Which Fitness Spend Trends Build the Strongest New Year’s Resolutions?

Each January, gyms benefit from a boost in sales as new members resolve to get in shape for the new year. But new disruptors are transforming how customers tackle their fitness resolutions, and more importantly, how long they stick with them. By analyzing purchase data from our bank partners, Cardlytics identified must-know fitness trends for marketers.

Fitness spend is on the rise across categories

Three key categories continue to drive overall fitness growth:

• traditional gyms (e.g. L.A. Fitness, YMCA)
• boutique studios (e.g. yoga, barre, and kickboxing)
• on-demand fitness services (e.g. Daily Burn and Peloton)

While on-demand fitness subscriptions make up the smallest share of fitness spend (6%), these convenient online and app-based workouts are growing faster than any other workout category. On-demand fitness spend has spiked 58.7% since 2018 and nearly 130% since 2017. Even with the rapid growth of fitness disruptors, traditional gyms still command the majority of fitness spend (72%) and grew their overall spend by 3.1% since 2018. Meanwhile, boutique studios make up the remaining 23% of spend and experienced 5.1% year-over-year growth.

On-demand subscribers stick with their resolutions

Customers who stream their workouts at home are the most likely to keep up their New Years’ fitness routines. Of the customers who started making payments to an on-demand workout service in January, 50% kept spending on those services through September. By contrast, traditional gyms and studios both lost more than 75% of their new customers by the end of that same period.

Studio memberships drive the highest monthly spend

Customers who choose studios for their fitness resolutions are willing to invest in a higher price tag to get into shape. On average, consumers spend roughly $59 and $48 per month on traditional gym memberships and on-demand fitness services, respectively. Studio members are willing to shell out more than double per month ($136) at studios.

There is a major opportunity for health and fitness retailers to acquire customers in these early months while motivation is high. By understanding when customers tend to drop off, fitness brands can then strategically time their incentives and programs to re-energize and retain these at-risk spenders. Using purchase insights, Cardlytics’ native ad platform accurately targets and engages new and at-risk customers to ultimately drive measurable sales. Contact us today to get started.