Op-Ed "Bike Brands: Save the Industry with Spare Parts!"
- Ben Tabor
- Aug 3, 2024
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 4, 2024
(Originally published in Bicycle Retailer and Industry News (BRAIN) July 2024)
Bike brands, component dealers and distributors: save the industry with your spare parts! Drop minimum order quantities (MOQs) & ease restrictive dealer agreements for replacement parts. Lead the bike industry with outstanding and efficient customer support. End small order restrictions and help dealers, shops and IBDs sustain your riders and grow the bike business!
Many hot cycling design trends are built with proprietary parts like integrated stems, headsets, freehub bodies, derailleur hangers etc... With each innovation, brands are building huge catalogs of “unobtainium” components. Not to mention the wild expanded universe of E-bike parts: displays, throttles, wire harnesses...These parts are infrequently ordered yet absolutely vital when needed.
Despite boardroom dreams of building Apple Store type omni-channels, everyone still functions within the ecosystem of brick-and-mortar shops and local service departments. It’s up to brands to fully commit to distributing aftermarket parts to support their customers- wherever they are.
So what happens when riders seeking service and parts can’t reach an authorized dealer? Or their local shop finds the parts but they’re locked behind restrictive purchasing and shipment rules? How about when bike brands hold spare parts orders hostage for payment on a future shipment of new bikes? Or a direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand flat-out refuses to sell parts to shops?
These scenarios frustrate customers eagerly & urgently awaiting repair jobs. Bad experiences become fodder for terrible reviews and banishes repeat customers. Social media and influencer anecdotes spread negative fallout before these problems can be fixed. Nobody wins.
Shops and bike brands lose credibility. From a customer perspective, shop staff look incompetent when they fumble repairs involving unique parts. Equally frustrated shop staff trash bike brands that provide excuses instead of solutions.
These problems don't just frustrate customers. They diminish the value of new bikes and brands. To customers, it seems that they've invested hard-earned cash into equipment that is already obsolete or disposable by the time any repairs are needed.
Dissatisfied and determined riders who can't get support from dealers and IBDs are driven online to probe forums & secondary (used) bike markets for questionable advice and shoddy gray-market parts. Not only do brands sacrifice customer loyalty, but they may be ushering a PO’d rider permanently out of the new bike market! This dynamic bleeds customers and revenue away from the bike industry.
Excavating the Money Pit
Hiding spare parts doesn’t just disappoint customers: it creates runaway internal brand inefficiencies and costs. When brands rely heavily on proprietary parts, they need internal teams of technical experts to resolve common customer issues. Adjusting handlebar position, changing suspension parts and adding power meters should be simple for shops and customers. Unfortunately, poor design choices that rely on proprietary parts require time-consuming consultations to resolve.
Hiding spare parts doesn’t just disappoint customers: it creates runaway internal brand inefficiencies and costs...
Some brands contract with mobile repair outfits or third-party distributors to offload these customer service burdens. These services operate at constant financial loss. In-house service operations generate zero or negative revenue for each completed customer service ticket. Despite this, providing satisfactory customer support and aftermarket service is absolutely vital to brand success.
More dysfunctional is when brands waste internal resources just to cut local shops and IBDs out of the loop. Consider the losses when customer service staff spend hours remotely troubleshooting customer problems via phone and video calls, searching scattered warehouses and shipping individual small parts to customers' homes. All for something simple as a stripped-out cable guide. This is the type of job that could be easily handled by a local shop with thread taps and access to the correct replacement parts.
Brands that zealously gatekeep small parts (maybe worth less than a $1) can easily generate customer service payroll and logistics that balloon into triple-digits costs per call. These internal brand losses might be ignored, but they will grow exponentially as the rider base expands.
Eventually, customer service costs become unavoidable messes, like rotting food in the back of the fridge.
Sensible Spare Parts Solutions
On the other hand, shops and IBDs remain uniquely positioned to transition customer repairs and warranty service into sales: accessories, upgrades, apparel, nutrition and new bike test rides…
Brands that restrict access to spare parts not only leeches away efficiency: it's self-destructive to the brand reputation and profitability. It degrades customer confidence and satisfaction.
Simple changes to ordering policies can benefit brands and the bike industry overall. Brands can build mutually beneficial relationships with shops and IBDs. Sensible ordering policies reduce aftermarket support costs and keep customers riding happy.
Bike brands, component manufacturers and distributors: For the love of cycling, stop telling shops to ‘take a hike’ when they reach out for replacement parts! Restrictive dealer agreements and MOQs are only hurting your bottom line. Limiting the sale and distribution of parts creates log jams in the flow of cycling commerce. Serve customers, protect profitability and let shops and IBDs handle repair jobs smoothly, from start to finish.
Ben Tabor is an American Society of Quality Engineers (ASQ) member with 20+ years in the Bike and E-mobility industries. He is director of True Quality Engineering, a consultancy assisting global brands to achieve the absolute best design, manufacturing and distribution of cycling products.
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