The past few years have been a very special cycle for most industries, especially the fitness industry. According to the data, affected by the epidemic in 2022, the national fitness market size is about 255.9 billion yuan, compared with 2021 274.1 billion yuan, down 6.64 percent.
However, entering 2024, the national fitness market finally ushered in a “return.” The latest statistics show that the operational data indicators of offline fitness venues are recovering rapidly. As of April 30, the number of offline fitness venues has increased significantly, and data such as the number of paid fitness members, average consumer spending, activity, and training frequency have all approached the level of the same period in 2022.
1. Consumption characteristics
Women have become the main force in the fitness consumer market
* In the past, gyms were dominated by men, but with the rise of the “she economy” in recent years, more and more women are making fitness a daily habit.
* In 2024, the proportion of female fitness consumers reached 61.93%, which increased rapidly from 2023, and the gap between women and men in the fitness consumption market widened.
* In terms of consumer spending, in 2024, female consumers spend more than 10,000 yuan on fitness and peripheral consumption than men.
Younger trend
In terms of age structure, the largest sports consumption group is young people aged 26-35, accounting for more than 40%, followed by the 36-50 and 19-25 age groups.
* With the acceleration of the pace of modern life, more and more young people show sub-health due to high-intensity work, intense interpersonal communication, family life pressure and other reasons.
* Weight loss, heart disease, sudden death, etc., have also become a topic of widespread concern among contemporary young people, and strengthening exercise has become one of the main ways for young people to enhance their physical fitness and improve their resistance.
First-tier and new first-tier cities are the main gathering cities for fitness consumers
* Due to differences in living habits and health concepts, the gym penetration rate and consumption amount of people at different city levels are different:
* In terms of user penetration, affected by urban circle culture, demographic characteristics and other factors, the proportion of gym users in first-tier and new first-tier cities is higher.
* In terms of average annual consumption amount, gym users in first-tier cities are willing to pay a higher premium for quality fitness services and spend more per capita;
* Other city-level fitness users have little difference in gym spending per capita.
2. Consumption type
Consumption of fitness clothing and AIDS has increased
* Physical consumption is the top choice for consumers, with 80% of respondents buying sports products such as fitness apparel, equipment and supplements in 2023.
* Among them, fitness clothing expenditure is the largest consumption. The consumption of fitness clothing accounted for the highest proportion of expenditure (77.04%), an increase of 19.14% compared with 2023.
* Spending on assistive tools follows fitness apparel in second place, with a 21.91% increase in consumer spending compared to 2023. According to the data of an e-commerce platform, the top ten categories of sales are mostly auxiliary tools or small fitness equipment. Among them, jump rope is the most popular, with annual sales of more than 120 million, dumbbell, fascia gun annual sales of more than 1.5 million.
Overall service consumption is reduced, and there is a large space for the development of knowledge-paid consumption
* Fitness membership, hiring private coaches and signing up for sports training classes are still the highest per capita consumption categories of service sports consumption, but affected by fluctuations in offline scenes, consumption has declined compared with last year.
* Among the six subcategories of service sports consumption, only the annual per capita consumption level of venue rental consumption increased slightly, while the remaining five categories all decreased to varying degrees.
* During the epidemic period, the user scale and activity of online fitness platforms increased rapidly, and knowledge payment products relying on the Internet economy were favored by consumers, accounting for 19.97% of consumer spending, an increase of 8.85% compared with 2023.
Members of fitness groups and clubs spend more
* The respondents’ spending levels on membership fees, social activities and participating in events are basically the same this year, with a single consumption of about 800 yuan.
* In the same period last year, the annual per capita consumption of participating in sports events (including registration fees, surrounding, accommodation, transportation, etc.) and social activities (parties, dinners, etc.) of members of groups and clubs was significantly higher than the membership fees of participating groups and clubs.
3.Conclusion
In a modern society with evolving needs, the future of the fitness industry will be shaped by consumer behavior and driven by technological innovation. With the growing focus on health and fitness, we see a new era of industry centered on personalization, technology integration, and user experience. In this process, companies must adapt to these changes to meet consumer expectations while promoting the healthy development of the industry.