Changing Face of SALON & FITNESS INDUSTRY!

The Indian salon & fitness industry has experienced many ups and downs in the last couple of years. However, these hardships have made this sector stronger and more resilient towards the needs of their customers.

- Abha Garyali Peer

The pandemic had a dampening effect on our lives, but the hardest hit were the entrepreneurs, whether big or small. One cannot deny that few sectors like healthcare, e-commerce, specialty retail etc did well during the hard times. Few others like home care and grocery stores were also more or less unaffected. However, the salon & fitness industry was the hardest hit and took almost two years to get back to the new normal.

During 2020 the salon industry, in particular, suffered a major impact as the industry thrives on ‘personal touch’ and it was impossible to operate without close physical proximity. The salon industry which was earlier growing by leaps & bounds with new trends evolving and rise in disposable income of people was struggling to even survive during COVID. Even after the lockdown, salons continued to bear losses since people were wary of visiting salons.

The same goes for the fitness sector with gyms being seen as a place for the virus to spread the most because of the closeness of the people and heavy breathing during workouts.

Post-Pandemic Growth in Salon & Fitness Sectors

The market size of the salon industry in 2019 was around USD 950 million and it was expected to reach around USD 2.68 billion in 2020 but the sudden attack of COVID altered this figure and the industry suffered a loss at the rate of 30-40 percent during pandemic. According to a report by Wazir Advisors the Indian salon market, which was at Rs 55,000 crore in FY20, is expected to grow to Rs 1.89 lakh crore in FY25, at a CAGR of 28 percent. This figure shows that the future of this sector is bright and shining post-pandemic.