BIKE BIZ
REVOLUTION
3. SEPTEMBER 2019
CONFERENCE FOR VISIONARIES The greatest myths
BIKE AS A SERVICE
Swapfiets‘ success story is based on reassessing customer needs and creating efficient digital infrastructure. Bikes are an emotional subject. New customers who discover Swapfiets come here either because they heard about it on social media or because a friend told them about it. Meanwhile, Google search only plays a role for two percent of new customers.
Doing e-commerce the right way
Thomas Schwerdtner has looked into the question of how durable common clichés are, which are often treated as common property in e-commerce and marketing consulting. His conclusion: 1. Be Present at Amazon The growth of Amazon happens on the marketspace and this were retailers are. Therefore you are helping your enemy. The visual presence is limited to product and price. Is this how you want to present yourself? Ortlieb demonstrates, that there is another way. Whoever sells on Amazon makes the competitor even stronger
That‘s not surprising as the idea of a bicycle subscription is new, and that‘s not what customers are looking for. Expensive awareness campaigns on TV or posters would destroy their business model. The example of Swapfiets shows how well craftsmanship and digitalisation go hand in hand, even or especially with an emotional topic. Swapfiets‘ service promise is to replace a damaged bike within 12 hours. The Dutch company offer this via their central app. Subscribers can conveniently report their service case here and describe the fault. They will find their nearest service partner just a tab away. For Swapfiets, digitally transmitting service tickets makes the organizational process efficient. In some cases, orders are forwarded to workshops that are not operating at full capacity. However, what’s even more important: Swapfiets collects data. Data about the bikes, e.g. which parts break more frequently than others do. This enables the right parts to be kept in stock and provides useful information when negotiating with the manufacturers. Swapfiets also collects data from subscribers. This way they know how cyclists are moving around the city, who they are and where it is worth setting up new workshops. In the long term, this data can even be marketed to third parties. Anonymously and strictly according to GDPR, of course. Swapfiets is a good example of how digitalization changes market conditions, because once a process has been established, then it can be scaled up. Bicycle subscription is now available in 45 cities, 17 of them in Germany.
2. Direct Sales The customer must be able to shop were he or she wants. Digitalization enables new points of sales and they must be used. To stick to old structures just out of tradtion is wrong. Sales and distribution only makes sense where it generates value for customers and manufacturers.
3. Be Disruptive Retailers must rediscover their very own strenghts again: the pre-selection of products, induvidual advice, local service and haptic presentation. Customer centricity it is called in the digital industry - the latest craze.
Connected Bikes
Connecting bikes and riders digitally to platforms and brands opens up completely new business models/areas and gives manufacturers the chance to keep in touch with their customers regularly. What distinguishes Tesla from VW? Tesla took a smartphone and screwed four wheels underneath it. The bicycle and especially the e-bike are developing in a similar way. It all began with digital bike gadgets such as speedometers or GPS satnav systems. Then the GPS anti-theft device and the smart bicycle lock came along. Now the industry has noticed that a major upheaval is on the horizon, allowing numerous new business and service models.
applications, which the manufacturer can come up with himself. In addition, the movement data from bikes naturally could play a very important role in optimising the range of products offered by manufacturers and dealers. Kressimir Hlede from Greyp Bikes shows what this looks like in practice. His company, which wants to be understood as an IT company, connects sports bikes virtually via an online platform so that users can race against each other online.
„For a mechanical engineer like me, it‘s Christian Anuth from Hahard to admit that veltec, the manufacturer of service is more im- This is how Comodule sees the future of Bike Biz I LOCK IT, reminds us of the portant than the product,“ says Kristjan Maruste from Comodule. As bad experiences that not many brands have had an accessory supplier, his company offers to digiti- with their own apps. „I don‘t think customers will ze finished bikes. The Gazelle icon, for example, is want to start an app before they start using their available in the connected C8 HMB Connect model. bikes,“ smiles Anuth. He’s urging for standardizaIn addition to anti-theft protection and the like, this tion. also includes open interfaces for various networked
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