According to Invest India, the health & wellness market is forecasted to grow to USD $372 billion by 2022.
The wellness market, which primarily consists of three segments- nutraceuticals, alternate therapies, and fitness and slimming, is also witnessing fast growth. According to FICCI-EY Wellness and Beauty Report, it was expected to reach USD $24 billion by 2020.
Fitness and Wellness industry aims to improve the physical and mental health of people. The industry has witnessed a rapid growth in the last few years due to several factors including rising middle class population, rising disposable income, urbanization, and a huge young population base. People are also becoming more conscious of their health as well as looks.
In terms of employment, the industry provides employment opportunities not just in traditional form to trainers, beauty and spa attendants but also to software developers and tech professionals
Impact of Covid
The Covid pandemic has hit the fitness industry with an axe. Gymnasiums, along with spas and salons, were the first ones to close when lockdown was first announced.
Many of the local gyms had to shut down their business. Even big businesses like Curefit laid off staff and closed operations in several markets, especially Tier-2 cities.
How fitness companies are coping with this unprecedented situation
Some of them have shifted their business online. For instance, CureFit is currently focusing on its digital fitness offerings including tele-consultancy for providing medical services at home. It has also been offering free live fitness sessions on its app and website since March. It is likely that the company would monetize some of these offering in the near future.
As people continue to work out at home, weight loss and fitness apps have seen an increase of 40 percent in time spent on them while the number of active users have doubled as per a new report.
HealthifyMe, a Bengaluru-based Indian digital fitness and wellness platform saw a growth of 40 percent in its number of subscriptions while its organic traffic went up by 25 percent during the pandemic.
FITTR, a Pune-based fitness social network and consultation platform raised US$2 million from Sequoia Capital in April. It provides live fitness sessions, Q&A with fitness experts, diet plans, and access to a fitness community to its users. The app saw an increase of 15 percent in the number of downloads and 200 percent in engagement scores during the pandemic.
How to tide over the crisis
- Stimulating consumer demand– One of the ways to revive the fitness and wellness industry is by creating more demand for the services. According to a study by researchers from the University of Adelaide, Tongji University and University of Sydney provides some of the earliest pieces of evidence that the COVID-19 outbreak affected people mentally as well as physically. Awareness campaigns can be conducted to make people aware of the importance of healthy lifestyle.
- Addressing concerns related to safety– When gymnasiums reopen, people will be hesitant to join them due to concerns related to safety and cleanliness. These concerns should be addressed by taking appropriate measures like making sanitizers available, sanitizing equipments before and after a class, etc to instill confidence in the consumers.
- Diversification in services– As an example, the business model of Cure.fit includes few verticals other than fitness like Eat.fit (food delivery), Mind.fit (mental wellness), Cult sport (fitness clothing). The company tried to double down on health food and home delivery of essentials during the countrywide lockdowns.
- Digital options– Giving services like tele consultancy (providing medical services at home), online personalized training can also be explored especially for those people who would prefer working out at home even after gyms reopen.
The future of the work is now digital. Considering the fact that gymnasiums will be the first ones to be closed in case of any further lockdowns (in the United Kingdom, the gyms are closing due to announcement of fresh lockdown by the government), it is imperative that they take necessary steps to hedge their business against any future risk.
Komal is an English literature student with a keen interest in economic developments and politics amongst others. She is a part of Research & Content team at HrNxt.com