Tri-Sports started a few years ago in the founder’s spare bedroom. Nytro started in a Garage. R&A is a Mom& Pop shop in NYC that has global reach. Mission Bay started as a Mom&Pop LBS that grew to the world’s largest QR wetsuit dealer and largest retailr of triathlon wetsuits on earth.
Related to our discussion of bicycle on line sales, what are the factors that prevent your local bike shop from developing an on line component to match the capabilities of other on line retailers?
Do LBSs need to become online retailers? Does the added cost (website design and maintenance, addittional employees, extra inventory controls, additional inventory carrying costs…) outweigh the potential benefit?
Do LBSs need to become online retailers? Does the added cost (website design and maintenance, addittional employees, extra inventory controls, additional inventory carrying costs…) outweigh the potential benefit?
Yes. For just an average LBS, you can get a professionally designed webstore and/or splash page done extremely cheaply (And I’m talking under $750) if you know how to look around.
-Fear of the unknown
-The owner runs a bike shop, they don’t know how to, or where to start website design.
-How do I get traffic to my website.
-What will sell on my website.
-Who and how do I ship stuff.
or the pain in the ass factor.
-need to develop new relationships (website/deliveries etc)
-customer relationships and interaction (delivery/returns/questions)
all sell something online… I don’t know what percentage of revenue is what. Ben’s was the first one I noticed had a clue that online prices tended to be cheaper, and for which items.
I personally dig the great local presence. There are some things I"m just not willing to pay double for locally vs. online. Otherwise, I count myself lucky.
Also, I don’t know if I can call these all smaller online retailers, I imagine ben’s does well for what they market (not a tri specific store). But the biggest thing I can comment on is how interesting the bigger stores keep the internet division seemingly seperate… They are in some back room with different stockpiles of parts… Call up… “internet or local?” is the 1st question at several stores. As a local guy, I want both… I look online and call for pickup… which they do, but it seems kinda “special request-ish”…
In my opinion based on my experience: Absolutely. No contest. Ask any retailer- want to increase your gross sales by a factor of 3 in 90 days?
Playing devils advocate.
Your gross sales might increase, but what about your net profit? How many other costs (direct and indirect) would increase as a result of becoming an online retailer. Gross sales doesn’t necessarily tell me anything about how well a business is doing.
I’d say the biggest limiter of the LBS to do anything is due to:
Employee Turnover
Lack of property ownership/equity
Lack of internal business tools / technology
Business Accumen
Completeness of vision
Understanding of eCommerce/options
The LBS used to be a LBS…like the local barber shop. You go see Curly every month and stop in the shoot the shit when he’s reading the newspaper. Low overhead, low maintenance. Now every LBS owner seems to want to rule the world. I don’t understand this. Everyone is scared.
It’s just a matter of time until bike distributors just flip the switch and sell direct. They already have the everything above in place, they just don’t wanna field the customer service, which could (gasp) be outsourced to India.
Tri-Sports started a few years ago in the founder’s spare bedroom. Nytro started in a Garage. R&A is a Mom& Pop shop in NYC that has global reach. Mission Bay started as a Mom&Pop LBS that grew to the world’s largest QR wetsuit dealer and largest retailr of triathlon wetsuits on earth.
Related to our discussion of bicycle on line sales, what are the factors that prevent your local bike shop from developing an on line component to match the capabilities of other on line retailers?
I am interested in your thoughts.
I think it’s a combination of things. Most LBS’s have been around a while, and while they may have a splash/info website, they probably don’t have a store. There’s a lot of factors that probably go into this, such as:
Unfamiliarity
Fear of cost
Upkeep
Shipping hassles
Price matching
Data protection
And a major biggie, How to handle returns!
Also, with online sales, you miss the chance to interact with the customer, and “upgrade” the sale to include that emergency road kit, a helmet, shorts, etc etc.
But, for those wanting to take the plunge, as I put in another post, you could get a full splash page integrated with an online store including a payment gateway for under $750, basically a turnkey solution. If it increased sales by even say, 25% over the course of a year, it might be well worth it.
In order to become an online seller you have to buy/commit to at least 50-100 bikes / wheels / wetsuits etc at a minimum to be accepted as an official re-seller for that brand.
Plus from the consumer end, you better have stuff in stock “now.”
Just look outside the bike industry when players like fogdog.com showed up and did not have the structure in place.
Definately some truth to that. There are some very forward thinking suppliers (Quality Bicycle Parts comes to mind) who are truly outstanding at empowering the LBS with near-nuclear on line capability form day one.
I’d say the average bike shop owner started out as a guy who liked to ride bikes and/or wrench. They didn’t start out as a business major. I’m sure the universe of LBS owners with real business saavy is rather small. The few with the stones for it took the dive and opened a shop. Going much beyond that probably seems like a daunting task.
And for every one of us who know what we want/need and know where to find it online, there’s a whole world of folks who cling desparately to their LBS for every cable adjustment and tire change that must be made. If the LBS is focused on taking care of that business, well, that’s their focus and their niche. Our local LBS’s seem to be doing just fine with that focus. It’s not gonna make them rich, but they seem happy and seem to have at least some time to ride their bikes.
Related to our discussion of bicycle on line sales, what are the factors that prevent your local bike shop from developing an on line component to match the capabilities of other on line retailers?
Then, is it worth it. The investment, the advertising, it’s pretty damn competetive out there.
Sell 3 bikes online for the same total profit as selling one in the store.
Once you advertise a price online your pretty much stuck with selling it for the same price in store. Unless you sell under a different name…but then are you missing out on what the internet can bring to your door step.
What has been your experience Tom…I’m sure the internet has brought business to your door step…I don’t mean online sales but I mean actual RL customers to your store. I know I may be heading to Detroit here in a month…If I do I’m gonna be checking out your store. Maybe even schedule a fit.
I don’t have any love for one of the LBS’s in the nearby Metro area so I love sticking the internet price in their face.
I ask for a small part, they don’t have it in stock but they say they can order for me. They are not going to order a $6 part just for me, most do monthly orders. I wait and pay more where I can go online and get it online a lot cheaper and faster.
It is not just ordering $$$ bike when you talk about online retailer.
Honestly, like record shops LBS is going to be history.
Are there separate contracts that manufacturers make with “Online resellers” vs “local” LBS’s. It was my understanding talking to one local LBS that they were forbidden from advertising prices online or at least only could advertise certain prices online. If you buy “X” amount of product are you given a “Larger Berth” in that area?
If that’s the way it is it would seem you would have to have a very large initial cash outlay in order to go internet and that’s probably the limiting factor. Even a decent sized small town LBS can’t afford 50-100 bikes from 2-3 different manufacturers.
I don’t think the LBS is going to be history. They have had to compete against the catalog houses for a long time now. The internet does not pose that much more of a threat.
There will always be people who like to deal in person. And if someone whats to eek out a living, given the correct demographics I think an LBS with the right services will do alright.
When I was in Madison WI for the Ironman there was a decent size LBS on the corner down from the IM Start. Sat morning I bet I watched literally 100’s of recreational bikers stop there…the bike shop operated a coffee house right next door to them and both were located right on the bike bath. They’re prices were slightly higher than online and catalog but there selection of things was huge! And they new thier market was in the gear and little stuff.