Why don't QBP and JB sell direct? Is there a minimum order size for dealers?

Campy is interesting in that there are very few bikes that are sold OEM with their products... Shimano and Sram and campy sells just about all their products in the after market. And they have nothing in the MTB market...and the biggest sector now is gravel...do they have much for that?

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I can only imagine they are not setup to deal with the "end user" customer service issues (i.e. I do not believe they even accept returns from an LBS unless the product is damaged or broken). Often I wish I could just order direct from QBP rather than have to research the part myself, find the QBP part number, call the LBS and ask them to order it for me, and then go pick it up when it arrives; seems to be a broken ordering model (for me at least). Where is the value-add from the LBS in this scenario?

Two local bike shops I have asked say that the usually try to meet the minimum for free shipping - a threshold that I do not think is very high - but order as often as needed from QBP which can be 1-2 a week.

This - plus the 'enthusiast' market, i.e., this forum, seems more interested in buying their older stuff, anyway.

Sure Campy has a cut of the enthusiast market, but how big is that? And with electronic shifting and disc brakes, how much of the enthusiast market does Campy have? I've 3 bikes on campy and my 3 most recent bikes are DA and 2 are Di2. I'm thinking next year I might build another...pretty sure I want electronic shifting. 11 speed etap will be on sale now that we are waiting for 12 speed etap, but R8000 is a great value...Campy EPS is suppose to be better, but where do you get it and what's it going to cost?

What data backs this up? Biggest globally? Not likely. Biggest in North America? Doubt that as well. Gravel as a proportion of bikes sales is not likely to be number one. Campy sells all over the world and its big markets are in Europe and Asia. Also, they have hydro options now across their range for road and gravel.

Nope, no gravel, minimal if any presence in cyclocross and they haven’t done MTB since the 90s and even then, it was at best a halfhearted, somewhat underfunded effort. They realize they can’t compete everywhere with their limited resources and the cycling press has expounded on that at length. For now, they appear mostly satisfied by supporting their road groupsets with little OEM exposure. They appear to also enjoy a lucrative business in their Fulcrum wheels. None of this bodes well for anything beyond a modest but sustainable market presence but since they are family owned even that may not last forever.

PSA: Italian parts maker with various European and Asian manufacturing capability. Storied history, produces uncorrelated but value-added wine accessories, makes ugly modern cranks.

Too bad Charles didn’t post a PSA when Silca was up for sale!

I think one distinction is which 'platform' was their most significant..storefront vs online sales..More than a few online places have a store front, cuz many manufacturers and distributors demand that(like Planet Cyclery) altho I think the storefront/online places that will survive are the ones 'owned' by distributors..Like PlanetCyclery and maybe Velomine. Along with the ones with 'token' store fronts(ExCel, for example..90% of their sales is via mailorder)...

It's common and laughable the number of times over that last couple of decades that that I hear 'Campagnolo is on the ropes!!' They sell everything they make. The 'last' time Campagnolo was really in trouble, was in the late 80s/early 90s, shortly after Valentino took over after Tullio's death(RIP Comandante)..and missed not only on MTB stuff but also not designing something that competed with STI(ERGO did, 1991/2)...

Not even close..Altho you see it a lot here, and there is a lot of hub-bub about GRoad bikes, it doesn't really even exist anyplace other than the US, which, by comparison to Asia and Europe, is still a teeny market.

No minimum order, and they really do, sell direct..At least QBP probably does. More than a few local store fronts and MO outfts are 'probably' owned by QBP..probably others.

J and B is the king of low end, Wald, type stuff...I deal with J&B and they are doing just fine these days. Lots of stuff they sell, other distributors, don't. Like these.

Campy doesn’t need to be Shimano or SRAM. Just like Apple doesn’t need to be Samsung or Google.

As an aside, the Performance liquidation sale may actually be worth going to now. I stopped by my local store yesterday since I was in the neighborhood, and made a number of decent scores on odds/ends and consumables - for example, Supacaz tape for $18.

Everything 50-70% off, a lot of Nashbar labeled merchandise on the floor too. Employees I talked to expected to be locking the doors for the last time in 2-3 weeks.