The Bike Cooperative, which provides marketing, buying and other services to hundreds of independent bike dealers (IBDs), has tasked its Member Product Committee with developing an Internet Pricing Policy that it will ask all vendors to follow. The policy will require vendors to monitor all their product prices on the web.
The initiative comes amid growing concern over showrooming, during which consumers shop product at IDBs only to turn around and buy products at lower prices online from pure-play cycling retailers, Amazon.com and other online retailers. QBP, the largest U.S. distributor of cycling parts and accessories to the IBD channel, told dealers attending its annual Frostbike show last week that it would spur an industrywide discussion on the need for vendors and dealers to agree on standards for minimum advertised pricing policies and enforcement. The company is in the early stages of developing a strategy that will harness e-commerce to emphasize to consumers the value of shopping with their local IBD.
The Bike Cooperative said more than 100 IBDs have signed up to sell on BikeStoreGuys.com, a “bike-store friendly” e-commerce site it developed with Shopatron and launched last summer. All profits from the site, including ship-to-home orders, are returned to member retailers.
QBP is working with SmarteTailing.com to develop an e-commerce platform that will enable its 5,000 dealers to display both their in-store inventory and the inventory in QBP's warehouses in their own branded e-commerce stores.
