A study released at Interbike Wednesday shows independent bike dealers may want to add a little age to their staff.
The study by the direct marketing firm Catalyst Communications concludes that nearly 95% of IBDs core customers are age 30 or older. They are also much more likely to be married men earning more than $50,000 a year than the rest of America.
Specifically, 69% of the group is male, 85% married and 96% own their own homes compared to national averages of 49%, 50% and 67% respectively. An impressive two thirds earn more than $50,000 a year and 42% earn more than $100,000 compared to 49% and 18% respectively.
“The data show that core customers of U.S. bike stores are mostly male, older, more settled, wealthier and more married than the rest of the US. Population,” said Leslie Bohm, CEO Catalyst Communication, which designs, produces and mails direct-mail magalogs to consumers on behalf of IBDs and outdoor specialty retailers. “We all knew that. Whats surprising is how much older, more settled, wealthier.”
Among other things, the study confirms that bike shop employees should show customers more expensive product because they can afford it and are accustomed to paying for high quality. As homeowners, they also have plenty of room to store gear.
The study is based on 633,096 customer records from 115 bike shops in 50 states. A random sample of 5% yielded 31,633 names and addresses. These were matched against a national credit bureau
database containing information from creditors, lenders and public records.
Out of the sample, 24,196 (76.5%) names were successfully verified to yield information about each individuals gender, age, marital status, and income. The match rate of over 76% is higher than normal and
adds weight to the datas validity.
