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?
My opinion, also based on experience: absolutely not.
There’s no doubt that some retailers have done very, very well with the online side of their business–and some who do a massive gross volume, but are doing it as almost a zero-sum gain.
That said, many of the most successful shops to whom I’ve sold had a very limited on-line presence. To say that a retailer ‘needs to’ is ridiculous. Some do it quite well, and I’m guessing it’s worked well for you–but it’s not the only way. There’s more than one way to peel an onion…
Honestly, like record shops LBS is going to be history.
I really doubt that. With a record shop, the latest Maroon 5 CD is the same from retailer A, e-tailer B, or trade-in shop C. No maintenance required, just a straight buy it and maybe the occasional return.
With bikes, there’s fittings, there’s maintenance, upgrades, etc., plus the fact that most people that do more than just buy the kiddies a new bike like to walk in and shoot the breeze. I don’t see the LBS going away, but they will for sure have to adapt to reflect the online world a bit more.
-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)
These are all just hypotheticals.
i want to echo this statement.
my lbses are run by cyclists, by and large, who do not have the business acumen to get into online retailing.
another issue with online retailing is that the margins may not seem as big because the online market is more competitive, so they may not think it worth their while.
The sale you saw probably a week in a year. I told before there is a bike shop down here they have decent selection Litespeed, Specialized, etc. In winter they are open 4 days only and when they bopen they just sit there. Big shops are trying to be creative with other services but you just can’t compete with the pricing of the web.
Another issue, most LBS are moving to burbs to cut rent and this is more becoming alienating the customers.
"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? "
Know-how and investment. The long existing bike shops I’ve been associated with as either customer or very-part-time wrench over the years are too small an operation to be able to develop a web presence. Many times they are old-timers who don’t truly understand the requirements for e-commerce. If they have tried to branch out, those efforts failed, or at least weren’t worth the time and effort invested.
Sometimes those shops get enterprising young wiz-kids in who are computer and internet savvy. Sometimes those kids are allowed to branch things out and they begin to grow the online presence.
Not being a bike-biz insider, though…I’m not sure whether there are resources out there (bike-biz specific) that will assist shops in establishing online retail presence. If not, I see a gap waiting to be filled. There are certainly plenty of good resources out there in the cycling entities who have already gone down the road.
No, there wasn’t a sale going on. They just had the right corner.
A popular stop for people out on an extremely popular bike path. A public parking lot were groups would meet up for thier rides.
Madison may be a little extreme because they one of the tops in the list of cities when it comes to bikes per capita.
I’ve had a retail business so I have knowledge of what it takes. I live in a town of about 28,000. If either of the two shops here closed up I would encourage and monetarily back another opening up. Both current stores could do themselves good by some minor changes in thier marketing and concentration. Neither wants to make the investment or take the risk. But the bikes they have in stock are actually fairly competitive with the online prices…and they are assembled and come with a cage and water bottle…plus 2 free tune ups at 6 months and a year.
My two bikes were purchased online but they were both purchased used and I wasn’t looking for a bike when I bought them. Too good to turn down…
In the case of my LBS, it’s simple. He can’t see not charging retail for his products. He wants only to compete using his services, which he isn’t willing to do online. I like the owner and patronize him often, but when I can get almost everything 30-50% cheaper online, it’s getting harder and harder to go in there for most things.
Online retail makes a lot of sense in many ways. First you eleminate the monthly brick and mortar type expenses the LBS has and can offer lower prices as a result.
The advantage of the LBS is the “personal service”, but that is more important to the newbie than the experienced cyclist. The experienced cyclist often already knows what bike and size he/she wants so often may go where ever is the best deal, including online sources.
It would probably make sense for you to offer an online store as well as your regular outlet.
I think the reason why many businesses don’t go this route is because they don’t yet comprehend the power of the internet and it’s ability to generate sales.
generally speaking - as the price of the product purchased goes up, as does the anxiety associated with such and furthermore, the lack of comfort with making the purchase online.
I would buy a book, a pair of running shorts or a pair of running shoes online. but not a bike. I want to be able to walk into the place with the thing in hand and ask questions.
Probably pricing and contracts already setup as dealers of certain products that prevents online sales. Internet pricing is also extremely competitive and it is an online shoppers expectation that they can purchase products online cheaper than from a local shop.
Maybe the LBS fears losing their favorite aspect of dealing with customers directly and end up becoming another faceless company that just ships products.
You also now have to carry a higher inventory which ties up capital.
Thanks Jack, I get a substantial amount of PM’s on three different triathlon forums and two defense industry forums so please don’t take offense if it takes me a few days to get back to you. I appreciate the input.
I’m just guessing, but I’d say lack of know-how and/or desire as well as disinterest or inability to carry the inventory necessary. As others have pointed out there is also the overhead of managing, packaging, and shipping that level of sales.
I doubt technology is the issue. Web development isn’t that hard anymore so the actual cost of developing a site could potentially be almost nil. I’ll bet if the average local LBS put a sign on their door that offered a bike for free (or even at cost) in exchange for a customer’s web development skills they’d have a qualified taker within hours. Actually, I’ve built many websites as a freelancer the thought of making exactly that offer to my LBS has crossed my mind on occasion…
Tom,
I will catch the ire of the LBS group, but I frankly think the “corner store LBS” is becoming a thing of the past. I haven’t purchased anything for over 4 years from anything but online stores and I’m quite happy and a very picky shopper… and I live in a market with many LBS’s that have good reputations. I know a lot of others very similar to myself.
My reasons:
I’m comfortable doing all my own bike tuning and repairs … bought my own tools and manuals on line … I really think I do a better job with first time fixes and don’t have the downtime I used to have with LBS repairs, etc.
My choices of purchases are not limited by store stock … I can have anything I want and promptly … often before I didn’t know what was really available to choose from.
Prices are always better
Customer service is frankly better online most of the time by my experience
I don’t need anyone to stroke my ego to make a purchase … I know what I want.
I buy frames, not complete bikes so even my bike purchases are simple. I get fitted by a coach on my own components so I really don’t need a LBS for that.
My online wetsuit purchases have been just as well fitted as in store … return policies are favorable, but frankly I’ve never had to use them.
All my running purchases have been online for several years.
I had thought you intended to be an online store when you set up your initial website.
I would think your biggest barrier now to entry is your competition … which may have started in garages, etc … but now is very sophisticated and typically has huge inventory and immediate shipping ability of most everything … if you have to wait for an order, you pretty much lose the advantage to the customer. My guess would be that the cost of setting up an online warehouse system adequately staffed and supplied would be rather huge and probably would require some significant investors and a lot of your personal time … and your pricing would have to be competitive with existing large systems. Differentiating yourself from say TriSports would be very difficult online … you’d have to compete mostly on availability and price … a tough proposition in todays market.
Good luck to you in your choices
Dave
if you arent going to generate substantial revenue and more importantly profit, it is suicidal to do.
the answer is in the question - “L” stands for LOCAL. internet is NOT local. the local guy cannot beat xyz website. focus your business and do something exceptional, rather than just another LBS that has tacked on a $750 shopping cart that looks, acts, and feels like crap when you shop.
spend your time getting more people to walk through the front door. spend your shopping cart money on building a great local triathlon or cycling club/blog. build a name, a reputation, be the bike shop that everyone in town knows about.
The funny thing is that while my LBS has a website (no webstore) it’s so bad that they don’t even have there phone number or address on the website. Still, they have all of the business that they want.
I think the answer actually lies in the capabilities of the shop staff and owner. It takes a lot more then a website. The website is the easy piece if you are going to do any kind of volume. The logistics piece of warehousing the product, shipping the product, having the capital to carry inventory of more product would all be challenges. And competing more on price is not necessarily the strength of many LBS.
