BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
bikeZaar is set to ‘reinvent’ the online experience for customers with its new online marketplace – which it says will become the ‘largest’ single source of cycling products in the UK.
The site features products from a network of marketplace sellers, affiliate networks and premium brand outlets. Utilising a unique technology platform, bikeZaar connects supply and demand ‘more precisely, speedily, and easily than ever before’.
bikeZaar offers brands and retailers solutions for joining the network with no hidden costs and no contracts. Options to add products manually, or using CSV, or API, plus fulfilment solutions and opportunities to buy pre-qualified sales leads, means there is a range of methods for sellers to get quick and easy sales on their terms.
CEO Kevin Griffiths launched the company in 2017 as a marketplace to support independent bike shops. The site offers retailers the chance to get their products seen by a wide audience and compete alongside specialist online businesses.
“bikeZaar helps brands and retailers respond to this rapidly changing environment using its unique technology capabilities and business model, to help to fulfil consumer demands and to deliver a next generation retail service,” said Griffths. “In effect, we make it easier for consumers to do what they would otherwise do by trawling search engines and ringing around dealers. Our aim is to connect, enable and facilitate.”
Alistair Brownlee MBE, bikeZaar director and investor, added: “bikeZaar helps us to combine two things that we believe strongly about and want to support: ensuring the ongoing sustainability of high street bike shops, which in turn helps to promote active lifestyles by making equipment and servicing accessible locally, encouraging more people to exercise, socialise or commute on reliable, comfortable, working bikes!”
The Bike Finder is a feature that ‘flips the sale on its head’, helping the customer unearth hidden stock without trawling the internet. The customer tells bikeZaar what they are looking for, brand/model (if known), or bike type, size, colour and budget, and the network gets the opportunity to quote the customer directly if they have the right product.
The clubZone is a free service provided to cycling clubs that offers a dedicated club microsite with e-commerce capabilities that makes it simple for members to place their orders and pay directly for their club kit as well as their club membership fee. bikeZaar can also provide clubs with a fulfilment service.
For clubs, charity teams or corporates looking for ‘off-the-shelf’ branded kit, bikeZaar’s semi-custom kit range offers a host of options without the hassle of a custom kit order. Customers can choose from a range of ‘template’ items, and add their logos with a few clicks.
Read the June issue of BikeBiz below:
