The Great Outdoors Opportunity for Brands in China
The great outdoors: what better way to keep the people happy and healthy than encouraging more time in nature. Whether it be camping in the woods or hurtling down a ski slope, the related categories have been among the darlings of China’s consumer market over the past couple of years.
More than 400 million Chinese already enjoy outdoor sports. Yet Beijing has ambitious plans to seriously increase these numbers by implementing its recently released Outdoor Sports Industry Development Plan (in Chinese). All going to plan, the industry will exceed ¥3 trillion ($414 billion) in China by 2025.
Looking at the plan provides an interesting insight into how holistically and methodically China approaches its goals. At the top level, Beijing aims to improve policies and investment to encourage high quality outdoor sports development. This will cover areas such as ski resorts, mountain camps, aviation flight camps, rock-climbing spots and auto-camping grounds. The plan includes a pledge to build 10,000 outdoor sports camps within the next three years.
In typical Chinese fashion, there will be pilot cities and demonstration cities where attention will be focused, to support new innovations, models and formats.
To make sure the industry is supported with the right skills and people, universities and vocational colleges will be encouraged to offer courses to cultivate outdoor sports talent. And of course, support for incorporating augmented reality, virtual reality, big data, AI and blockchain will make outdoors sports ‘more immersive’ and ensure there is always a reason for a screen, even in the depths of wilderness.
There have been some stunning growth figures for outdoor sports goods in China in recent years. Although growth was flat on Alibaba platforms for Singles’ Day this year, camping equipment grew 115% from last year and skiing outfits were up 61.9%. Yet despite the uptick and some big-spending individuals, on average, the 400 million Chinese consumers involved in outdoor pursuits spend less than ¥20 ($2.75) a year in the industry, versus $41-$110 in developed nations. Beijing plans to grow this exponentially.
Many brands have jumped on the outdoors trend with luxury brands ramping up their ranges of outdoor fashion, to more ‘camping-friendly’ cars being released from EV brands. As hobbies such as camping have become mainstream, brands can connect with consumers through collabs, communications and related camping-optimised SKUs covering everything from fashion and accessories, to food, beauty, bug spray and others. As a localised testing ground, the pilot cities could be worth doubling down on.
One of the impacted industries from the rise of outdoor sports will be tourism. Last week’s quarantine reduction is a positive sign that travel restrictions are getting closer to easing, which will see Chinese tourists in international airports again. One of the big changes from pre-covid travel will be the number of tourists hoping to partake in outdoors activities. This will bring opportunities for many tourism destinations, but also increase the need for operators to plan ahead to have Chinese-ready localisation, relevant attractions, and safety procedures and education in place.
Expect to be hearing more about Chinese consumers and their increasing love of the outdoors. Contact China Skinny to discuss how your brand may be able to better capitalise on the trend.
