BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Bike industry web guru Simon Watts is seeking more supplier data to add to the "iC" add-on he created for his i-Bikeshop e-commerce platform. This add-on was launched at the start of the year and can populate dealer websites with product information from Chicken Cyclekit, CSG, Endura, Extra, Ison, Madison, Silverfish and Windwave.
"So far it is working extremely well, dealers being able to add product to their site in just a few clicks, prices updating themselves, stock being reflected and products archiving themselves once delisted by participating suppliers," said Watts.
iC populates dealer websites with supplier product data, barcode information, product images, and supplier stock levels.
The system also highlights product additions for dealers they can see what’s new without trawling through catalogues.
"iC essentially makes it very fast and very easy for a retailer to populate a site," said Watts.
"Instead of sitting for hours adding product manually or slaving over data files themselves, iC means that entire brands can be added in a few minutes and only products that are in stock will be sold, and products will self-cleanse from a site once discontinued."
Watts stresses that he has vetted "every product" made available for dealers.
"I review to rule out as many data anomalies as possible. I hide things like POS materials and workshop packs and I look for anomalies in pricing and descriptions, for example where items are sold to the dealer in boxes of 12 but a retail price for one has been provided but the description still refers to ‘box of 12’ and similar."
Watts wants more suppliers to join in. "Supplier capable of delivering a daily data feed are welcome to have their data included," he said. "I’m allowing all of my clients to trial iC for free, though it will eventually become a subscription add-on."
