As the National Day Golden Week approaches, outdoor sports essentials for road trips are flying off the shelves.
Hiking boots, windbreakers, backpacks, knee pads... items that usually see little interest have become hot sellers, all thanks to travelers gearing up for National Day road trips.
Sales: Online stores are booming
"In the past two weeks, our outdoor gear sales have increased by 40% compared to normal times," Ma Fei, a Taobao seller of outdoor products, told reporters yesterday. Ma said the surge mainly comes from "newbies" going on National Day road trips, with hiking boots, windbreakers, backpacks, tents, and moisture-proof mats priced between 1,000 and tens of thousands of yuan being the most popular. "We have a group of regular customers who usually place orders two weeks in advance, and their purchase amounts are also quite high," Ma said.
Reporters found on Taobao that sales of premium outdoor brands such as "Columbia," "Columbus," "Arc'teryx," "Osprey," and "Deuter" have risen nearly 30%. "Our backpacks are all priced above 700 yuan, normally selling about 20 units a month, but this month we've sold 78," said a Taobao seller specializing in Osprey backpacks, called "Taixin Taofei."
"Lately, we’ve had so many customers coming in for gear. Today we just got an order for over 30 pieces for an outdoor team," said "Xiaoxue," a customer service representative at Camel Outdoor’s Taobao store. This month alone, they’ve sold 2,810 windbreakers, generating 1.28 million yuan in single-item monthly sales — equivalent to three months’ worth of usual performance. Additionally, barbecue grills, trekking poles, knee pads, and walkie-talkies are also bestsellers online.
"I’m planning to hike Mount Emei, have a barbecue in the wild, and brew some Zhuyeqing tea — sounds like a great choice," Chen Xin said yesterday afternoon in the sports goods section of Metropolitan Plaza, where he was planning to buy a set of outdoor gear.
Reporters noticed that the entire outdoor sports section at Metropolitan has turned into a “campsite.” Backpacks, hiking poles, picnic mats, sleeping bags, disposable barbecue grills, and charcoal are all well stocked. A salesperson said there have been more customers buying outdoor gear lately, with 5 tents sold just this week.
Meanwhile, at the barbecue grill section of Shangshe Electrical, grills ranging from a few dozen to several hundred yuan are “selling over 30 units a day without a problem.”
Price: Up by 20% year-on-year
"I did a comparison and found that outdoor gear prices have gone up by 20% this year," Wang Ying, an outdoor enthusiast from Yuzhong District, told reporters. Taking hiking backpacks as an example, the 58L Osprey model was around 1,100 yuan last year, but now many shops sell it for about 1,300 yuan. Last year, many windbreakers were priced around 600 yuan, but this year they’re all over 1,000 yuan.
Why the price hike? One reason is rising costs, and another is the growing number of outdoor enthusiasts. Online data shows that in the past two years, the annual growth rate of professional outdoor gear sales has reached 20%-30%, while lifestyle-related outdoor products such as barbecues have seen growth of at least 50%.