Who sells new bicycles on the internet?
B.O.C., Lucky Bike, Zweirad Stadler or Fahrrad XXL: Many people already know these names from previous bicycle purchases in the shop. Dirk Zedler, the Ludwigsburg expert for bicycles and e-bikes says:
“These are chains of wholesale bicycle markets that have grown out of specialist shops and are now also strong online. They sell branded bicycles or bicycles of comparable quality directly, which can also be bought in specialist shops.”
In addition, there are numerous online retailers with bicycles at comparatively low prices. A typical feature of these retailers is obvious to bicycle buyers at first glance: Often, they haven’t heard the brand names of the bicycles.
“These can be direct imports from Asia that do not meet any western quality standards or bikes that are produced very cheaply. They might cost half as much as bicycles from specialist shops. But to put it simply, they don't even have half the quality.”
The third group of online bicycle retailers are so-called direct sellers. These are manufacturers who develop their own bikes and sell them directly to their customers via the internet. These are for example Canyon, Rose, Radon, YT as well as Poison.
Do customers get their dream bike online faster than in a specialist shop?
In the Corona pandemic, global supply chains do not function properly or are even temporarily disrupted. At the same time, the demand for bicycles has increased extremely in many countries. This combination leads to a situation where components and accessories for the bikes are regularly not available to manufacturers and retailers. As a result, there were and are delivery times of several weeks and months. As components are in short supply for all manufacturers, the supply problems affect both retailers with their local shops and online bicycle dealers. However, the latter ones often have a wide range and can thus compensate for the supply problems with one brand at least a little.
Read the entire article here.
Author: Pierre Gehmlich, mdr jumpradio.de
