Why Amazon will (and should) put Performance Bike out of business

[Climb01742]

Amazon Prime has perfected frictionless buying of almost anything. Including more and more cycling bits. Particularly saddles.

Like an idiot, I ordered a saddle from Performance Bike. They shipped me the wrong saddle. There is no online way to initiate the return. I have to print a return form and fill it out by hand. I must pay, upfront, for return shipping on a mistake they made. And I gotta wait until heaven knows when to have my CC credited for the return.

Compare that to an Amazon Prime return. Go online. Request a return. Hit print. Stick prepaid label on box. Drop off at UPS. The moment Amazon sees the package has been dropped off and scanned, they credit your card. Whole thing takes maybe an hour, on a slow day.

It's not just Performance, though they are strikingly antiquated. So many cycling online retailers are needlessly painful to use and behind the times. It's hard to believe they don't realize that Amazon is setting both the rules and expectations today. One click gets me a product in two days, with free, no questions returns, and a CC credited back in minutes.

Amazon will, and should, consign online retailers like Performance and others to the dustbin. Either step up (like Competitive Cycling did/has) or step aside.