The £15bn booking boom becoming a major growth channel for UK SMEs
Brits are spending more than an estimated £15bn a year booking wellness services such as hair appointments, beauty treatments and massages, through marketplace platforms and apps, with fitness emerging as one of the biggest drivers, new research from Worldpay®, now Global Payments®, reveals. Younger consumers are fuelling the surge, while expectations around payments, refunds and ease of booking are a critical factor in the consumer experience.
The popularity of these platforms is being driven overwhelmingly by younger consumers. Gen Z and Millennials together account for half – around £7.5bn – of that total spend figure, with 55% and 50% respectively saying they use platforms more than they did two years ago.
- Fitness is one of the clearest examples of how that behaviour is playing out:
- Nearly a third of UK adults surveyed2 (31%) now use platforms to book fitness services from classes to gym memberships
- Using platforms is becoming habitual with 60% saying they now book using this method regularly
Booking platforms are also becoming an important discovery tool for personal services businesses. One in eight (13%) polled use platforms to help them find and support independent businesses, suggesting a clear opportunity for SMBs to reach new customers.
But convenience alone is not enough. Almost half (42%) actively choose platforms that offer simple, secure payments, while nearly three quarters (71%) say poor payment processes would cause them to abandon a booking altogether. Expectations don’t end at checkout – 84% expect a refund within 48 hours if a service, such as a fitness class, is cancelled. This comes at a time when our survey of merchants revealed that a third of independent personal services businesses in the UK (36%) have said they need their software to have a greater ability to better manage their payments.
As part of the research, Worldpay, now Global Payments, has worked with TV fitness personality Sheli McCoy – Scottish CrossFit athlete, coach, founder and owner of SweatBox Dundee – to illustrate just how important back-end technology offerings like this have been in helping to scale her fitness business.
Sheli said: “Your vibe attracts your tribe, and we’ve built a community based on that ethos, giving that opportunity to everybody who comes here. Success is knowing we can’t do everything ourselves — it’s about harnessing the talents of other people and bringing in technology to help us pull everything together. The software we use helps people find us, book their classes and pay online, making it a better experience for clients while allowing me to focus on spending time face –to face, coaching and working with them on the ground.”
For platform providers, integrating a strong payments functionality is crucial to continue tapping into increasing customer spend. For businesses – particularly SMBs – working with partners that offer easy, end-to-end booking and payments can help them grow by capitalising on the sharp uptake in consumers using booking platforms.
Grant Evans, head of sales, Integrated and Platforms at Global Payments, comments: “We are living in the app economy, and fitness is one of its biggest winners – from padel to pilates. This presents a huge opportunity for platforms, but only if they have the right technology in place. Crucially, this must include payments, which are often the make-or-break moment in a transaction. Platforms must find the right software partner to deliver on this need if they are going to attract new business – it is how they can win the trust of businesses looking to grow and help their SMB clients turn first-time bookings into repeat business.”