After the hot sale of jackets, ski suits are here again?
Author | Wang Nuannuan
Edit | Fun about business
With the widespread snowfall in China, major ski resorts in many places have also ushered in a consumption climax after the "opening of the board". Data shows that since November, the number of ski resort ticket bookings nationwide has increased by 147% compared to 2019, before the epidemic. Zhangjiakou, Harbin, Aba and Altay are all popular ski cities, while indoor ski resorts in Guangzhou, Chongqing and Kunming are also very popular, with ticket sales increasing by 1.5 times.
In September this year, the "Research Report on the Development of China's Ice and Snow Industry (2023)" released by the 2023 International Winter Sports (Beijing) Expo showed that it is expected that by the end of 2023, the output value of China's ice and snow sports will reach 890 billion yuan, and the goal of "1 trillion yuan in 2025" is about to become a reality.
Under the boom of ice and snow sports, the consumption of ski equipment has also risen sharply. Ski equipment has become another "hot" sports equipment category after the jacket this season, and e-commerce platforms and brands with a "keen sense of smell" have also "laid out" in advance and joined this "ski track".
01. E-commerce marketing promotes the hot sale of ski categories
According to the relevant data of the e-commerce platform, since November, ski equipment has become a hot-selling category on various platforms, and compared with last year, the sales of ski equipment this year have also risen to a new level.
Douyin e-commerce data shows that in the November promotion event, the sales of ski equipment on the platform increased by nearly 9 times year-on-year, and categories such as ski protectors, skis, and ski goggles sold well.
Tmall data shows that during the "Double 11" period, the ski category increased by nearly 100% year-on-year, and the sales of many ski brands in less than half an hour exceeded that of last year. On the first day of the promotion, more than 65% of new customers in the ski category accounted for more than 65%, among them, more than 95% of the new customers of the domestic ski brand VECTOR entered the store on the same day.
Image source: Screenshot of Tmall
The popularity of new customers placing orders is also inseparable from the active marketing of the platform.
On Douyin, many ski equipment brands, sports brands, and head IPs promote ski products. For example, the "Make a Friend" live broadcast room opened a special ski session, and Anta's Descente launched a series of marketing for "skiing".
On Douyin, Descente released a promotional video featuring brand spokesperson William Chan, and offline, it held a press conference at Xinjiang Altay General Mountain Ski Resort, officially announcing that it has become a partner of the Chinese National Snowboard Halfpipe Team and the China National Alpine Ski Team. A set of promotions has brought the brand the second small sales peak after Double 11.
Image source: Canned Gallery
The Tmall platform launched the "Snow Burning Winter Super Category Day" activity to integrate traffic and resources for brands and achieve the goal of increasing the sales of ski categories. According to Tmall's official data, the sales of ski categories during the event increased by 210% year-on-year, including ski clothing increased by 250% year-on-year, ski helmets increased by nearly 330% year-on-year, and ski socks increased by 800% year-on-year.
"Fun Solution" observed that the rise of domestic ski goods brands on the Tmall platform is very fast. According to the data, AWKA, a ski brand that focuses on cost-effectiveness, topped the Tmall ski wear sales list for six consecutive weeks, the sales volume of some high-priced ski apparel of fashion outdoor brand VECTOR quickly exceeded 1,000 orders during the "Double 11" period, and its ski sister brand VECVEC achieved a growth rate of 210% in its first participation in Double 11.
Image source: Screenshot of Tmall
The brand matrix of JD's ski category is slightly different. This year, JD.com has united many international brands such as Helly Hansen, the "King of Sports Glasses", and Columbia, an outdoor sports brand, through the "Burning Winter Ski Season" shopping session.
In the "2023 Top Ten Ski Clothing Network Rankings" compiled by "Maigoo.com" based on CNPP data, the top 10 in the recommendation index of JD.com are mainly old ski goods brands such as Phenix and BURTON, or well-known outdoor brands such as Descente, HALITI, Columbia, Archaeopteryx, Lafuma, The North Face, Pathfinder, and Camel.
Image source: Canned Gallery
In order to do a good job in "ice and snow marketing", Jingdong has also made great efforts. Not only served as the official sponsor of the "2023-2024 FIS Freestyle Skiing and Snowboard Halfpipe World Cup", but also set up a 200-square-meter JD Snow Resort pop-up store at the event site to attract athletes to check in.
Holding online shopping sessions and sponsoring official events offline have also boosted the growth of JD's ski category. According to Jingdong data, since November, the turnover of ski suits has increased by 3 times year-on-year, and the turnover of ski equipment has increased by more than 200% year-on-year.
02. Domestic brands have entered the "ski track"
On the whole, as the first ice and snow season after the Winter Olympics, consumers have continued their love for ice and snow sports. According to the data of Qichacha, in 2022 and the first 10 months of 2023, there will be 1,430 and 1,786 new ice and snow sports-related enterprises in mainland China, respectively, a year-on-year increase of 24.90%.
Image source: Qichacha
As skiing has become a popular winter sport, many domestic brands have also entered the "ski equipment track".
This year's new products of down jacket brand Bosideng are mainly set up around five categories: "Climbing, Extreme Cold, Puffs, High-end Outdoor and Skiing", and its upgraded "Ski 3.0" series has launched ski wear that combines ski functionality and lifestyle style.
"Fun Solution Business" checked the official flagship store of Tmall Bosi and found that the products currently on sale in the store, in addition to the "Dengfeng goose down jacket" with a maximum of more than 6,000 yuan and more than 7,000 yuan and more than 6,000 windbreaker down jackets, the higher prices are ski wear products. At present, the price of Bosideng's adult ski wear ranges from more than 2,000 yuan to more than 4,000 yuan, which has become another important category of Bosideng after the "high-end" mountaineering wear.
Image source: Screenshot of Tmall
Another sub-brand of Bosideng Group, Snow Flying, also takes "redefining ski wear" as an important product upgrade strategy, with the goal of creating "the first set of ski wear for young people". Focusing on this goal, Snow Fly has launched the "Peak Ski Series", but the price is much more "affordable" than that of Bosideng. In its official flagship store, the peak ski series of short down jackets of the same style as "Ouhao" and "Li Yitong" are currently estimated to be 1529 yuan.
There is also no shortage of vertical brands in the ski sports equipment category that specialize in this field.
Founded in Beijing in 2014, Aoxue Culture is an outdoor equipment and service provider with skiing as the starting point, and its founder, Ricky Liu, is a 20-year ski enthusiast with 10 years of experience in marketing and promotion of large enterprises. Its brand Nobaday is a ski brand registered in Seattle, USA after the establishment of Aoxue Culture for two years, and its core customer group is positioned as "young people aged 22-35 who like outdoor sports, love trendy culture and follow fashion trends". At present, Nobaday has been sold in Amazon, Taobao, JD.com and other online channels, and has opened offline stores in China, the United States, New Zealand and Russia.
Image source: Canned Gallery
In addition to down jacket brands and sports brands, Bananaxia, which has been focusing on the "outdoor sunscreen" category for many years, not only started to make jackets this year, but also focused on ski wear, and launched a "lightweight ski suit set" this winter. Judging from the products on sale, the current price of ski clothes and ski pants is more than 500 yuan, and the ski clothes are a "three-in-one down ski suit".
03. When did the "Ski Track" give birth to a unicorn?
Although many brands have entered the "ski track", it still takes time for ski equipment to become a real "big hit category", and at present, the ski equipment market is still affected by the objective conditions of ski venues, competitive environment, and supply chain.
According to the White Paper on China's Ski Industry (2022-2023), the number of ski resorts in China reached 770 in 2019, and the number began to decline in the following two years due to the epidemic, but in the 2022-2023 snow season, the total number of ski resorts (including indoor ski resorts and snow parks) actually operating outside the mainland was 697, a slight increase from 692 in the previous year. However, judging from the data of various places this year, indoor and outdoor ski resorts are still facing a situation of "short supply", and many ski resorts have to take measures to limit the flow due to the overflow of passengers.
Image source: Canned Gallery
These phenomena also reflect that the current construction speed of indoor and outdoor ski resorts in China cannot keep up with the popularity of ice and snow consumption. In particular, the mainland is generally a snow-less country, and the main areas suitable for the construction of high-standard outdoor ski resorts are in the Northeast, North China and Northwest China, while other regions such as South China and East China can only build indoor ski resorts.
All kinds of objective factors make it difficult for skiing to blow out quickly, and the investment in building ski resorts is also expensive. Jia Pang, partner and managing director of Sullivan Greater China, told China Business Network that generally speaking, an outdoor ski resort covering an area of about 1 million square meters has a basic investment of about 100 million to 200 million yuan, and an indoor ski resort covering an area of about 20,000 square meters has a basic investment of about 200 million to 300 million yuan.
Image source: Canned Gallery
In addition to the objective limitations of the sports environment, domestic brands are still facing strong "external competition". Ski equipment has long been dominated by overseas brands, taking ski wear as an example, when it comes to high-end, professional ski wear brands, consumers' minds are still under the impression of Burton, Descente, Salomo, Helly Hansen, Bogner and other brands, these overseas brands have a long history of development, product functions remain leading, and also control relevant patents and technologies. In contrast, at present, domestic brands mainly enter the track through acquisitions and cost-effective advantages, and many brands still adopt OEM production.
In addition, at present, most domestic consumers are not willing to pay for ski equipment. A boss who runs ski clothing rental in Changbai Mountain told the Economic Observer that many consumers choose snow clothing, goggles, protective gear, and gloves packaged together for rental, with package prices ranging from 100 yuan to 600 yuan.
On Douyin, a "veteran" who often skies in Chongli Snow Resort also said, "If you don't buy international professional brands, it is recommended that novices rent equipment is enough. The main thing you really need to buy for skiing is close-fitting quick-drying clothes, hoods, and socks, which can be done for dozens of dollars."
Image source: Canned Gallery
In this case, many "players" who are not in the ski vertical track need to have a clear judgment as to whether it is a wise choice to bet on this track.
Lin Yinan, the relevant person in charge of VECVEC, a cutting-edge brand of ski wear, once told Titanium Media, "Ordinary clothing can be made by small factories, and 30-50 pieces may be made, but if it is ski clothing, even if there are 300 pieces, it will still be rejected by many factories." In this industry, we still have a MOQ of about 1,000 pieces, or need to pay a small order fee, and sometimes even the merchant is willing to pay a small order fee, and the factory does not accept it. "Because of the large MOQ, the inventory digestion of ski clothing is also a common problem faced by new brands in the industry.
In general, under the multiple favorable policies and ice and snow sports events, the market scale of the ice and snow industry in the mainland continues to expand, which provides a lot of market imagination and opportunities for ski wear brands. However, if domestic ski wear brands want to break through market restrictions, they still need to work hard in products, channels, marketing and market segments, and continue to expand the wearing scenarios of ski wear while increasing the sales of high-margin products such as snow helmets, snow goggles, and gloves.
In this trillion-level market, we also look forward to the birth of a "unicorn" domestic brand.