BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
The internet bubbles about to burst and share prices of all the major e-commerce sites will have to come down to sensible levels but thats not to say the internet is about to collapse. Whilst bike dealers may not all be ready for e-commerce its going to happen. We dont mind if we just get one order a day [from our site], it will grow. Within two years this will be a major part of the way we do business.
The Fisher Outdoor site has a consumer-facing side and a B2B (business-to-business side. Individual bike shop customers get personalised passwords so orders on the B2B side can be tracked. The IBD can browse through the 4000 pages of product or can get in and out fast by tapping in an existing product code and hitting the quick order button.
By the end of April an EPoS ordering system will be in place on the site and by June the site will enable IBDs to see a transaction file so they can check up-to-date invoicing and payment details.
IBDs wishing to add the 4000-page product catalogue to their existing website will be able to incorporate a cloned version of the Fisher Outdoor site. This will be consumer facing and would display RRPs, not trade prices, and would be suitable for shops with web access on the sales floor.
This cloned site also has secure credit-card ordering so giving full e-commerce facilities to those shops who dont already offer such a service. The cloned site would be called something like www.fisheroutdoor.co.uk/billsbikes and would be visible from within an existing shop website or a simple cover page could be added by those IBDs without an existing internet presence.
BikeBiz has taken a whiz around the Fisher site today. It is up and working but is being extensively tested for bugs. Its already impressive and, as is the way with the internet, can be constantly re-modelled to make it better serve its target audience.
