Picture source @Visual China
Text | Tianxia Online Business
"Find suppliers, hurry up and find suppliers!" During the entire Spring Festival, this is Zhang Ning's most important task.
He is the operation manager of Longway Tmall flagship store, specializing in fitness equipment. Influenced by the movie " Hot Hot ", the sales of several wall-mounted boxing machines in the store suddenly exploded. "I had a premonition before the year and placed over 500% of the orders with suppliers, but most factories would start work after the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, which caused a contradiction."
Since the Spring Festival, the French boxing brand venum (the Chinese name is translated as "Venom" ") The store's sales have also increased from 10,000 per day to 50,000 per day, an increase of 400%, and 70% are new customers who placed orders in the past week. The staff said that fortunately, they had predicted the rush of orders and arranged for delivery personnel at the warehouse in advance to ensure smooth fulfillment.
As of press time, the box office of the movie "Hot and Spicy" directed and starring Jia Ling has exceeded 3.1 billion. The passionate boxing sport in the film has become known to more people. Jia Ling's experience of losing 100 pounds in one year has aroused heated discussions and led to a "boxing trend."
It is reported that on e-commerce platforms, movies have popularized the sales of taekwondo, martial arts, fighting and other sports, as well as small equipment. Taobao Tmall data shows that from the first to the ninth day of the Lunar New Year, kettlebells increased by 930% year-on-year, boxing sandbags increased by 63.4%, boxing gloves increased by 40.6%, speed balls and vent balls increased by 55.9%, etc.
Li Zhuoqun, an outdoor waiter at Tmall Sports, said that every year after the Chinese New Year, the fitness peak period begins in March. “This year, because of this movie, the peak period is earlier than in previous years. We have repeatedly reminded this before. Merchants in the category should be prepared to accept traffic and inventory."
She observed that in the fitness track after this year, many power-type boxing category products are selling well, mainly female consumers, and the use scenarios are more focused. Training at home. Boxing is a niche sport with limited popularity, and students and coaches are concentrated in first- and second-tier cities. "The market size is smaller, and there are fewer merchants on the platform. However, small equipment merchants have seen the trend of boxing and are trying to expand boxing products."
According to iiMedia data, it is expected that by 2025, the market size of China's boxing industry will be grew to nearly 50 billion.
Single product sales increased by 1000%
On the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, Zhang Ning set off from his hometown of Jinan, Shandong Province, and rushed to Yongkang, Zhejiang Province. Most of the suppliers of fitness equipment are concentrated here. He must hurry up to find new production capacity and cooperation opportunities. "I have to visit about three or four suppliers every day, and I have already visited more than 10, and I still need to keep looking."
Zhang Ning's Longway brand entered Tmall in 2012 and sells dumbbells, kettlebells and other fitness products. equipment, sold approximately 10 million units last year. The store’s popular kettlebell sells for 9.9 yuan, with a total of 300,000 pieces sold, and 300,000 small dumbbells have also been sold.
Compared with these familiar fitness equipment, a smart music boxing machine priced at about 200 yuan has also become an "Internet celebrity" item. In the past week, more than 400 consumers have placed orders for boxing machines, and more than 4,000 people have added the products to their shopping carts. It is reported that the sales volume of music boxing machines in the store in February ranged from 100 to more than 1,000 units per day, with "a year-on-year increase of up to 1,000%."
Zhang Ning introduced that the music boxing machine evolved from the boxing wall target.
boxing wall target is a product that is fixed on the wall for boxing enthusiasts to practice punching and other actions against the wall. "Boxing wall targets were relatively popular in the first half of 2023, but they were mainly designed for adult men. In the second half of 2023, sales dropped. From 200 orders a day to more than 40 orders a day, a drop of more than 70%."
So , the team made a product upgrade to the boxing wall target and added new value. While retaining basic functions, music playback functions and intelligent content have been added to make the product more entertaining and interesting.
's currently popular music boxing machine has also developed a children's version. After players connect Bluetooth to their mobile phones, they can play music. Every time they punch, the hit status will be reported in real time, and the product will provide timely feedback. Players can practice boxing like a whack-a-mole game, catching flashing lights and punching to improve their reflexes and coordination.Some buyers commented, "Not only does it strengthen the body, but it also prevents children from being addicted to electronic products."
"Unfortunately, the factory has not fully started operating yet, and the production capacity cannot keep up. We can only open pre-sales for 15 days." Zhang Ning is most worried about the production capacity issue now. Some cooperative suppliers have started work as early as the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, but they have to To meet new orders, more suppliers need to be found, and the pre-sale action is also to gain more valuable time.
The proportion of female consumers increased from 20% to 40%
After the movie was released, Li Xiaying’s circle of friends was abuzz. She is a boxing enthusiast and goes to the boxing gym once or twice a week. Many friends around me "sympathized" with Jia Ling's character Le Ying, posting hearty training photos paired with inspirational training experiences. In her opinion, compared to strength-based fitness such as weightlifting, boxing can release stress and gain a sense of satisfaction, and is "very helpful both physically and psychologically."
Li Xiaying also has another identity: the e-commerce person in charge of the Chinese market of the venum brand. Venum is a French brand founded in 2005, focusing on the fields of combat fitness and trendy sports. Its main position is in Europe. In 2020, the brand signed a contract with UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship, the world's largest mixed martial arts competition) to become the exclusive global clothing partner, which is highly recognized in the industry.
Li Xiaying introduced that in 2012, venum entered the Chinese market, opened a Tmall flagship store in 2017, and later deployed e-commerce platforms such as JD.com, Pinduoduo, and Dewu. “China’s omni-channel annual sales are 36 million, of which Taotian channels account for 80%.”
In the brand’s online store, categories include combat sports equipment and apparel, including Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, boxing, Muay Thai, kickboxing, comprehensive Combat, cross-sport and training fitness. It is reported that equipment revenue accounts for 60%. The best-selling among
equipment are boxing gloves. Each pair of best-selling boxing gloves sells for 368 yuan, and more than 3,000 pieces have been sold. It was selected into the platform's "boxing gloves best-selling list". If ordinary people practice free fighting, it is enough to buy a pair of entry-level gloves worth two to three hundred yuan. If they practice the more professional Muay Thai, they will also need to buy pants after buying the gloves, which costs about 500 yuan. "In the past 10 days, the sales volume of the boxing gloves category has increased by 15%."
Li Xiaying found that more female consumers have flocked to venum stores in the past two years, and their proportion has increased from 20% to 40%. There are more girls among the buyers. While praising the quality of the product, they also describe it as "good-looking", "good-looking" and "suitable for taking pictures". "Products with both good looks and cost-effectiveness are more attractive to female consumers."
Today, boxing or fighting have become common elements on the screen. Movies such as "The Shameful Iron Fist", "The Octagonal Cage" and "Fierce Fight" all hope to use boxing to reflect certain personality traits of the characters and arouse emotional resonance among the audience. At the same time, the popularity of the movie has also provided market education for sports, helping to break stereotypes and make consumers willing to go into boxing gyms and give it a try.
But in terms of conversion into sales, "The biggest impact on us is "Hot and Spicy"." Li Xiaying analyzed that this surge in sales was also due to several key words, "women", "fat loss" and "boxing". "And Jia Ling has a lot of fans, because weight loss has been hotly searched for many times, and the pre-heating period for the movie is longer."
There are still 3-6 months left in the popularity cycle
Driven by the movie "Hot and Spicy", Offline boxing gyms have also felt this boxing craze.
According to Meituan data, the search volume of keywords such as "boxing" increased by 388.4% compared with the same period during the Spring Festival last year, and the search volume of keywords such as "girls boxing" increased by more than 10 times. Some boxing gyms have launched marketing campaigns, and boxing group class sales have increased significantly year-on-year.
According to Qizhacha, there are more than 2,000 boxing-related companies in the country. "World Online Business" saw a newly opened professional boxing gym in Hangzhou. The sign at the entrance of the store used the slogan "Hot but not scalding". The poster showed that the owner of the boxing gym is also a coach and has opened two stores in Hangzhou. There are two boxing gyms in the country, and two more are under preparation.
However, in recent years, there have been few well-known chain brands in the boxing industry. Most of them are single or double stores, and some live in gyms and open up a boxing training area.In addition to space, professional talent is also scarce. Most of the coaches in boxing gyms are former athletes and often wear multiple hats. Some of them also serve as gym directors and are responsible for operations.
’s price system for boxing courses is also confusing and even on the high side. Taking Shanghai as an example, one-on-one boxing classes last for 50 minutes, and each class charges 800-1,200 yuan; group class fees are also set at 300-400 yuan per class. This newly opened boxing gym in Hangzhou has launched a monthly card package of 1,000 yuan, and private lessons are set at around 400 yuan per class.
It can be said that this wave of business is coming quickly and fiercely, and how much businesses can handle depends on their own abilities.
According to Li Xiaying’s experience, “It is expected that the popularity will drop by the end of the Lantern Festival. In the final analysis, it is because boxing is still a niche sport in the Chinese market and the market growth is slow.” In venum’s global business map, the Chinese market Only 3%.
Zhang Ning predicts that the popularity cycle will be 3-6 months away. "Jia Ling's movie brings consumers not only boxing, but also inspiration for fat-reduction exercise, stimulating everyone's demand for quality of life and health." Therefore, the brand will focus more on "fat-reduction" in the future. ” “Fitness” and other keywords, covering more related categories. At the same time, the product design of
will be like a music boxing machine, adding more added value, improving product competitiveness, expanding the scope of applicable adult men, and meeting the needs of more female target customers. "In the future, parent-child sports will also be a key trend in product development. The goal is to slow down the life cycle of product decline as much as possible."
With the increasing public health awareness, a variety of sports and fitness projects have entered consumers' horizons. For example, Frisbee, paddle board, skateboard, rugby, etc. were popular last year. More new and interesting sports have become popular trends, bringing development opportunities to the industry and containing unlimited business opportunities.
Public information shows that Jia Ling’s private boxing coach is Wang Dexin, a professor at Shanghai Sport University. He has also served as the mentor of boxing Olympic champion Zou Shiming. In his view, everyone participating in boxing is not aiming to enter the professional arena, but like the movie heroine "Le Ying" who relies on willpower to achieve inner rekindling in boxing. "This is success and sports." What sport is really about”.
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