First quarter 2024 bicycle industry data, trends, and results with Ryan Atkinson

Around the Workstand

Ryan joins Suzie and Mark for our monthly industry update. This time around, it's also a quarterly update and we look at results and trends thus far in 2024. Ryan tells us about the Bicycle Leadership Conference (BLC) he recently attended and where his travels will take him in the coming months on behalf of all at Workstand.
BLC
300 bicycle industry leaders in attendance
Pragmatic about inventory and optimistic outlook
Inventory situation, talking heads too critical of bike suppliers
Strong consumer sales paired with dealer Just In Time (JIT) orders means wholesale velocity is picking up
Electric bike maturing, growth in transportation
Data presentation
Outstanding service award - Ryan accepts an award on behalf of Workstand! Yay us.
Q1
Ecommerce growth +10% across our platform, February strongest at approximately 22% YoY
Order volume off, with Average Order Volume up double digits
Bike discounts driving sales, especially from Specialized (big traffic increase)
Overall traffic is up every month in Q1
Top performers still driving, typical dealer -3% for the quarter
Google Search Index
General consumer interest in bikes steady with last year
Specifically “bike shop” is a bit softer YTD
That has been the general trend, but learn more as the season develops when “bike shop” volume increases
All search volume has been spiking dramatically on March weekend
It's important to win search, must have products online as consumers shift away from channel-specific search
Electric bike search volume outperforming general terms
More travel for Ryan and team
Our team at Sea Otter meeting with suppliers - look for Matt Lolli and Chris Gardner from our Supplier Team
Speaking at NBDA retailer summit in May
Collision Technology Summit in June
Questions this week:
Q: When will the Workstand POS be able to replace Lightspeed?
That’s not our goal but ...
For many retailers it can today, even if some of the features are lean we are enhancing them rapidly
Perfect fit for our initial target market, merchants with a more outdated POS
Q: Do I have to pay for Google Ads to show up in local search results?
No. Your product pages and location pages in particular are optimized for organic and if you maintain your website properly then the content you create should perform well.

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Find Us on LinkedIn
Ryan Atkinson, President + Co-Owner
Suzie Livingston, Marketing + Communications
Mark Still, Business Development
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If you have any questions about the topics discussed in this episode of Around the Workstand or if you have ideas for new topics we can cover, schedule a time to meet with Mark Still here or email mark.s@works...