that the number of people who often take part in exercise will reach 0.435 billion in 202020. Under the background of national policy support, residents’ fitness awareness and income level improvement, people’s demand for fitness equipment has been more vigorous than in 2003. At the same time, 2020, with the European Cup and Tokyo Olympic Games, is still a “sports year”. The rebound and upward movement of the fitness equipment industry after the epidemic is almost predictable.
Can the growth momentum be maintained?
Black Swan events like the epidemic can indeed stimulate the sales of fitness equipment in the short term, but after the epidemic, whether the fitness equipment industry can maintain its growth momentum is worth thinking about.
Take table tennis, the most common sports equipment, as an example. Its products are characterized by serious homogenization and lack of innovation, which makes it difficult to continuously attract consumers. However, during the epidemic, a table table tennis product that “does not need flexible shaft” received tens of thousands of favorable comments in Jingdong. The principle is to use a stretch fixation with steel wire table tennis ball. After hitting with a racket, the table tennis ball will rebound from different angles, so that even if there is no table at home, even a person can play table tennis. The main content of consumers’ praise is: it does not occupy the place, is suitable for all ages, and can exercise at home.
These evaluations reflect real user needs. Among the same products, aiming at users’ needs and actively innovating are exactly the way for fitness equipment enterprises to break through and the vitality of industry development. Innovation also gives premium to products. On Jingdong platform, the average price of flexible shaft table tennis is close to 100 yuan, while the price of ordinary table tennis is only in the range of 20 yuan-30 yuan.
Treadmill is also the product that also saw a big increase in sales during the epidemic. Previously, due to the tepid sales market on the C- end, many treadmill manufacturers chose to develop and sell products for the B- end, such as gyms and schools, which also made most treadmills on the market bulky and expensive, not suitable for home users. Due to the epidemic, enterprises have seen the huge potential of the home fitness equipment market, and the sales volume of many treadmills designed for home users has soared. For example, the foldable treadmill introduced by Xiaomi and Huawei can be placed on the wall after folding to minimize the occupied space. The product is priced at more than 1,000 yuan and is more friendly to the people.
It should be noted that in today’s fitness equipment market, consumer demand is more diversified and user groups are more subdivided. The key to the long-term development of fitness equipment industry lies in how to meet the consumption demand of thousands of people and continuously attract consumers.
Building the core competitiveness of the industry
nowadays, the post-80s and post-90s have become the most important consumer decision makers, which is no exception in the fitness equipment industry and even more obvious. The development of fitness equipment industry needs to start from the consumption scenarios of this group of Internet Aborigines and tailor products and marketing models.
Under the epidemic, some “new ways to play” have also emerged in the fitness equipment industry “. Inpays is currently a listed company specializing in treadmill products in China. During the epidemic, the company cooperated with Qingdao Sports Bureau and radio and television station to record online teaching content. On the one hand, it helps the public to better understand fitness knowledge, on the other hand, actively expand influence and open up multiple channels for sales.
Yingpais starts from hardware products and enters the field of online courses. However, the well-known fitness platform Keep focuses on fitness teaching content from the beginning, gradually expanding its business model and entering the field of hardware sales. Keep is associated with many purchase links of fitness equipment in the App, such as Keep spinning, bracelet, treadmill, etc. Keep also designs corresponding fitness plans for different equipment, and formulates relevant clock-in activities to create a business closed loop by combining online and offline.
The relevant person in charge of Keep told Xinhua sports that relying on the core advantages of sports content, the intelligent fitness bike launched recently has been sold out at present, the sales volume of other hardware products in the company’s online mall also increased significantly year-on-year.
In this respect, the Peloton of listed US fitness equipment companies may have reference significance. Peloton’s most popular products are home fitness bike with screens that can play fitness classes. In addition to purchasing fitness bike, users also need to pay a fitness course subscription fee.
As a result, Peloton has created a unique business model: Fitness Equipment + Media + technology. Peloton self-made high-quality streaming media content enables it to cultivate its own “Internet celebrity” coach and build an online community, so that users can use both equipment and coach courses, sports social intercourse and even music have extremely strong stickiness.
At present, the domestic fitness equipment market space is still very large, and the public’s fitness equipment consumption habits still need to be cultivated. In the future, on the basis of meeting the functionality and safety of products, fitness equipment will emphasize more intelligence and networking, and cultivate consumption habits by providing users with systematic fitness solutions, it is probably the development trend of fitness equipment industry. (Wang Jianbing)