Decline in fitness club prices: is sports getting cheaper?

Author: Maria Lifar - General Director of OneFit.ru.
2018-10-22

Recently, the cost of sports club memberships has decreased. However, many clients want to pay even less. There are opportunities for that. Maria Lifar, the general director of a unified membership system for fitness clubs in Moscow and St. Petersburg, OneFit.ru, explains how the fitness industry is developing in Russia and what is happening with the pricing policies of clubs.

About 10 years ago, having an annual membership at a fitness club indicated a person's wealth. Today, a fitness club card mainly shows that a person cares about their health and appearance, unless it’s collecting dust in a drawer. In Moscow, over 20% of the city's residents are engaged in fitness. A healthy lifestyle is becoming increasingly popular, helped by the gradual decrease in the cost of sports services, as more new clubs are opening. The average price of an annual membership at an affordable fitness club with a gym and pool is approximately 17,000 to 20,000 rubles.

New economical fitness formats are emerging in large cities, where services can be paid for monthly, and new online services—aggregators of fitness services—are appearing that allow you to purchase a membership across several clubs, making fitness more accessible and somewhat cheaper.

Price is an important factor for those who wish to adopt a healthy lifestyle. According to RBC surveys, 21% of Russians would agree to become clients of a fitness club if the membership fee were lower.

Share of fitness clubs by format (RBC Data)

• Discount clubs — 22%
• Economy — 34%
• Comfort — 21%
• Business — 16%
• Premium — 7%

Buying a Membership in the "Low" Season

Typically, during the summer, people think less about exercising. Trips to the sea or the countryside take up much more of their time. To sell memberships, prices are reduced. So, in June to August, you can buy a membership at a discount of 20-30% off its original price.

Training in the Morning and Afternoon

If you don’t need evening workouts, save money by purchasing a membership with restricted visiting hours. It can cost a third less. Usually, these memberships allow training only in the morning and daytime hours. The advantage of attending at these times is that the gyms tend to be less crowded than in the evening.

Daily Attendance Schedule of Fitness Clubs

• 7:00−10:00 High Attendance
• 10:00−12:00 Low Attendance
• 12:00−15:00 High Attendance
• 15:00−18:00 Moderate Attendance
• 18:00−21:00 Peak Attendance
• 21:00−22:00 Decline from Peak
• 22:00−24:00 Low Attendance

Hundreds of Clubs in One Membership

Buying a membership that allows you to attend any fitness club has become possible thanks to aggregators. They collaborate with companies from a particular industry and act as intermediaries between them and clients. Currently, aggregators are widespread in various sectors. "Yandex.Taxi" or Booking.com are the most recognized examples.

There are also aggregators in the fitness industry. It all started with the American company ClassPass, which now operates in 40 cities across the USA, Canada, Australia, and the UK. It was founded in 2011. The idea was actively supported by investors. Within a year of its inception, the company attracted $2 million, and by 2015, the investment volume exceeded $40 million. ClassPass currently has over 20 million clients. One of the most well-known European services of this kind is Somuchmore, which operates in the UK, Germany, and France. In Asia, there is the fitness aggregator Kfit. Similar projects are being launched in Kazakhstan and Ukraine.

In Russia, the service OneFit.ru is also operational. Here, you can purchase a single membership for access to 350 clubs and studios. It's convenient for those looking to find the perfect trainer, train at different clubs, and attend various workouts. This last point is especially important. Regular training in the same gym leads about 80% of visitors to quit after about a month! They simply get bored with the monotony, and the money spent just goes to waste. While clubs are interested in selling annual or at least semi-annual memberships, at OneFit.ru, access to several clubs can be bought for just one month.

Buying a Membership During the "Low" Season

There are clubs that offer discounts when purchasing memberships in bulk. For example, when a company buys cards for its employees or when someone cooperates with friends to pursue a healthy lifestyle. Here, you can save up to 30%.

Choosing Mono-Studios

Recently, the format of mono-studios has been developing in Russia. In these studios, you can engage in only one type of sport (for example, spinning classes) or they offer a limited set of services (there is a gym, but no pool). In fact, many fitness clubs are now smoothly eliminating pools, as they account for only 20% of consumer demand. Mono-studios allow you to avoid overpaying for unnecessary workouts. Moreover, you are more likely to find a truly good specialized trainer there.

According to RBC, the sporting preferences of Russians are as follows: about 25% engage in yoga studios, 18% in women's studios, and 16% in dance classes. Only 1.6% of Russians prefer fitness studios.

Membership on Hold

You can also save money by putting your membership on hold. If you know for sure that you won't be able to go to the gym for a month or will only do so a couple of times, it’s better to suspend the card’s validity. This way, it will last one month longer. However, sometimes this option is offered to clients for a fee, only from the second year of service or is not offered at all. Whether you can pause your membership should be clarified at the time of purchasing the card.

The Future Belongs to Affordable Clubs Without Trainers

Right now, low-cost budget passenger transportation is actively developing. The same is happening in the fitness industry. According to surveys, more than 30% of potential fitness club visitors in Russia today are not willing to pay more than 15,000 rubles a year for membership. This is a small amount, but many clubs are striving to reduce the cost of services to meet client needs. This is being accomplished, in particular, through the automation of business and the reduction of some support staff. Such discount clubs are already actively developing in Europe and the USA.

For example, in Berlin, there are fitness clubs with no staff at all. There is a terminal at the entrance where you need to scan your card. After this, the doors open, and the person enters the gym.

The absence of staff does not mean that clients will not be able to figure out how to use the equipment. According to recent surveys, 80% of those who stopped going to paid clubs did so partly because they did not understand how to exercise properly on the machines. Meanwhile, in automated clubs, this issue is resolved by installing QR codes. Clients can use them to launch relevant video instructions on their smartphones.

Many clubs already have mobile applications that allow for remote booking of training sessions, checking class schedules, and freezing memberships. In one fitness club, after the mobile application was launched, it became manageable for just one administrator per shift. Adding to this are savings on SMS notifications, which are replaced by push notifications. This cost optimization allows for more attractive pricing for clients.

Of course, the future lies with aggregator services. We see this in the successful examples from other industries (passenger transportation, hotel rentals, apartment cleaning, etc.). The fitness industry is looking in this direction today as well.

The Russian fitness market has plenty of room for growth. According to RBC, its volume is approximately 100 billion rubles, which is only 2% of the global market. There are currently about 3,000 sports clubs in Russia, with 60% of them located in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Meanwhile, there are ten times more in the USA.