Even if you’re a typical homebody who spends eight hours a day in an office building, there will always be that one moment when you miss the outdoor life—and it’s these countless “moments” that have influenced the development of today’s outdoor gear market.
According to official data from Taobao Mall, in the first half of 2011, sales of outdoor gear on Tmall—especially footwear—multiplied several times over, growing nearly fivefold compared to the same period in 2010. In addition, survey data from the China National Commercial Information Center showed that in 2011, nationwide sales of outdoor fashion and sports goods in key large retail enterprises increased by 23.9% year-on-year, significantly higher than the 6.7% growth rate of sports goods retail sales. These figures clearly show that outdoor sports are increasingly embraced by people, inadvertently expanding the outdoor gear market and presenting an ever more prosperous outlook for the industry.
Micro-outdoor is unstoppable
Such a promising market prospect has prompted many traditional outdoor brands to go all out to secure their positions, while emerging outdoor brands are eager to seize the opportunity and capture market share. Take RAX, an emerging outdoor brand launched in 2011, for example: its product sales in Q1 saw a compound growth rate of over 100%, and its website achieved sales exceeding one million yuan within just three months of going live. Among the many factors contributing to RAX’s sales success was a brand-new concept—micro-outdoor.
This is the era of micro-living. The fast pace of life robs people of leisure time, yet digital and mobile devices, microblogs, social networks, micro-games… allow them to unwind during brief moments of free time. In truth, everyone faces the same dilemma: on sunny days, stay indoors? Or go out? You love traveling and yearn for a carefree outdoor life, but are weighed down by daily responsibilities… You’re always hoping for a long vacation, but have work, studies, family, and responsibilities that are hard to set aside… So urban dwellers now have a new option—“micro-outdoor”! “Micro-outdoor” doesn’t require long holidays or heavy backpacks, nor does it mean traveling to faraway places. Just grab your backpack and set off—the great outdoors is right around the corner. “Micro-outdoor” can mean a nearby hike, a picnic in the park, a date outing, or a short mountain climb in the suburbs… just a little time. Even close-to-home excursions can offer a relaxed outdoor experience. Change your mindset, travel lightly, and that’s “micro-outdoor.”
In fact, unlike broad outdoor sports, “micro-outdoor” emphasizes companionship and sharing with family, friends, partners, or even pets, and promotes the idea of light travel. It is fundamentally different from the notion of “going outside equals being outdoors.” Micro-outdoor focuses more on encouraging people to enjoy fragmented moments of leisure and relaxation amid their busy urban lives—grab your backpack, head out, embrace nature, and enjoy movement. Even brief moments can bring a relaxed and joyful outdoor experience.
This brand-new concept has been quickly embraced by urbanites who love outdoor sports but lack the time to fully engage in them. With the trend of micro-outdoor, rising income levels, increasing health awareness, and more frequent short holidays collectively create vast potential in the outdoor market. Clearly, micro-outdoor is unstoppable.
Micro-outdoor and e-commerce join forces, with emerging forces showcasing their strength
Remember Sina Weibo’s slogan?—“Share fresh moments anytime, anywhere!” It’s this casual, natural attitude that made Weibo an instant hit among netizens upon its launch. Similarly, the “grab your backpack and set off” philosophy advocated by micro-outdoor follows this same “micro” concept. Now let’s think—who needs this “micro” philosophy? It’s those busy urban young people. They have so many thoughts but no time to write lengthy posts, so they turn to Weibo. They have many travel dreams but no time for long trips, so they opt for micro-outdoor. That’s the charm of “micro”! Because it meets the needs of today’s urban population and helps shift certain mindsets, enabling them to achieve what once seemed impossible. Since the concept has been accepted, these groups become the potential consumer base for micro-outdoor brands. And if they’re potential customers, shouldn’t we gain some basic insight into their lives?
In today’s world where the internet has become an indispensable part of life, people document their lives online, spend their leisure time on the web, and—most notably—shop online. Online shopping has instantly become one of the main ways people shop, and the rapid development of B2C platforms like Taobao, JD.com, and Amazon has made online shopping increasingly trusted and favored.
According to the China E-Commerce Development Report, in 2011, China’s total e-commerce transaction volume reached 5.88 trillion yuan, up 29.2% year-on-year, equivalent to 12.5% of that year’s GDP. By the end of 2011, China had 194 million online shoppers, with a penetration rate of 37.8%, achieving a total online retail sales volume of 782.56 billion yuan, accounting for 4.32% of total retail sales of consumer goods. These figures clearly show that e-commerce has developed rapidly and become a focal point for businesses of all sizes—both established companies and emerging brands are planning to go online.
From this perspective, the potential customers of micro-outdoor brands are also part of this online shopping demographic, creating a seemingly subtle yet tightly connected link between e-commerce and micro-outdoor: whether it’s the new internet term “micro” concept or the positioning of potential customers, these two emerging forces are perfectly aligned and will eventually come together to demonstrate tremendous power. Take RAX, the world’s leading outdoor brand—they chose to completely abandon offline operations and focus solely on online sales, resolutely embarking on the “e-commerce path,” precisely because they recognized this intrinsic connection. Sources reveal that RAX’s product sales in Q1 saw a compound growth rate of over 100%, and at the 2011 China Enterprise Competitiveness Annual Summit Forum, RAX was the only brand awarded the title of “Most Promising Outdoor Sports Equipment Brand.” RAX’s official Weibo account also surpassed 15,000 followers, with thousands participating in its online and offline events, deeply embedding the brand in consumers’ minds.
The “micro” promotion of micro-outdoor
From “everyone stealing vegetables” a few years ago to “everyone using Weibo” in recent years, the vast potential of online promotion is something businesses can clearly see. Coupled with the aforementioned close relationship between micro-outdoor and e-commerce, online promotion has naturally become the primary marketing method for micro-outdoor brands. So, how can a brand-new concept and emerging brand capture people’s attention?
First, in terms of communication strategy, choose high-exposure media to expand brand visibility, select precision/search-based media to enhance brand visibility, use social media to boost brand preference, and employ performance marketing to drive high conversion rates. The average purchase conversion rate for e-commerce websites is 0.3%–0.8%, and the cost of acquiring a new customer can be as high as 100 yuan. Given fixed online advertising prices, targeting the right audience and placing ads effectively becomes the core key to improving conversion rates.
For example, RAX adopts a 3.5.2 communication focus distribution strategy: 30%—targeting young people aged 18–25 as the breakthrough point to build widespread awareness, 50%—focusing on urban core consumers aged 26–35 to establish strong word-of-mouth, and 20%—targeting consumers aged 36–45 as a supplementary market to expand sales. With online media as the main channel, balancing brand image and product sales appropriately, media selection is based on in-depth collection and analysis of internet user data. The main advertising strategies are “land grabbing” and “audience capturing,” using a mix of online display ads, search engines, and performance-based online ads to discover potential users and drive purchases. Subsequent promotional activities are then used to encourage repeat purchases.
Second, due to the unique nature of e-commerce, the reputation of new brands is crucial. Morgan Stanley data shows that “online consumer behavior is more influenced by product reputation, discounts, quality guarantees, and friend recommendations—especially friend recommendations, which account for 14.2% of male and 38.1% of female purchasing behavior.” Clearly, due to the uniqueness of online shopping, netizens can’t truly try new products before buying and can only learn about desired items through others’ reviews and answers. Micro-outdoor is a brand-new concept, so how to make people remember and trust it becomes a challenge for newly launched outdoor brands.
In fact, I believe experiential marketing activities centered around product testing and experiences can be launched, along with positive and proactive brand promotion through official forums and community posts. Influencer recommendations can drive other users, while professional outdoor experts answering questions can enhance interaction among buyers. In June this year, RAX’s official mall quietly launched a “Free Application for Product Testing” section, precisely targeting this reputation-building approach. A single outdoor influencer’s sharing might inspire a group of outdoor enthusiasts to follow suit. This point-to-area word-of-mouth dissemination method will likely gain increasing importance in the future.
In 2011, China’s outdoor gear retail sales amounted to just 10.76 billion yuan, with a CAGR of 49.32% from 2004 to 2011. The future of China’s outdoor industry is expected to maintain a growth rate of 40–50%, coupled with the increasing number of online outdoor gear shoppers and the high growth of the e-commerce sector. The combination of outdoor and e-commerce is highly optimistic in the market. Micro-outdoor will join hands with e-commerce to step into the micro-era, just like RAX.