Tim__20181203183251.thumb_head

Photo/Shetuwang

Dec.3 (NBD) -- The number of fashionable women aged between 25 and 40 reached 290 million in China and female consumption market is expected to reach 4.5 trillion yuan (648.1 billion U.S. dollars) in 2019, according to a report of Guotai Junan Securities.

The sports industry, in particular, has seen growing contribution from female consumers.

Based on the sales statistics of Alibaba Group, 43 percent sports product buyers during the 2018 Double 11th shopping festival are female, up 10 percent from the same period of last year.

Chinese women are economically independent and will become major reformers of the consumption structure, said Pan Jiancheng, deputy head of the China Economic Monitoring & Analysis Bureau of Statistics which is affiliated to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Over the past year, a growing amount of people started to run marathon. Out-of-town participants in 2017 Beijing Marathon spent an average of 3,690 yuan (531.5 U.S. dollars). For participants who even fly overseas for competition, the costs can be much higher.

Women care more about brands, color and looks of their sporting equipment than men do. To women, running fast is as important as looking good, pushing up sales of sports sunscreens, sweat proof cosmetics, and glasses.

A senior executive of Nike told news outlet the 21st Century Business Herald that women have higher personalized requirements for products. Taking sports bra for example, it has to be both good-looking and supportive.

In addition to running contests, there is a growing demand from female consumers in gyms.

According to a fitness chain LEFIT, female users take up 60 percent of its total users with participant rate 25 percent higher than that of males users and 80 percent of users who take more costly private training classes are women.

Ren Xingrong, co-founder of LEFIT, said to the 21st Century Business Herald that they have noticed the great potential of female consumers and will optimize their private classes for them, such as offering additional 3 days a month given the menstrual period. In the future, the company aims to provide users with more targeted services.

Foreign brands like Nike, Adidas and Puma are traditional foreign brands that have given proper attention to the women sports market.

The newcomer, Lululemon, started out as a Yoga wear maker in 2000, has showed a strong presence in China in recent years. According to Lululemon's financial reports for the second quarter of the 2018 fiscal year, its online sales in China grew over 200 percent year over year.

 

Email: tanyuhan@nbd.com.cn

Editor: Tan Yuhan