Customers Keep their Fitness Routines Strong at Home

Customers are staying active and sticking to their workout resolutions. Before the pandemic hit, three key categories were driving overall fitness growth: traditional gyms, boutique studios, and on-demand workouts. 

When looking at weekly fitness spend, Cardlytics purchase insights show that the overall gym and fitness category is down 77% year over year. However, there is still a major bright spot in the industry. Since the start of shelter-in-place orders, the on-demand fitness trend has gained momentum and is now the fastest-growing fitness category. In recent weeks, spend with these convenient, app-based workouts is up 125%. To help support their at-home fitness goals, customers have also increased their online spend with athletic footwear retailers (up 21%) and sporting goods (up 55%).  

Many traditional gyms and studios have embraced the online fitness trend by offering live at-home workout programs and ongoing meal prep while they continue to remain physically closed. These creative solutions seem to have paid off, as these categories have shown significantly slower decreases in spend compared to other impacted industries. 

Actionable tips: 

There is a major opportunity for fitness brands to acquire and retain customers while motivation is high. 

• For brands with on-demand and online offerings, this means retaining the influx of newly acquired customers to defend gains in market share and build lasting loyalty. Using purchase insights, Cardlytics can identify which customers are at risk of returning to their old fitness habits and keep them engaged with precisely targeted offers in our ad platform.

• For traditional gyms and studios, purchase insights provide a critical gauge for timing a return to marketing. Cardlytics can help track when your members are starting to spend at physical stores and re-engage them with timely offers that drive measurable memberships. We can also help you acquire new customers by prioritizing people who have resumed normal spending or pinpointing regions of the country that are further along the path to recovery.

• For all retailers, make the most of the at-home fitness trend by promoting products that support at-home workouts and active lifestyles through your online channels.

Whether marketers are experiencing ups or downs in consumer spend, Cardlytics’ ad platform influences customers’ purchase behavior through precisely targeted campaigns that drive measurable sales. Contact us for a custom analysis and campaign strategy customized for your brand.

These insights were recently featured in our State of Spend report, which follows important shifts in consumer spend and track early signs of recovery. Download our latest State of Spend Report today and be sure to check back for the next issue.

Analysis in this report is based on data derived from the Cardlytics platform between March 12th and April 29th. While analysis is representative of purchase behavior, it does not include every customer or every financial institution on the Cardlytics platform.