Quality Bicycle Products (QBP) owners Steve Flagg and Mary Henrickson have acquired a majority stake in SmartEtailing, developer of websites and software for more than 1,000 U.S. specialty bike dealers.

 

SmartEtailing co-founders Mark Graff and Barry Brenner said the investment will provide the financial backing to develop tools to help IBDs better compete with online sales. SmartEtailing has been developing an e-commerce platform that will allow consumers to view and purchase QBP's inventory through its dealers's websites.  
 
All three parties emphasized that it’s a personal investment on behalf of Steve Flagg and his wife, not Quality Bicycle Products, which they own, and that it won’t change how SmartEtailing operates. The companies will remain separate. And while Flagg will have a majority financial stake, he will not have an operational role with SmartEtailing. 

In a letter to customers, Graff, Brenner and Flagg said SmartEtailing will continue to focus on ways to help IBDs compete with Amazon and other online retailers.

 

“Amazon and others like it are targeting the bicycle market,” reads the letter, which can be read in full on SmartEtailing's website. “The value propositions of these competitors are convenience, selection and for some brands, price. They are well funded and gaining traction with suppliers and consumers due to superb execution. As a result consumers are being lured away from local specialty retailers.


“Yet, these companies are vulnerable. They can't compete with the personal touch and expert assistance of local specialty stores. They can't give consumers what they want most: a seamless experience between online convenience and local brick-and-mortar service. We need to exploit this advantage.


If specialty retailers can deliver a similar online experience while also providing service, expertise, community and the option of same-day product pickup, that's a home run (actually it's a grand slam).”