… be more or less inclined to buy that brand?
Some manufacturers believe they are somehow “protecting” their brand by not selling through dealers who sell on line, via mail order, etc.
What do you think of this marketing policy? How would a policy to sell or not sell on line influence your decision to buy a given brand one way or another (if at all)?
Depends. If I knew it would fit more inclinced to buy it, if I was not sure and needed to physically tinker with it to see if it would fit then no way would I buy online.
That being said I did buy a Felt road bike sight unseen from trisports.com and it matched my other road bike, all I had to do was raise the seat and it was a perfect fit.
EDIT: I picked the bike up from trisports.com store
Felt (I think) was not available online (or at least they said to my friend from trisports.com) so he went on and got another brand 
Plain and simple, you have to make it accessible to everyone or they will go somewhere else. What are they protecting? Taiwan labor?
It would have absolutely no bearing on my decision making.
Same here. Passed on a Felt because I could not have it shipped from on online retailer.
I would think that would be quite short sighted.
Personally, the first place I look for a bike is online. But I generally buy all non-essential items that way now. At the very least, that is how I get my price points for the items.
Folks who don’t sell online, in my opinion, will be struggling more and more as time goes on.
Since I live in the middle of nowhere, the only option I have to buy a bike is online. Technically, that is how I bought my Yaqui and Mandaric road bike, though I would not equate that to buying a stock frame via the typical online dealer.
Chad
I do 90% of my shopping for anything online. Even if I do the actual purchase in the brick and mortar. I still do the research and price comparisons online. This information is not always available. Also I am at least an hour and a half from any bike store that sells anything but Trek, Giant and Specialized. If I could have gotten some of the bikes I wanted online I would not have bought the Giant I did.
Sorry sorta rambly, yes if a bike is not available online I can and have bought something else.
I didn’t buy on-line because I wanted to. And I suspect most people don’t. I bought on-line because the LBS I deal with couldn’t get bikes in quick enough and I wasn’t willing to wait months. And if you are going to charge more then an on-line shop, you need to provide something to distinguish the value for the extra price. I am an advocate of buying most stuff at a LBS because I don’t see it as I am just buying a bike, but rather I am buying the bike as well as all of the service that goes with it such as fitting etc, good mechanics. Having said that though, it has been my experience of late that a lot of the LBS in my area are just not delivering much quality service or buying experience anymore. So if they are going to charge me more, not get the products in quick enough, and also not provide the decent service I might as well go on-line and save some money. My one experience of buying a bike on-line technically wasn’t entirely on-line because I did happen to drive by their shop one day while out of town on business. But I did end up buying it on-line and was impressed and to be quite honest I was a little shocked at the level of service I got. More then from my local guys by far lately. I think the Internet is going to force a lot of shops out of business if they don’t learn to differentiate themselves with the level of service and community involvement they provide. And I don’t think this is a bad thing though because a lot of these guys shouldn’t have been in business in the first place.
What do you think of this marketing policy (to not sell online)?
monumentally foolish. and a lot like the kicking and screaming (and laughable hypocrisy) of the RIAA. because there is only one thing that is certain on this planet: rapid change.
either adapt, … or die.
Generally speaking…I would probably be inclined to look else where.
One reason, I live in a small blue collar town. Our LBS is great…if you want a comfort bike. Even in the closest major metro area there are really only two decent dealers but one of them has gone compeletly Trek and the other is on the higher side of the price line. Niether cater to the Triathlete but both do have some tri gear.
I own 3 bikes. 2 purchased on-line, the other from a bike shop here in town. It’s my daily driver, curb hopper, errand runner bike.
I suppose that there can be marketing reasons. Fender Guitar lost several of there pro shop dealers when they started selling to the two catalog houses. I personally feel they became a “me too” guitar when they did that and lost some of their exclusivity.
I also believe the guy with the brick and mortor has much more to offer than the online only dealer. I’m willing to pay a little extra for that except in many cases that little extra has to include sales tax too. But there are ways around that.
Then there is the fit issue. If, as a manufacture, the benefits of my bike, that I’m demanding a premium for,are dependent on a proper fit. Then I may not want to sell online and avoid dealers who sell online. But if I’m a manufacture like that I’m dealing with a pretty small market anyway.
By the way Tom, I was going to order a helmet mirror from your store yesterday…you don’t have any online?
Lets talk on the retailer side…
One or two customer loss maynot be a big deal for Felt, but what is the decision on the retailer side if you are depending on the online business?
What are they protecting? Themselves from idiot shade tree mechanics who will improperly built and fit their bike - then try and sue when the bars fall of while “JRA”. It also protects the LBS who Mr. Idiot will certainly bring the bike to for warranty support and expect that to be free as well. I ask you to tell us ONE car company that will sell a car with out a dealer…or how about canned soup? Can you purchase canned soup right from Campbells?
I think it all depends on where you live. On line may be more critical to areas that have few bike/triathlon stores whereas in a very large metropolitan area it is a non issue.
Maybe they could do a modified version where bikes would be available on-line only to certain zip codes.
I think this can be a good policy for a company who thinks that they have a great product and want to have some control over the way it gets sold to the retail customer. I think there is a much better chance of a customer being happy with their bike if it it sold and set up by a good shop. That means good customer service by someone who has a lot of knowledge and experience with the product…and the service doesn’t end with the sale.
If the bike company can sell all of their available product and keep their dealers and customers happy this way, then it’s ideal. I think this is a good long-term, sustainable approach for a company to take, IF everything works according to plan.
When you start trying to push hard and sell more units by having more and more dealers ,and they it turn are selling internet or mail order, I think you start running into price becoming the deciding factor. Dealers start cutting prices so they don’t lose a sale to another dealer willing to sell for less. If the bikes are in good supply, and all the dealers have them in stock then they obviously want to sell them. If you have to start discounting prices to sell bikes, then you’re going to try to cut back on the time you spend with the customer as you’re not making as much money to pay for your time. Now the customer starts to get pissed off because he feels like he’s not getting any customer service. So he buys the bike for a GOOD PRICE, but gets poorly treated, isn’t set up well and is totally unhappy with the experience so he happily tells everyone he can not to deal with shop X or buy Brand Y bikes. This happens all the time.
If I was a manufacturer I know what scenario I’d want. I’d want my customers to be happy paying the fair price for a good product and being happy not only with the product itself but the service that went along with it as well.
Obviously it’s not an easy route to take but it certainly can be done.
Greg.
Cervole, Kuota and many others let the dealers sell online. Specialized, Felt and I think Trek does not, it is not LIMITED to bikes, specialized forbids selling any specialized items online even the bottle cages but they do sell them from their webpage, it is more of a profit issue on the Specialized side than liability I guess.
Dealer offer incentives like “Fly and buy” programs where they pay your ticket hotel etc if you buy $$$$ bikes. Can’t these reflect to the price?
Cervolo does it, they raised the bar a lot higher with the $2500 P2C and making it for sale online.
But you can buy a car or Campbells soup online. And the car dealer get paid for warranty work whether they sold the car or it comes in off the street.
Less inclined
Last summer (August) I was in the market for an entry level tri-bike. I used to own a Felt S25 so my first thought was to get one of the new S32s. There was not one in CO, not even one not my size that I could look at so as to confirm my choice and order through a shop.
Then the jerks at my local Cervelo dealer practically laughed at me when I asked if they could order a Dual for me, “you would be an idiot not waiting for the P2C, besides at your size (6’2”, 220) the Dual would have too much flex for you". This was similar to every other time I had walked through their doors so I quickly exited.
So it was online to inside out sports and a smoking deal on one of the Dual factory blems they were handling. Had I had the option I would have ordered one of the Felts.
Irony was a few weeks later I was visiting my hometown in MN and rented a bike at Penn Cycles and they had a S32, in my size, would have bought it and shipped it home if I hadn’t already gotten the Dual.
BVinGolden
Exactly Campbell does not sell but also do not say peapod.com or any online grocery can not sell online.
One other thing I’ve seen is even the shop is a dealer, and they do NOT have it on floor that specific bike and size (I don’t know how they work dealerships) they try to sell what (any similar other brands) they have in stock and equal to that bike.
I prefer to choose my dealer first and bike second. With so many quality (and geometrically sound) bikes out there right now it is really coming down to service and warranty in my book. I find comfort in having established a good enough relationship with my dealer that when things go wrong (and they can with even the best of brands) my concerns have always been quickly taken care of even with short notice or on a tight time schedule.
That being said, now to answer your question. Once on-line I might as well save a few bucks, cut out the dealer entirely, and buy factory direct since there really never will be that level of relationship with my dealer that I take comfort in anyway. Lets just take everything factory direct at that point? I can kind of understand why some manufacturers want to protect their dealers and their brand.