Many people’s first assumption is that I’m referring to the trust between dealers & suppliers… and they’re not wrong. However, there is a lot more to it than that, and I think we’re way overdue in discussing how this trust needs to look today. Suppliers are not at fault, but they tend to be easy targets whenever something changes. Retailers aren’t at fault either, given what they have to work with. Should we blame the consumer??? Why yes… yes we should!
The image I used for this piece is what I think the Bicycle Industry should look… no, operate like. Rather than focus on our individual needs & challenges, we have to first consider how our consumers’ abilities & fears affect achieving their own desires. The parents in the picture represent both the hands-on & supportive roles retailers & suppliers need to consider, before shoving the laman consumer (the kid) down the hill. Over the last several years, I have observed something along the lines of two parents fighting over how something needs to be done, all while the kid walks away to play Fortnite or learn how to cook meth.
So, who’s to blame?
Yeah, I am going to say with confidence that our channels have lost a lot of trust with each other because of those consumers just do what they want. Should we let them mess with what used to be a predictable relationship that was capable of controlling everything having to do with getting bikes under butts? Does their criticisms, desires, and click-induced buying addictions do anything but make mom & dad fight? Should we consider removing the cause of our inner-industry disruptions so those warm, fluffy, predictable trusts & traditions will return? I suppose if we do that, we’ll no longer have to constantly focus on change because there won’t be anything left to work towards.
I have said this before, but too much of the Bicycle Industry has become dependent on others outside of their control… and traditions. When things change, it not only hurts businesses that are a little too dependent, it hurts everyone because when that dependency is widespread, it nurtures chaos within the entire industry’s ecosystem. Even the best-run businesses are only as stable as the industry they operate within, which is why we need to regain a level of trust that is sustainable in today’s marketplace.
How do we rebuild trust?
Before I make myself sound more full of shit, let’s try to steer this in a more productive direction because that’s really what we’re here to do. So I feel right in blaming the consumers (despite preaching that we should never blame consumers), but I am blaming them for changing things… not the state of the Bicycle Industry. I mentioned returning ‘trust & traditions’ in my poor attempt at ironic satire above as something that would make us ‘happily fail’. I feel one of the keys to adjusting our mindsets hovers around how those two things fall. Before, it was traditional for retailers & suppliers to trust each other to do what was best for the consumer because it was easy when the consumer was practically 100% dependent on us. Today (and for some time), I think the Bicycle Industry’s retail & supply channels need to pull back on that level of trust (dependency) and instead independently reestablish it with consumers. I have written about this multiple times, (including here in the article Do consumers still value bike shops? as well as in BRAIN, The Bicycle Industry Doesn’t Really Exist over 6 years ago) but in short, the perceived value consumers used to have wasn’t organic. Before the marketplace went digital, consumers valued us because they had to.
I have had some heated conversations over the years revolving around blaming suppliers for failing retailers with things having to do with selling online, MAP, online marketplaces, D2C, stock levels… and I piss them off more by asking them if they think the consumer cares about how a product ends up in their possession. Then I spray more GT-85 on the fire with follow-up questions like: ‘Should suppliers stop making things more easily & quickly available to consumers and instead focus on a middleperson?’… ‘Should consumers stop using available conveniences and instead spend more of their personal time shopping local?… ‘Should businesses outside of the traditional Bicycle Industry not be allowed to capitalize on things the Bicycle Industry wants to sell?’… ‘Should we expect consumers to change for us?’.
I don’t ask these questions to be an asshole. These come from the considerations of our consumers’ positions. Many of us don’t want to ask, much less address, these questions because some of the answers require changes that may seem unfamiliar or out of reach. Instead, we operate in our professional silos, and when things don’t go as planned, we criticize each other… & way too often, consumers. It is what it is, and we have to lose the mindset that it’s someone else’s responsibility for our business to succeed and that we’ll somehow succeed without collaborative communication between the various channels.
What do we do now?
Go ahead, tell me off, tell everyone I hate the Bicycle Industry, and hope that my sealant dries up. I am not one to stick my head in the sand when I see a mistake… much less 25 years of repeated ones. While this will be way easier said than done and won’t happen overnight, the first step is to stop repeating mistakes by being more honest with ourselves so we can reassess our positions from the customer’s perspective. I am not saying to tear up your dealer agreements or apply war paint when a sales rep walks in. The Retailer/Supplier relationship needs to remain strong, but each channel needs to put their blinders on for a while and focus on nothing but the consumer. Work from the consumer up, communicate openly with each other, and make adjustments & compromises that both retailers & suppliers deem fair & manageable.
I can already hear the practically unison “WE ALREADY DO THAT” echoing across the land. Before you jump on that flimsy statement carrying you towards future success, can you say this without blaming someone else for things not working out? How about this… who developed most of the programs & systems for retailers to sell online? Did retailers develop these independently or are they mostly supplier-driven? I am not saying either way is wrong or right as on one hand, suppliers making selling online accessible to more retailers is a huge benefit! On the other hand, it makes you that much more dependent on another business. When things work it’s great, and when things don’t it sucks, but the key here has everything to do with being able to rebound when something doesn’t work.
Humans have a bad habit of believing ourselves in an effort to avoid blame. That’s not to say someone else may have dropped the ball and not come through on a promise, but when that happens, it should not affect a business as much as I have seen it hurt both our retail & supply channels. Problems caused by others should be outliers that can be overcome… not giant things that impact the entire stability of one’s business.
I’ve heard all kinds of recommendations for retailers like reducing SKUs, following the path of auto & powersports dealers in offering various ‘packages with bike sales’, to closing locations that are harder to maintain with regards to profits & managing efforts. What I am not hearing is very much outside-the-box thinking. For nearly 30 years, we’ve continuously modified what we’re already doing unless suppliers forced our hands (D2C etc.). Many of these recommendations are easy to digest & carry out… as in, they don’t require learning something new, investing in something different, and trying to accomplish an unreachable goal by working within the same traditional channels.
Pardon my disapproving tone, but half-ass efforts are what got us where we are. In the past, things had been survivable, but only because of various events taking place (the 1999-2006 ‘Lance effect’ boom, eBikes, an unorganized D2C band-aid, the Pandammit boom). Now, reality is kicking in without any miracles in sight… all while wealthy, not-at-risk politicians are playing a toxic game of chess with our economic well-being. Asking for better margins without raising prices while maintaining the same quality isn’t something a business should build a plan on. If it happens, great, but asking for these things and letting the state of your business be affected by a not-so-likely outcome is like crossing your fingers and closing your eyes before crossing the road. I’m seeing non-Bicycle Industry people start businesses around micro-mobility, especially surrounding eMotorsports that range from one-wheels & skateboards to eBikes, eScooters, and other micromobility products a person can use without a license. I see this and other categories gaining momentum all while our industry behaves the same way they did when eBikes were being introduced. (I cover some of this as well in that same BRAIN article linked above… from over 6 years ago). Arms folded, noses high, and unprofitable opinions loud. BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!!!…
On the other hand…
Now to somewhat contradict myself. There is a lot to be said for what our traditional Bicycle Industry has done and on some levels, could still do. While this sounds simple & too good to be true, for anything to be effective, everyone has to be somewhat on the same page. This comes back to why I created Industry Grease. Look at it this way… 1,000s of ideas going out to 1,000s of businesses at 1,000s of different times isn’t going to go anywhere much less result in something effective. There needs to be a widespread level of organized communications designed to nurture realistic outcomes with compromises most can live with, and done so within a reasonable window of time. We still need to break the tradition of retailers & suppliers establishing business practices around depending heavily on each other, and instead focus on maximizing our positions, products, & services on consumers. If the consumer is each side’s primary focus from the start, the compromised solutions have an astoundingly higher chance of succeeding! If retailers start looking for ways to become more independent, changes in the supply channels may not affect them as much. If suppliers do the same, while a retailer’s gut reaction might make them feel cheated when their supplier leaves them out of the initial process, if we were to stand back with an unbiased view, it might be hard to argue over what made the consumer the happiest. If we increase ridership, we will all benefit. Trying to control consumers by limiting their buying options and access to products & services because of our greedy ‘wants’… well, it’s not the consumer’s job to care about that. The consumer’s only job is to decide the best way to spend their hard-earned money.
Share your experience!
So when you’re done shaming me all over social media… What have you done or thinking about doing to safeguard your business from being too dependent? Has diversifying your business helped, and what were the expected & unexpected outcomes? Did you simplify your business by reducing inventory & increasing service, and what direction are you going in next? When you’ve made changes to become less dependent, are you happier, or do you dread the future even more? If you’re succeeding by remaining mostly traditional, what’s that look like?
In the end, I truly believe the Bicycle Industry has what it takes to be successful, but it looks a lot different than what most of us are familiar with. Change and the unknown are just about every industry’s biggest hurdles without a ‘Crystal Ball’ pointing them in the right direction… so don’t feel like all is lost. Instead, let’s communicate & share our successes & challenges so we can work together on ways to reduce our businesses’ dependencies and increase & sustain their economic health!