Platformization in the health & fitness industry: gym aggregator platform

Abstract

With the ever-evolving technological capabilities in today's globalized world, there has been a push towards developing central platforms for many traditional businesses, including but not limited to retailing, travel bookings, education, etc. removing the inefficiencies in the conventional formats. Gauging a relatively unplatformized business of gyms in the now globalized lifestyle of working professionals and students, we find that there is significant scope for developing a single application for accessing gyms and fitness facilities for these individuals. The fitness industry is relatively fragmented, with most gyms working as standalone facilities and a few fitness chains that have expanded using the franchisee model. The customer retention and subsequent asset utilization are low, and the task of sales lies with the same people who operate the gym. On the customer side, the increasing travel requirements for working professionals and students make it infeasible to subscribe to a single fitness centre as they end up missing a majority of the sessions. The proposed gym aggregator addresses these shortcomings of the existing model by on- boarding the gyms, fitness centres and individual trainers who provide concept-based fitness classes on one side by giving them access to multiple users, increasing the assets' utilization and earning a commission on a pay per use basis. On the other hand, it becomes convenient for the gym enthusiasts whose lifestyle acts as a constraint in subscribing to a single centre, allowing them to book sessions and workout at any nearby fitness centre based on their location. It delinks the sales from the assets and lets the gym management focus on what they do best, i.e., providing fitness services while assigning the sales to the platform application which leverages tech and data insights to deliver better results. The proposed platform would increase convenience for the users resulting in a higher customer lifetime and associated willingness to pay. It also opens up a new opportunity for the gym facilities to earn by renting out the excess capacities, thus creating value for both the sides and the platform, making it self-sustainable.