The Chinese market is growing by 15.5%

In a presentation made on the eve of ISPO BEIJING, which opened today, Robbert de Kock, secretary-general of the World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry (WFSGI), outlined some of the key trends in the Chinese market. Based in part on research made by NPD and GfK, WFSGI estimates that the sporting goods retail market will be growing by 15.5 percent to $23.0 billion in 2012, after an 18.1 percent increase to $19.9 billion in 2011. On the other hand, foreign retailers only account for 3 percent of the overall retail business in the country and not all of them are working on a profitable basis yet. Furthermore, in spite of the impressive size of the Chinese population and its economy, the ratio of consumption in the gross domestic product is only 35 percent – much lower than in big markets like Japan (55%), France (57%), Brazil (65%) or the U.S. (71 percent).