Posts by Phil Latz
How’s Business? November 2019
Welcome to our monthly chat with a diverse selection of bicycle shop owners from throughout Australia and New Zealand. We could not have had a much larger geographic spread this month, including store owners from Cairns, Darwin, Perth and Havelock North, which is on the east coast of New Zealand. As always, we start by…
Inside 99 Bikes’ Unique Team Structure
– Sponsored Content – 99 Bikes now employs a staggering 430 team members across 45 stores and head office positions. We recently spoke to three 99 Bikes team members to find out more, starting with 99 Bikes’ co-founder, Matt Turner. Contrary to some misinformed external perceptions, 99 Bikes not only prefers to employ people on…
How Fast Will Ebike Sales Grow?
Manuel Marsilio General Manager of the Confederation of the European Bicycle Industry (CONEBI) has predicted that the European ebike market will triple in the next five years. Last year 2.5 million ebikes were sold in Europe. Mr Marsilio is predicting annual sales of 7.5 million units by 2025. Latest sales figures show that 920,000 ebikes…
How Much do You Know About Mass Merchants?
Depending upon who you talk to, Mass merchants account for anywhere between about 60% and 75% of Australia’s bicycle sales, as measured by volume. Due to their much lower average price than independent bicycle dealers (IBD’s), their share of sales as measured by dollars would be significantly smaller. But in a market where a competitor…
UCI Announces World Championships for Indoor Cycling
The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) recently announced that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Zwift, the global online training and racing platform for athletes, for the governance and development of cycling esports as a new cycling discipline. The inaugural UCI Cycling Esports World Championships in 2020, as well as qualification events for…
Are You Fully Selling Road Disc Benefits?
Disc brakes for road bikes have finally reached a tipping point in terms of market acceptance. The most surprising thing is not so much that this has actually happened, but by how many years road bikes have lagged behind mountain bikes. Some of these delays have been caused by the very slow and cautious approach…
Giant’s Ebike Manufacturing Growing at 56% Year on Year
New Technology Will Mean Greater Range, Smaller Batteries for Ebikes
Bosch is investing approximately one billion Euros (A$1.63 billion) in new silicon carbide semiconductor technology that is due to enter production in the first half of 2020. In simple terms, the new semiconductors allow power to flow more efficiently from the ebike battery to the motor. Bosch says that semiconductors made of silicon carbide set…
Six Tips to Make Your Customers Want to Spend More Time in Your Store
You may not have heard of the term ‘Third Place’. The First Place is your home, the Second Place is your regular work place, be that an office, factory, delivery vehicle or whatever. Third Place is a relatively new buzzword that refers to places that people like to spend time in. The longer people spend…
Bike Shops Have a Bright Future in Our Internet Age!
I have no doubt that the future is bright for independent bicycle dealers (IBD’s) throughout Australia and New Zealand. But it’s not bright for all IBD’s… just well managed ones. Why? For many reasons. But let me start by comparing two industries that have several things in common. For well over a century both of…