馃攳
How Bike Shops Kept Up With America鈥檚 121% Spike In Demand - YouTube
Channel: Business Insider
[0]
[Music]
[2]
when the coronavirus shut down public
[3]
transportation and gyms
[5]
americans returned to a trusted classic
[8]
the bicycle
[10]
in march leisure bike sales increased by
[12]
121 percent in the us
[15]
by april bike shops across the country
[17]
were cleared out of inventory
[19]
at no point did we ever satisfy demand
[21]
and that demand is still holding strong
[24]
but bike companies are facing a problem
[26]
a shortage of bikes
[28]
this whole shelf right here all the way
[31]
back to that side of the warehouse is
[32]
usually stacked with bikes
[34]
and now there's nothing we visited two
[37]
bike shops
[38]
one in la and one in arizona to see how
[40]
they're keeping up with this
[41]
unprecedented surge in demand during
[44]
typical times
[45]
we have bikes in stock we could ship
[47]
them the bike that same day
[48]
that's mehdi the founder of state
[50]
bicycle in tempe
[52]
arizona usually he sells 30 to 40 bikes
[54]
a day
[55]
but now he's more than tripled his daily
[57]
orders to a hundred and fifty
[60]
metis bikes are made in taiwan and china
[62]
in
[63]
january and february right around the
[65]
lunar new year all bike suppliers really
[68]
were shut down
[69]
for at least four weeks then coven 19
[72]
shut down the factories for an
[73]
additional month through february
[75]
that happened just before demand for
[77]
bikes started to surge stateside in
[79]
mid-march
[80]
only a couple weeks later we were
[82]
completely sold out of bikes
[84]
even though bike shops were deemed
[86]
essential businesses medi still had
[88]
trouble
[88]
bringing new bikes in production times
[91]
are
[92]
getting longer and longer and that's
[95]
why we're seeing such a shortage of
[97]
bicycles still
[99]
over in los angeles adam mcdermott had a
[101]
similar story
[102]
his company linus bike was wiped clean
[105]
of its bikes
[106]
we immediately sold through all our
[107]
inventory and was just like waiting for
[108]
the next container and by the time that
[110]
next container arrived it was already
[111]
completely sold out
[112]
adam and his business partner chad
[114]
kushner started linus bikes back in
[116]
2007.
[117]
customers can buy their 50s
[119]
french-inspired city bikes
[120]
starting at 400 online our web traffic
[123]
increased by like 150
[125]
like every sector that we sell through
[128]
we're
[128]
seeing you know 100 increase in revenue
[132]
built in taiwan the bikes are sold all
[134]
around the world
[135]
but we stopped by the semi valley
[136]
warehouse in l.a
[138]
we're down to like kind of just the bare
[140]
minimums here
[142]
if we could just get more product that's
[144]
really what we're facing right now
[146]
from his venice beach shop not too far
[147]
away adam's team would normally sell
[149]
wheels to walking customers
[151]
meaning they could buy a bike and take
[153]
it home that day
[155]
but since the pandemic this isn't an
[157]
option
[158]
inventory supposed to last us the entire
[159]
year we were selling this in a matter of
[161]
months
[162]
so at like peak in july
[165]
we were back ordering for some models
[167]
all the way to february
[168]
which is insane for us linus went from
[171]
selling 1200 units a month
[172]
to about 4 000. now it's taking the
[175]
company nearly double the time to
[177]
produce a single bike
[179]
to keep up with demand both companies
[181]
had to get creative
[182]
we quickly went to a pre-order method
[185]
and
[186]
started ramping up our production
[188]
overseas
[189]
medi also put a cap on the number of
[191]
bikes each of his 300 dealers could sell
[194]
in order to prevent larger shops from
[197]
eating up all the
[198]
inventory and kind of taking away
[201]
availability from some other shops over
[204]
at linda spikes
[205]
when covert broke out new jersey where
[207]
our other warehouse is
[208]
the picture looked much worse there for
[210]
new jersey and new york so we diverted
[212]
all
[212]
inventory to the west coast just because
[215]
it seemed like this warehouse
[216]
will keep operating so we're doing all
[218]
our shipping from the west coast it's
[220]
it's much bigger expense but at least we
[221]
knew this this
[223]
warehouse would be functioning
[226]
adam's also working on a new kind of
[228]
inventory
[229]
we just introduced e-bikes they're just
[231]
landing now so they're not even
[232]
available we're just
[233]
we're still pre-selling them and those
[235]
range from about two thousand to three
[236]
thousand dollars
[237]
it's really massive kind of change it
[240]
became a business
[241]
of of managing inventory and trying to
[243]
allocate inventory
[244]
where we can get the bike to the
[246]
customer how we can like keep one
[249]
customer happy and not lose another
[251]
customer
[252]
if we had bikes in stock that we could
[255]
send to someone
[256]
same day i could only imagine sales
[258]
might be up
[259]
10x or more linus doesn't anticipate
[262]
getting many of its popular bikes back
[264]
until
[264]
2021 i think it's really key not to rest
[268]
on this crazy demand that is temporary i
[270]
know it's temporary in some form
[272]
i think if a business just kind of
[273]
expects it or assumes it
[275]
like you'll pay for it later my advice
[277]
for any other
[278]
small business owner out there try to be
[280]
as agile and flexible as you can in
[283]
order to adapt and survive
[284]
for both companies the biggest surges
[286]
happened in cities
[287]
where residents traded in crowded trains
[289]
for bikes it's portland
[292]
new york brooklyn chicago los angeles is
[295]
a big market
[296]
people just feel a lot more comfortable
[298]
commuting by bike versus
[300]
subway trains or buses now and the
[303]
demand for two wheels
[304]
isn't expected to let up we think demand
[307]
will hold into
[308]
2021 with so many more riders
[312]
experiencing their cities on bikes
[315]
the future of american cities might
[317]
actually transform as well
[319]
more and more people are going to look
[322]
to commute via bike which is obviously
[324]
awesome for the environment we love to
[326]
see that and who knows
[328]
maybe the next lance armstrong or the
[330]
next tour de france winner
[332]
has gotten on a bike during this
[334]
pandemic and
[335]
several years time we're going to kind
[336]
of see the next great american
[338]
road cyclist come out of this
Most Recent Videos:
You can go back to the homepage right here: Homepage