Bicycle industry sales data and trends for May, NBDA Retailer Summit, and marketing tips for e-bike buyers

In this engaging episode, we dive into various topics from celebrating Pride Month to insights from the NBDA Retailer Summit. The conversation starts with a lively discussion about attending a drag show during Pride Month and the experience of embracing gender expression. The focus then shifts to the NBDA Retailer Summit, highlighting the successful collaboration between suppliers and retailers, with a key emphasis on financial competency and the importance of selling online.

NBDA Retailer Summit
Great support from suppliers, almost half of the attendees
Retailers of all sizes
Longtime supporters, plenty of fresh faces
About half of the presentations were from retailers
Learning from each other
Themes; understanding finances and selling online (all in D2C business)
My presentation on how suppliers think about retailers in the digital space
Standing room only
Good questions
A couple of dealers want to sign up based on the information

May platform results
Order volume across the Workstand platform was -14% for the month, the slowest performance of an already soft spring selling season.
Online bike sales however drove up average order value, resulting in total platform sales being +2%.
Sessions and pageviews continue their strong performance, indicating that consumers are shopping. Our traffic data aligns with Google search volume which has been reliably high this spring and steadily rose during May. 
A bright spot for the month is the typical retailer having their best month of the year, being only -2% for the month compared to -7% in April. Still lagging behind the top performers. 

Electric bikes online
I mentioned online bike sales earlier. It’s worth calling attention to electric bikes. 
Year-over-year online unit sales growth for e-bikes in April/May 2024 is strong at 60% relative to 2023. Electric bike buyers seem to be very comfortable buying their bikes online. 
We have total industry sales results from PeopleForBikes from Q1. While only about 2% of e-bikes sold by bike shops in Q1 2024 were sold online, the annual growth rate of 45% indicates it is outpacing total IBD electric bike sales - reinforcing that same point about consumers buying these bikes online. 

Lauren on the NBDA podcast
Lauren did a great job speaking to why the work of helping bike shops means so much to her and how that informs the work her department does.

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