/PRCWT/ Beijing, September 11——The 2023 China International Fair for Trade in Services (hereinafter referred to as the "Service Trade Fair ") has successfully concluded in Beijing. As an important part of service trade, sports service trade has achieved a rapid recovery in the first half of this year. In this year, a number of sports service forums were held to build a high-level international sports industry exchange platform, gather global sports forces, and jointly explore new models, new paths and new possibilities for the development of the sports industry.
As the demand for sports consumption continues to upgrade, the development of water sports is of great significance to building a healthy China and enhancing new drivers of economic growth. In the first swimming industry development forum set up by the Service Trade Fair, Lu Hengwei, brand director of Decathlon Swimming and Water Sports North Asia region, delivered a keynote speech, sharing Decathlon's consumer insights on China's swimming products market based on years of deep farming, and looking forward to the future development of the swimming industry with industry experts attending the meeting.
Lu Hengwei said :" China is one of the most important markets for Decathlon, and we hope to give full play to our professional advantages to help China's sports industry innovate and upgrade. At present, nearly 50% of Decathlon's global procurement comes from China, and the cumulative amount of procurement in China has exceeded 350 billion yuan, and the purchase amount of swimming and water-related sports has also exceeded 30 billion yuan."
The double increase of supply and demand releases the potential of swimming market
In recent years, the market size of China's swimming industry has steadily expanded, both in the supply side and the consumption side, and the development potential has been continuously released. With the support of national policies, the construction and operation system of swimming infrastructure has been continuously improved, laying a solid foundation for the healthy development of the industry. Swimming as a popular sport with a penetration rate second only to running and hiking, related consumer spending has been steadily increasing. Based on market research, Decathlon found that consumption of swimming sports products in 2022 increased by 10% compared to annual per capita spending in 2018. From the perspective of vertical categories, swimming goggles products and swimming learning and training accessories products are in the leading position, with per capita annual expenditure growth of 18% and 6%, respectively, and showing a significant increasing trend. At the same time, 42% of the survey respondents said that they are willing to continue to increase their investment in swimming related consumer goods in the next 2-3 years.
Decathlon believes that from the perspective of consumption scale, the continuous growth of the number of consumer groups is a strong support for the long-term stable growth of the swimming consumer market; From the interpretation of consumer demand, consumer spending with long-term sports habits is expected to continue to grow, while consumer demand spending for sports and leisure is expected to be more rational.
"If the premise is to better meet the differentiated needs of different people due to different regions, ages and income levels, the swimming industry will usher in a broader space for growth." Mr Lu added.
Take root in the mass market to meet the needs of all people
Swimming is one of the core sports of Decathlon, which has a complete product line, including swimming goggles, swimsuits, swimming caps, enlightenment learning and training accessories, as well as other equipment products, such as swimming bags, non-slip slippers for swimming pools, quick-drying towels, etc., which can fully meet the needs of swimming users.
Having been deeply engaged in the Chinese market for two decades, Decathlon has been keenly aware of market development trends and changes in demand, and has continued to introduce innovative products and services that meet market needs. First of all, the youth swimming market is booming, and the demand for swimming products designed for teenagers is also increasing year by year. Thanks to the policy support of promoting primary and secondary school students to learn swimming and adhere to swimming, swimming has a high penetration rate among children and adolescents. Decathlon noted that the increasingly serious problem of myopia in children and adolescents has prompted an explosive growth in demand for myopia goggles. According to data from the National Health Commission, the overall myopia rate of Chinese children and adolescents in 2022 will be 53.6%, of which 71.6% for junior high school students and 81% for senior high school students.
In this regard, Decathlon launched a number of myopia goggles to meet the needs of different groups and different swimming levels, such as, according to functional needs can be subdivided into leisure and training models, according to the type of lens can be subdivided into transparent mirror, brown and coated mirror models. At the same time, Decathlon also actively participates in the development of new national standards such as swimming goggles and swimsuits, so that the majority of users can enjoy higher quality products.
Secondly, as people's swimming skills improve, there is a stronger demand for high-content products that can enhance athletic performance. In recent years, more and more swimming enthusiasts have begun to pay attention to the improvement of sports performance and skills, which has also been verified by the youth swimming league launched by Decathlon across the country, not only the performance of group sports has improved year by year, but also the record has been broken. In order to maintain the high elasticity and durability of the swimsuit, AQUA-RESIST high chlorine resistant swimsuit fabric can maintain the stability of the fabric, extend the service life of the swimsuit, and resist chlorine for more than 200 hours. And the use of waterproof, anti-fog technology swimming goggles, but also more help swimming users to open up new underwater vision. In addition, considering the demand for sun protection in outdoor swimming environment, Decathlon has launched a series of UPF50+ sun protection swimsuits, which are very popular in the market.
In addition, swimming has become a healthy lifestyle, people not only through swimming to socialize, but also through swimming products to express themselves. After the epidemic, people's health awareness has increased significantly, and exercise has become a standard part of People's Daily life. For sports enthusiasts who do not have a strong pursuit of performance, swimming in groups has also become the first choice for people to break social circles. At the same time, with the increasing popularity of green consumption, more and more consumers in the purchase of products, not only value its functionality and design sense, but also pay more attention to the environmental properties of products. As an active promoter of sustainable development, Decathlon has always been committed to guiding consumers through its own sustainable concepts and behaviors. For example, in order to reduce the use of plastic, Decathlon and its partners jointly launched a self-designed and developed swimming goggles packaging box made of bagasse fiber in China to reduce the impact on the ecological environment.
Multiple ways to promote swimming industry innovation and upgrading
In order to better promote the development of the swimming industry, Lu Hengwei said that the first thing to stimulate people's enthusiasm for swimming sports, which not only needs to increase the construction of swimming pools in urban development and planning, but also need to explore better solutions to improve the quality of open water. In addition, it is necessary to create more distinctive products according to the needs of different consumer groups to release more consumption vitality.
Secondly, through the popularization of swimming sports and the increase of sports scenes, it provides a good help for the improvement of consumers' swimming skills. In the school, continue to deepen the integration of sports and education, and help young people establish a healthy sports concept. Outside the school, create a more diversified swimming sports scene to enrich the swimming experience of teenagers. Since 2018, Decathlon has held the "Swim" Youth Swimming League for five consecutive years, and this year it was launched in 28 cities across the country, attracting more than 6,000 children to sign up. By allowing children to experience the atmosphere of the competition in the international and world-class swimming venues, they can more deeply understand the charm of swimming.
The concept of sustainability has a deepening impact on public consumption choices, and more and more consumers are more willing to choose products and services provided by environmentally conscious and socially responsible enterprises. Therefore, it is necessary to encourage and guide the consumer goods industry to improve the technology and layout of sustainable products, so as to achieve the carbon reduction goal of the whole industrial chain.
On the premise of meeting the different needs of different groups in different scenes, to expand the development of the entire swimming industry, it is necessary to gather the strength of all parties and form a joint force. In this process, Decathlon has always spared no effort to listen to the voice of users, from functional needs to psychological demands, aiming to give users a more complete experience, so that sports fans can have a better sense of belonging and better quality sports enjoyment.
About the Decathlon Group
Decathlon Group, the world famous comprehensive sporting goods group, sports goods research and development, design, production, branding, logistics and omni-channel sales as one of the whole industry chain company, founded in 1976 by Mr. Michel Leclercq in Lille. Decathlon focuses on the mass sports market and is committed to bringing together all sports under the same roof, making sports accessible and enabling the broadest public to share sports benefits. As of 2022, Decathlon retail and production operations are present in 72 countries and regions, with 1,751 stores and a team of 105,000 employees. The group has production lines in 21 countries or regions around the world, of which more than 50% of the products come from China. Decathlon officially entered China in 2003, opened the first physical concept store in Asia, and realized the complete layout of the whole industrial chain in China, providing professional products and one-stop sports experience services for hundreds of millions of sports people in nearly 400 cities across the country through online and offline channels.
In 2020, the Group's mission is to "benefit people and the planet". Sustainable development has become the Group's global pillar strategy. Sports and the environment are closely related, it can be said that nature is the sports field. Decathlon insists that the product is a very important link between the company and its customers. As a mass sports industry chain enterprise, Decathlon has sustainable goals and measures in every link from product design, research and development, production, logistics to the most terminal sales. At the same time, sustainable development has been deeply integrated into Decathlon's business model, and it has tried practice and exploration in many fields, and has obtained successful cases.
逐句对照
