Opportunities and Challenges of the Digital Fitness Sector
Digital technologies development:
According to United Nations, digital technologies have developed rapidly in recent two decades. It was presented that ‘nearly 50 per cent of the developing world’s population’ has been reached by digital technologies. This trend induces people to think about whether such a rapid development of digital technology will affect societies positively or negatively. The answer is both.
Positively, the International Labour Organisation claims that by 2030, there will be a ‘greener economic atmosphere’ and this development will create ‘242 million new jobs globally’ because of the sustainable energy sectors. Negatively, BBC claims that the advance in digital technologies will cause ‘800 million people’ to the threat of losing their jobs in 2030. These conflicting statements reveal that digital technologies are a double-edged sword, bringing opportunities and challenges to different sectors. Particularly, this blog will focus on the effects on the digital fitness sector.
Introduction of digital fitness
The fitness market has endured the revolution because of the COVID-19 epidemic. The global fitness app market size was valued at ‘USD 1.1 billion in 2021’ according to GlobeNewswire. Also, the size of the market is expected to expand at ‘a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.6% from 2020 to 2030’. This means there is a huge market potential for digital fitness in the future.
Especially, concerning the UK, the market research group Mintel predicts that the revenue of the digital fitness sector will grow to 5.3 billion pounds by 2023. The following sections will be opportunities and challenges of the digital fitness sector.
Opportunity 1: Personalisation
Firstly, digital technologies can help organisations to personalise customers' experiences. To support this idea, Allen in The Guardian said that ‘online fitness classes will fit your stages with structured, goal-focused workouts’. Moreover, with increasing the personalised classes, the digital fitness procedural will enhance customer experiences economically. Deloitte and EuropeActive predict that the ‘monthly cost for HIIT is 20 pounds’. This amount of money is extremely less than a monthly membership in a gym which approximately costs 110 pounds. Therefore, it will be reasonable to consider that digital technology provides customers with an economic way to exercise.
However, the National Institutes of Health doubts whether exercise at home is as effective under personal supervision. This is indeed an inevitable limitation of the digital fitness sector and it is without good solutions for that, currently.
Opportunity 2: Improved efficiency and accessibility
Secondly, digital technologies will benefit the efficiency and accessibility of digital fitness lessons. Specifically, technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence can help the organisation automate routine tasks and relieve the repetitive tasks of employees. For instance, high-quality chatbots on websites or apps can provide relevant information or answers to questions 24/7. Thus, it could presume that the efficiency of customer service could be improved with the advance of digital technologies.
For improved accessibility, Nielsen claims that ‘49% of respondents’ who use fitness apps are more likely to exercise regularly than those who do not because they do not need to wait for a trainer to adjust the program. Therefore, it will be reasonable to state that the training efficiency and accessibility have been improved by digital fitness as customers can exercise at home at any time.
However, the challenges of digital fitness come along with the opportunities!
Challenge1: Cybersecurity
Undeniably, the more use of digital technologies, the larger possibility that we are exposed to cyber issues. Norton found that ‘40% of fitness tracker users’ do not have a password on their devices. This will leave their data under attack. From these statistics, it is obvious that cybersecurity is one of the major challenges in the transformation of digital fitness. Without solid protection of customers’ private information, the sector will lose its trust. In the long-term, this trend does not benefit the expansion or development of digital fitness.
Solution1:
One of the long-term solutions to solve the cybersecurity issues will be putting an investment in security protection. However, the truth is that there are budget constraints. Digital transformation is expensive in general. For example, the consultation work, flexible needs of consumers and fixing IT errors will increase the cost of digital transformation. Consequently, short-term solutions seem more practical currently. Implementing security protocols, and training employees on cybersecurity will be better methods. Conclusively, it will be necessary to consider the long-term goals to achieve the transformation in digital fitness, at the same time, focusing on training and protocols for cyber issues in the short run is essential to the development of the sector.
Challenge2: Talent acquisition
Talent acquisition is another possible challenge. This means the demand for skilled digital professionals is high, but the supply of professional employees is limited. Especially, if the digital fitness sector wants to succeed in digital transformation, it will need highly skilled and performing IT teams. From the Harvey Nash/KPMG statistics, ‘54% of organisations’ endured difficulties in digital transformation because of the lack of professional and skilled employees. This number supports the idea that with the lack of talent, the transformation and development of the digital fitness sector will be hindered.
Solution2:
To solve this particular problem, the organisation could invest in talent development or look at other social media platforms to determine whether they have some potential talents to provide. They could cooperate to expand the influence of both the individual and the organisation. It could be said that this process will help the organisation to keep up with the rapid pace of technological change.
Conclusion:
Conclusively, to address these opportunities and challenges, the digital fitness sector should first consider a comprehensive digital transformation strategy. Although a more personalised, efficient and accessible program has been provided, the digital fitness sector should assess the current demand and supply of the service and identify short-term and long-term goals to solve cybersecurity and talent acquisition problems. With all these considerations, the digital fitness sector might be more adaptive.
