How СOVID-19 Impacts Fitness Industry Transformation

Fitness is definitely one of the industries affected the most by the COVID-19 pandemic. The lockdown pushed digital transformation in the fitness industry since it was the only way to stay connected with customers.

Yet, while restaurants were able to relatively fast & easy switch to digitally-powered services like delivery, gyms and fitness/yoga studios faced way more challenges.

In this article, we won’t feed you with well-known facts on the changes in the fitness industry that you know better than us. Instead, we’d like to focus on challenges and trends affecting the fitness industry. Also, we’ll provide you with hints on how digital technologies can help your fitness business adjust to the new reality.

But let’s start by taking a look at where we are at the moment.

😷 COVID-19 and Trends in the Fitness Industry

From the fitness perspective, the Coronavirus pandemic and following lockdown created 2 big tendencies, moving in different directions:

• On the one hand, members got cut off from their gyms, yoga and fitness studios. It obviously led to the dramatic decline of cashflow within the industry.
• On the other hand, the number of people interested in fitness has noticeably grown. At-home fitness and yoga workouts became a way to get some relief, avoid stress, and spend free time on lockdown for many people.

Let’s take a closer look at a few key newest trends in the fitness industry!

📹 Fitness Industry Transformation: Virtual Content

One of the most obvious fitness industry trends everyone could witness is the rapid rise of virtual fitness content. You can clearly see it on the Google Trends chart below:

Finally, it may seem that online classes are just a temporary measure that won’t be popular when things get back to normal. First, no one is sure when things will get back to normal. Second, surveys show that virtual & online content is one of the technology trends in the fitness industry that’s going to stay with us:

• 46% of сonsumers surveyed by Mindbody said they will leave online classes a regular part of their fitness routine even after studios reopen;
• at the same time, 40% of customers are booking workouts from studios they’ve never visited before, proving that virtual content is good for both attracting new clients and reaching “digital-first” clients before competitors.

Let’s see how you can build your own virtual content strategy for your business!

📱 How to Incorporate Virtual & Online Content in your Fitness Business?

There’s no other way to turn this trend into your advantage than by developing your own online content strategy. If we try to break it down into step-by-step instruction, it will look as follows:

1. Evaluate your assets. Assess available resources that you’ll be to allocate to the development of your virtual content: money, time, free coaches to record workouts, equipment, etc.

2. Decide on the type of content. According to available resources, what content would you like and be able to provide to your customers? In general, there are 4 main types of online fitness content but you may come up with your own format as well:

   1. Online pre-recorded workouts.
   2. Live streaming classes.
   3. Audio coaching.
   4. Text list of exercises.

3. Pick a platform. Again, this will mainly depend on available resources, in the first place — money. The best options from the user experience and customer satisfaction perspectives are your own branded website and/or mobile application. Yet, you may start by using what’s available to your right now: for example, live classes via Zoom or Skype, or distribution of pre-recorded workouts in a WhatsApp group chat.

4. Find contractors. The next step is to fill the missing links in the contractor chain. Think of anyone whose services you’ll need: from a mobile/web development agency to a video crew.

5. Do it! Now you have a vision of your content, a platform to distribute it and a team to make all this magic work. So keep the ball rolling!

So if we briefly sum up the new in-studio reality, it will look as follows:

• Many people are willing to return to their favorite gyms, fitness and yoga studios.
• At the same time, owners of fitness businesses face many restrictions that cut their revenue and increase expenses.
• It pushes them to take a fresh look at their studios in terms of taking the most out of their location and interior spaces.

Let’s find out how new technologies that are changing the fitness industry can help you adjust to these trends.

🤖 How to Streamline Your In-Studio Processes with Digital Technologies

It may seem that digital technologies aren’t that helpful when it comes to in-studio experience. Yet, they promote fitness industry transformation in this direction, too. There are a few ways how mobile apps and websites can get you more out of the current situation.

Fitness Studio Management System 📋

Сurrent trends in the fitness industry call for business owners to be more flexible when letting people return to studios. Now more than ever they have to balance between providing their members with services and complying with security restrictions.

One of the brightest examples of digital transformation in the fitness industry is the introduction of Club Management systems.

💡 Takeaways

COVID-19 has given an extra boost to fitness industry trends that already were on the stage. First of all, we're talking about virtual content and digital tools like mobile applications or web CRMs and Studio Management Systems for fitness clubs. Making them a part of your overall business strategy turned from an additinal competitive advantage to almost a must-have under in the current situation.

At the same time, the Coronavirus pandemic started a few new growth trends in the fitness industry. They are mainly related to the way you do your fitness business offline — like the limited number of people you can accept or new safety guidelines. And, again, digital technologies can help you to adjust to this new reality with things like Digital Check-In or Online Bookings.

Do you need help with developing your Digital Strategy? Or you already have a concept of your mobile app or website and need an Estimate? Get in touch — and we'll see how we can apply our fitness app development company experience and expertise to help you!