Trek Selling Online

[biker72]

Trek to begin selling bikes online in September.
http://mbaction.com/home-page/trek-to-begin-selling-bikes-online

[eddief]

sounds convoluted and not sure who it helps how. if prices will be msrp, why would you go online rather than a retail shop?

[SPOKE]

It was going to be o happen.....I just surprised Trek announced before a brand like Fuji or Raleigh......
Wonder how things get handled if the bike purchased on-line is the correct size??

[ceolwulf]

So you still pay the same and you still have to go to the dealer so what is the point of this exercise anyway?

[FlashUNC]

Buy the bike online, have it shipped to you, just so you can lug it to a Trek Store to have some speciously certified mechanic bolt it together.

And at the end of the day you're still riding a Trek.

Makes sense.

[ceolwulf]

It's not even shipped to you it's shipped to the dealer.

I guess if you wanted something the dealer didn't have in stock? But the dealer can order it just as well.

[54ny77]

interesting quote from that article.

"And in an announcement that drew applause from the dealers Trek is launching a service department education and certification program. Burke said service currently accounts for only 7 percent of revenue for most shops, but produces nearly a quarter of gross profits for those shops. So increasing the volume of service business is a clear path to increased profitability and survivability, Burke said.

的致e seen stores that sold a lot of products go out of business. I致e never seen a store that did a lot of service go out of business, he said."

[eippo1]

So how will this not be a headache for the dealers? I can see all the folks with:

-"yeah, i got it for my kid for his birthday; what do you mean it won't fit"
-"what's wrong with a tri bike for a first bike"
-"I got it because it was the least expensive, but I don't like it."
-"I didn't realize it would be so heavy"
-"my kid got me this bike, but I'm not a racer (holding a Trek 7.1)"

[bcroslin]

interesting quote from that article.

"And in an announcement that drew applause from the dealers Trek is launching a service department education and certification program. Burke said service currently accounts for only 7 percent of revenue for most shops, but produces nearly a quarter of gross profits for those shops. So increasing the volume of service business is a clear path to increased profitability and survivability, Burke said.

的致e seen stores that sold a lot of products go out of business. I致e never seen a store that did a lot of service go out of business, he said."

The LBS as a destination that provides service and good vibes is the future. Take your direct-to-consumer bike into the shop so it can be assembled and while you're there pick up a helmet, tubes and pump. Maybe grab a cup of coffee or coke. Rinse and repeat.

The LBS that depends on bike brands and bike sales is dead-in-the-water. Might not be tomorrow but in the next 3-5 years every big brand will go direct to consumer and then the show is over. This half-hearted thing Trek is doing is the shot across the bow.

[biker72]

How this works:
Trek sells a bike online to you.
Trek ships it to your LBS for assembly.
Trek retains a good chunk of the margin and pays the LBS to assemble it.

[jpang922]

How this works:
Trek sells a bike online to you.
Trek ships it to your LBS for assembly.
Trek retains a good chunk of the margin and pays the LBS to assemble it.

This.

[cmbicycles]

How this works:
Trek sells a bike online to you.
Trek ships it to your LBS for assembly.
Trek retains a good chunk of the margin and pays the LBS to assemble it.

So in the end bike shops get a small return on new bike sales... without any overhead. Not sure which is better, buying on credit/terms/financing and waiting to sell for 20-30% margin... or have bike sent to you, you get paid to assemble + a small gratuity from Trek.
So what is the benefit/ loss to the shop in the end? I guess it depends on the terms, I wonder who the terms favor ;)

Sent from my SCH-S738C using Tapatalk

[velomonkey]

"And in an announcement that drew applause from the dealers . . . "

As always, the movie Airplane has all the right answers . . . (sorry for the language, but come on)

[oldpotatoe]

How this works:
Trek sells a bike online to you.
Trek ships it to your LBS for assembly.
Trek retains a good chunk of the margin and pays the LBS to assemble it.

Interesting, Trek essentially doubles their margin, less a bit to build the bike. LBS has less inventory, better get better at service or adios. Wonder if it's just Trek concept stores or all Trek dealers(most of whom carry other brands). I can see a dealer dump Trek because of the above.

[rnhood]

So in the end bike shops get a small return on new bike sales... without any overhead. Not sure which is better, buying on credit/terms/financing and waiting to sell for 20-30% margin... or have bike sent to you, you get paid to assemble + a small gratuity from Trek.
So what is the benefit/ loss to the shop in the end? I guess it depends on the terms, I wonder who the terms favor ;)

Sent from my SCH-S738C using Tapatalk


I'm sure Trek has thought this through very comprehensively. Bikes continue to go up in price and dealers continue to trim inventories. Project One was a boon to dealers since they did not have to carry it in stock. Effectively the Project One idea will now cover all bikes. Dealers will be quick to pitch it as, "you get exactly what you want". And of course Trek will be training dealerships for sales and providing tools. My guess is most all Trek dealers are happy with this.

[biker72]

I'm sure Trek has thought this through very comprehensively. Bikes continue to go up in price and dealers continue to trim inventories. Project One was a boon to dealers since they did not have to carry it in stock. Effectively the Project One idea will now cover all bikes. Dealers will be quick to pitch it as, "you get exactly what you want". And of course Trek will be training dealerships for sales and providing tools. My guess is most all Trek dealers are happy with this.

Apparently not all dealers are happy. This announcement was made at the big Trek World dealer meeting in Wisconsin. I wasn't there but my boss was. A number of dealers walked out in disgust.

[velomonkey]

I'm sure Trek has thought this through very comprehensively. Bikes continue to go up in price and dealers continue to trim inventories. Project One was a boon to dealers since they did not have to carry it in stock. Effectively the Project One idea will now cover all bikes. Dealers will be quick to pitch it as, "you get exactly what you want". And of course Trek will be training dealerships for sales and providing tools. My guess is most all Trek dealers are happy with this.

Sorry, but this sounds like you got the talking points sent right to you. Trek has been all over the place on the Trek concept store - total "poop or get off the pot." They're not sure what they are doing there - the culmination seems to be this. Custom paint is a far, far cry from some half-butt direct to consumer play - basically they are using the dealers for show rooming and assembly and (I guess) warranty facilitation. That doesn't work - for anyone. Consumers aren't happy and dealers aren't happy and Trek thinks they can keep both at arm's length. I will bet you dollars to donuts you see this change big time - they walk it back or they do direct and keep some high-volume shops.

Either go full direct to consumer - like Apple and Tesla or use dealers (apple did keep large independent shops and then also does business with high volume retail stores like Best Buy). Don't half-butt it.

[54ny77]

i've asked this before around here, but will ask again.

who exactly BUYS trek bikes? they seem to sell a gazillion of 'em.

very rarely do i see a trek bike, anywhere, at any price point, in two of the bigger cycling points in the u.s. (northeast and so cal).

(caveat: i don't go mtb'ing, so maybe that's where they are en masse?)

[fa63]

I would guess one out of every three bikes in my group rides are Trek. I think it helps that our area (metro Atlanta) has an abundance of Trek dealers.

[velotrack]

How about the consumer that wants sizing advice, wants to test ride the bike, to see and feel the bike? I'm still for the standard, traditional bike shop model. I don't think online is the best for many bike shops who do carry inventory, as the profit ends up being pushed to trek and the shops simply assemble a bike from a box.

[tiretrax]

Apparently not all dealers are happy. This announcement was made at the big Trek World dealer meeting in Wisconsin. I wasn't there but my boss was. A number of dealers walked out in disgust.

I'm not surprised that a lot of dealers walked out. They've been bullied by Trek for many years, and now, they will compete directly. To make this work for their dealers, Trek needs to share profits and pay the LBS to assemble, service the bike.

[velomonkey]

Just did a TNW shop ride and the shop is a Trek and Specialized shop - it's owned by 3 guys, one was leading the ride on his Trek - one of the other owners was in Wisconsin.

I asked: he flatly said he was not happy, at all. He was very direct.

[charliedid]

The number of dealers will shrink. Both, because either they dropped TREK or TREK dropped them.

Concept (Company affiliated stores) shops and "key retailers" will be left.

I'll bet a dozen inner tubes, that TREK is sold within two years.

[Hank Scorpio]

What happens at the end of the season when trek direct blows out inventory at a price the stocking lbs can't match and keep his/her lights on.

[makoti]

i've asked this before around here, but will ask again.

who exactly BUYS trek bikes? they seem to sell a gazillion of 'em.

very rarely do i see a trek bike, anywhere, at any price point, in two of the bigger cycling points in the u.s. (northeast and so cal).

(caveat: i don't go mtb'ing, so maybe that's where they are en masse?)

There's a buttload around DC. Road, which is all I do. Almost every shop carries them.

[David Kirk]

Retailers don't make big money selling bikes - they make money selling the other stuff like shoes, saddle bags, pumps, tires.......etc. I can recall way back when I was in retail spending a huge amount of time selling a medium priced bike to a guy and then he grabbed some shoes, a helmet and some shorts and I wrung the whole thing up. The thing that would surprise many is that I made more money on the shoes, helmet and shorts than I did on the bike and the amount of room needed to stock them, and the amount of cash tied up in inventory was much lower....a win-win deal.

No doubt one of the reasons the dealers will be upset is that there will be even fewer reasons for a potential customer to come into a shop if they can buy the bikes online and this means that the potential of selling shoes and helmets and shorts goes down and in a big way.

This will hurt the dealers any way you cut it. It may, or may not, be a good idea in the long run for Trek. No doubt Trek would like to not have you look at a Madone and then turn 180ｰ and look at a Tarmac and possibly lose the sale so they want everyone to have their own virtual Trek Concept shop where there is nothing but Treks to choose from. Schwinn did this in the 70's and 80's with Schwinn concept shops that all looked the same and sold only the company stuff.....from tubes to cruiser grips it was 100% Schwinn. In the end it of course failed as people wanted to compare and contrast brands so they went down the street and looked at a bunch of brands under one roof.

It's hard to say how analogous this is now with the web but I suspect it can do nothing but cut the number of Treks sold.........it might be more profitable for Trek as they will now be selling at retail and not wholesale but there will be countless folks that walk into the building where the Trek dealer used to be looking for a Trek but they will walk out with a Cannondale or Specialized instead.

dave

[dustyrider]

Does this mean that Amazon can now use their drones to deliver a brand new bike to my door?

[peanutgallery]

Every few years Trek or special ed pulls a gambit on their dealer network, this is just the latest incarnation. Anyone remember Jazz bikes?

If they can't floor plan you they'll showroom you. What's the dealer going to get for assembly, $50? Not worth their time

What if you're a shop that's worked hard and carry a diverse selection of bikes, parts and accessories that provides the best value for your customer and the best return for your shop? Example scenario: one year Trek might produce a dog of a FS 29er at $2500 that is completely noncompetitive with another line you carry. Environmental, size, technological/design disadvantage, SRAM parts or so on. Trek has warehouses of said dogs that they aggressively market and they start coming in your door. Suddenly, you're on the hook to maintain a bike and a customer. This is a bike you would have never bothered to sell and you have a customer that would be so much happier on another line that you might carry. Said customer gets tired of his purchase and your ability to make him feel special and he moves on. If he came in the shop you could have steered him to what was more appropriate, made him/her happy as a clam and basically developed a great customer for life. Is trek going to know that someone who is 5 foot 1 does not need a 19.5 inch frame?

In my dream world, I would call the rep and tell them that his stuff is outside. Looks like rain.

[charliedid]

Retailers don't make big money selling bikes - they make money selling the other stuff like shoes, saddle bags, pumps, tires.......etc. I can recall way back when I was in retail spending a huge amount of time selling a medium priced bike to a guy and then he grabbed some shoes, a helmet and some shorts and I wrung the whole thing up. The thing that would surprise many is that I made more money on the shoes, helmet and shorts than I did on the bike and the amount of room needed to stock them, and the amount of cash tied up in inventory was much lower....a win-win deal.

No doubt one of the reasons the dealers will be upset is that there will be even fewer reasons for a potential customer to come into a shop if they can buy the bikes online and this means that the potential of selling shoes and helmets and shorts goes down and in a big way.

This will hurt the dealers any way you cut it. It may, or may not, be a good idea in the long run for Trek. No doubt Trek would like to not have you look at a Madone and then turn 180ｰ and look at a Tarmac and possibly lose the sale so they want everyone to have their own virtual Trek Concept shop where there is nothing but Treks to choose from. Schwinn did this in the 70's and 80's with Schwinn concept shops that all looked the same and sold only the company stuff.....from tubes to cruiser grips it was 100% Schwinn. In the end it of course failed as people wanted to compare and contrast brands so they went down the street and looked at a bunch of brands under one roof.

It's hard to say how analogous this is now with the web but I suspect it can do nothing but cut the number of Treks sold.........it might be more profitable for Trek as they will now be selling at retail and not wholesale but there will be countless folks that walk into the building where the Trek dealer used to be looking for a Trek but they will walk out with a Cannondale or Specialized instead.

dave



Cannondale and Specialized will follow suit and sell direct.

[velomonkey]

I worked in a shop in DC over 20 years ago. We didn't make much margin on bikes back then and it's only gotten worse. There is a big however . . . .

You buy a bike and you buy the dealer, too.

Even 20 years ago shops had the same issue they had today: Scheduling wrench work. Peaks and valleys (that's what we call it in biz school). We scheduled out a few days or a week in the spring - we could turn around a bike in the same day or the next day in the winter.

Those 10 or 12 weeks that it was busy we always had people who wanted their bike worked on right away. They weren't always racers - sometimes they were people with $300 bikes that wanted $120 worth of service. The big factor for customer satisfaction - turn around time.

If you purchased the bike from us . . . we moved you up the waitlist . . . if you didn't purchase the bike from us you got put on the waitlist with whatever our lead time happened to be at that time.

Some dealers will throw Trek under the bus in a nano-second. I'll bet dollars to tubes Trek is sold - for certain. However, that's gonna make the Cannondale fiasco look like nothing. Remember, before Dale was sold you could get a CAAD 3 (I think that's what it was) made to order, custom, for well under $800. A made in American frame, built to spec, for that price . . . . . now we get Made in Asia frames where they don't even sand the welds (but the fork is tapered). #progress

[charliedid]

Every few years Trek or special ed pulls a gambit on their dealer network, this is just the latest incarnation. Anyone remember Jazz bikes?

If they can't floor plan you they'll showroom you. What's the dealer going to get for assembly, $50? Not worth their time

What if you're a shop that's worked hard and carry a diverse selection of bikes, parts and accessories that provides the best value for your customer and the best return for your shop? Example scenario: one year Trek might produce a dog of a FS 29er at $2500 that is completely noncompetitive with another line you carry. Environmental, size, technological/design disadvantage, SRAM parts or so on. Trek has warehouses of said dogs that they aggressively market and they start coming in your door. Suddenly, you're on the hook to maintain a bike and a customer. This is a bike you would have never bothered to sell and you have a customer that would be so much happier on another line that you might carry. Said customer gets tired of his purchase and your ability to make him feel special and he moves on. If he came in the shop you could have steered him to what was more appropriate, made him/her happy as a clam and basically developed a great customer for life. Is trek going to know that someone who is 5 foot 1 does not need a 19.5 inch frame?

In my dream world, I would call the rep and tell them that his stuff is outside. Looks like rain.

Yep.

You get to assemble them, sell a confusing and silly service package, maybe some Trek Travel. The "dealers" left standing will be a TREK showroom with core bikes. They will likely have a dozen locations or more and be about as interesting, informative and useful as a Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Bikes

[ceolwulf]

I'll bet a dozen inner tubes, that TREK is sold within two years.


To Canyon?

[buddybikes]

For 1 project bike, probably 25 low end hybrids, city bikes, etc. I bet that rather than ship individual boxes of these low end, costing more, the dealers do have them in stock build and give to customer making their smaller margin.

However comes down to pricing. Retail price on Specialized and Trek are at least 5% over what shops list prices are.

Sizing, as prevously mentioned the other big thing, half the time spend in bike sales is fit, short trial ride. Wrong size and shop is stuck doing doing a sales effort (sizing) and only making portion of the margin.

Could be a great way to do a blow out sale end of season.

[charliedid]

To Canyon?

Or Amazon

[oldpotatoe]

i've asked this before around here, but will ask again.

who exactly BUYS trek bikes? they seem to sell a gazillion of 'em.

very rarely do i see a trek bike, anywhere, at any price point, in two of the bigger cycling points in the u.s. (northeast and so cal).

(caveat: i don't go mtb'ing, so maybe that's where they are en masse?)

They sell a butt load of lower end bikes. MTBs, hybrids, road bikes, kids bikes. VERY small percentage(same for Giant and Spec-Ed) are mid-high end race type bikes. Same for say shimano. A ton of Tiagra and below type stuff, the pyramid of components is very pointy/steep. Same for bicycles.

[djg21]

Retailers don't make big money selling bikes - they make money selling the other stuff like shoes, saddle bags, pumps, tires.......etc. I can recall way back when I was in retail spending a huge amount of time selling a medium priced bike to a guy and then he grabbed some shoes, a helmet and some shorts and I wrung the whole thing up. The thing that would surprise many is that I made more money on the shoes, helmet and shorts than I did on the bike and the amount of room needed to stock them, and the amount of cash tied up in inventory was much lower....a win-win deal.

No doubt one of the reasons the dealers will be upset is that there will be even fewer reasons for a potential customer to come into a shop if they can buy the bikes online and this means that the potential of selling shoes and helmets and shorts goes down and in a big way.

This will hurt the dealers any way you cut it. It may, or may not, be a good idea in the long run for Trek. No doubt Trek would like to not have you look at a Madone and then turn 180ｰ and look at a Tarmac and possibly lose the sale so they want everyone to have their own virtual Trek Concept shop where there is nothing but Treks to choose from. Schwinn did this in the 70's and 80's with Schwinn concept shops that all looked the same and sold only the company stuff.....from tubes to cruiser grips it was 100% Schwinn. In the end it of course failed as people wanted to compare and contrast brands so they went down the street and looked at a bunch of brands under one roof.

It's hard to say how analogous this is now with the web but I suspect it can do nothing but cut the number of Treks sold.........it might be more profitable for Trek as they will now be selling at retail and not wholesale but there will be countless folks that walk into the building where the Trek dealer used to be looking for a Trek but they will walk out with a Cannondale or Specialized instead.

dave

There is a decent overview of the program at: http://www.singletracks.com/blog/mtb-news/opinion-treks-new-online-bike-sales-are-doomed-to-fail/

I'm not so sure the program will fail entirely. I don't imagine many shops will provide the home delivery service given the added expense and the loss of the opportunity to sell accessories to the bike purchaser. But if a shop can perform the initial fitting service (sizing), not tie up limited funds in an inventory of relatively high-end and expensive bikes (that may not sell until discounted at the end of the season), and let Trek assume the risk of returns and dissatisfied customers, it might not be an altogether horrible deal for retailers. I'm not sure how service would be factored in -- if a bike is purchased directly from Trek (and the retailer receives a fraction of what the markup would have been on a bike sold at full retail price), I can't imagine there could be any expectation of free post-purchase service/tune-ups, etc. So there may be an opportunity for the shop to build a relationship with the consumer and generate revenue after the initial sale.

I'm suspicious, but think the program could benefit some brick-and-mortar shops depending on the details of how it is implemented.

[ofcounsel]

i've asked this before around here, but will ask again.

who exactly BUYS trek bikes? they seem to sell a gazillion of 'em.

very rarely do i see a trek bike, anywhere, at any price point, in two of the bigger cycling points in the u.s. (northeast and so cal).

(caveat: i don't go mtb'ing, so maybe that's where they are en masse?)

I can't really opine on the road bikes, but the Trek MTBs are innovative, perform really well and are actually a good value. I've ridden a lot of MTBs, and Trek MTBs across the board, and in particular their Fuel and Remedy series are legitimately good stuff.

[joe.e]

my experience with trek's warranty program was a seriously mixed bag made bearable by a couple hardworking guys at my lbs. Take away the shop having a real, personal connection to the customer/bike, and its not a pretty picture.

[velomonkey]

I just don't see this working.

Low end bikes are what "bike store dork tells you to buy" - yes color and fit matter, but it's what the bike dork tells you.

Starter and mid-level road bikes are "what the shop leader guy rides" - if so-and-so is on a Trek, I want to ride like so-and-so I will get the same bike.

You see this gem on what the shop gets - "a commission紡bout '80 percent of their normal margin on these new sales.'"

This aint gonna work, Trek is not Apple. Doesn't anyone remember selling kickstands for cripes sake - those things are the lifeblood of a shop.

[peanutgallery]

With much of the dealer network I would bet that Trek could leverage a free build for this situation...if they want better terms on parts and accessories, or terms at all. Win/Win...for someone:)

For 1 project bike, probably 25 low end hybrids, city bikes, etc. I bet that rather than ship individual boxes of these low end, costing more, the dealers do have them in stock build and give to customer making their smaller margin.

However comes down to pricing. Retail price on Specialized and Trek are at least 5% over what shops list prices are.

Sizing, as prevously mentioned the other big thing, half the time spend in bike sales is fit, short trial ride. Wrong size and shop is stuck doing doing a sales effort (sizing) and only making portion of the margin.

Could be a great way to do a blow out sale end of season.

[peanutgallery]

Their atb's at the mid to higher end are nice and well thought out. Their aluminum FS are pretty good in fact. Would totally steer clear of the road carbon, I think they must specialize in warranty in that arena. Those things are fragile IMHO

They sell a butt load of lower end bikes. MTBs, hybrids, road bikes, kids bikes. VERY small percentage(same for Giant and Spec-Ed) are mid-high end race type bikes. Same for say shimano. A ton of Tiagra and below type stuff, the pyramid of components is very pointy/steep. Same for bicycles.

[rugbysecondrow]

I am not certain about the business side of this. I tend to think shops will adapt like they always do. It is inevitable that products move to the internet for sales, it has already happened to the other gear shops sell, so they will adapt again.

I think the piece which is missing is the visceral aspect of buying a bike. Buying a new bike, for kids and adults, can be an extremely exciting purchase. I am not certain why (dreams, freedom, childhood memories and emotions, future excursions) but there is something child like about going to a shop, browsing the products, trying them out, riding them around the lot, getting fitted, then being able to roll that bike out of the store with a big grin on your face. It is great fun. Buying a bike can be so much fun in person. All of that is gone as you move to the internet. The more sophisticated buyer might feel fine ordering online, never touching the bike, throwing a leg over the saddle etc, it is anti climactic though.

I think shops which carry the brands people can touch and feel will sell more of those products. As a larger fellow, most shops don't have road bikes in my size. They would always say, "we can order one for you?". I don't want that though, it isn't fun, there is no fantasy in that.

The custom frame process is similar. Think of all the dreams, fantasy, emotions, fun wrapped up in ordering a custom bespoke frame and going through that process.

Bikes are special.

[Bostic]

I just looked at the price of a new frame style Madone 9.2. For $6299.99 one can buy a bike and it comes with Ultegra, not Dura-Ace. Are you kidding me? I guess I'm from the train of thought that say after five grand the components better be the darn top top of the line and spit-shined before getting delivered to you.

[sfscott]

Looking for something non-generic or low end at the LBS? Want a small part or tool? Here's what your LBS will say: "We don't have it but can order it." They order from QBP, you have to come back several days later, pay sales tax and such.

Or, go online, get it in a day or two anyway and likely save a fair bit of money. I bet a lot of people here do this, especially if they do their own repairs.

Even the best high-end shop has to order stuff. That Dogma you want won't likely be in inventory.

So, shops that will survive will do so on service, and maybe, a better stock of accessories and gear at competitive prices made possible by less working capital tied up in mandatory buys the bike manufacturers require. The manufacturers will pay incentives, etc...just like the car sales.

The world has changed and will change

[Grant McLean]

I think the piece which is missing is the visceral aspect of buying a bike. Buying a new bike, for kids and adults, can be an extremely exciting purchase. I am not certain why (dreams, freedom, childhood memories and emotions, future excursions) but there is something child like about going to a shop, browsing the products, trying them out, riding them around the lot, getting fitted, then being able to roll that bike out of the store with a big grin on your face. It is great fun. Buying a bike can be so much fun in person. All of that is gone as you move to the internet.

Trek selling on-line isn't stopping people from going to a dealer that inventories bikes.
It's an additional channel of distribution. Almost every industry has a multi-
channel strategy in order to serve the market however their customers like to shop.

-g

[Gummee]

*We* sell a butt load of lower end bikes. MTBs, hybrids, road bikes, kids bikes. VERY small percentage(same for Giant and Spec-Ed) are mid-high end race type bikes. Same for say shimano. A ton of Tiagra and below type stuff, the pyramid of components is very pointy/steep. Same for bicycles.fixt

I'm of mixed emotions about this one. On one hand, the small (1300ft^2) shop I work in doesn't have room to stock every bike Trek sells. ...much less size runs of them! If I get the add-on stuff, labor, etc the shop will make more $ 'cause we don't have to pay shipping, etc.

On the other, its reducing the likelihood that people are going to see LBSes as relevant and that's not a good thing for the future of my paycheck.

PBS does/did something similar with the 'red phone' system. Ship what you want but they didn't have to the store. No shipping and you go back into the store to get the item. More trips into the store = more possibility to sell you something.

Time will tell if this is a smart move or not

M

[ultraman6970]

Since when a trek buyer gets the right size to start with? :p

:D

It was going to be o happen.....I just surprised Trek announced before a brand like Fuji or Raleigh......
Wonder how things get handled if the bike purchased on-line is the correct size??

[HenryA]

This is not going to change much. The good dealers will continue to do well and the weak will die off. It will last a few years then Trek will come up with another great idea and they'll run with that.

[Ozrider]

The advantage to this for the Trek dealer / LBS is this:
Bikes ship without pedals,cages, bottles, lights, spare tubes, tyre levers, saddle bags, etc, etc. - an ideal opportunity for the shop to sell you all of the above.
If the shop is any good they will check your fit on the bike and ensure you have the right length stem, bad width etc.
As far as Project One goes - it allows you to design your own paint colours (within limits)
If you already know your size and preference it allows you to spec stem length, bar shape/ type and width, group set, crank length and chainring size.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[oliver1850]

i've asked this before around here, but will ask again.

who exactly BUYS trek bikes? they seem to sell a gazillion of 'em.

very rarely do i see a trek bike, anywhere, at any price point, in two of the bigger cycling points in the u.s. (northeast and so cal).

(caveat: i don't go mtb'ing, so maybe that's where they are en masse?)

Last time I went to the local club TT, everyone present (except me) was on a Trek. I don't think the LBS that's associated with the club sells anything but Trek.

[cmbicycles]

Read another blurb about this, dealer makes 80% +/- of their regular dealer margin, based on their dealer agreement. Then they adjust that figure up or down (real meaning... always down) based on the normal operating costs that trek assumes from the dealer.

Sent from my SCH-S738C using Tapatalk

[josephr]

REI, bikesdirect.com, amazon, competitive cyclist, nashbar/performance, etc....a lot of online retailers are selling bikes. Don't see why Trek cannot/should not.

I don't think they're cutting the LBS out ---- if anything, they're looping the LBS back in as an online customer might not buy something other than a Trek just because they want to shop from their laptop.
Joe

[rugbysecondrow]

Trek selling on-line isn't stopping people from going to a dealer that inventories bikes.
It's an additional channel of distribution. Almost every industry has a multi-
channel strategy in order to serve the market however their customers like to shop.

-g

I think it will reduce the inventory of bikes dealers carry as well as the number of dealers who actually carry inventory, at least trek inventory.

I think it is more than an additional channel of distribution, it is the business model as a whole which is shifting.

[Keith A]

Just stopped by a local Trek dealer and they don't know what they are going to do...but jumping to another brand is certainly being considered.