Erik Bicycle Sales Soar, BOPIS Sales Rise Alongside It

Erik's Bike Shop knew that demand for its products was surging when shoppers from 400 miles away were willing to drive to the store to pick up their orders.

Erik Saltvold said the bicycle retail chain has seen a surge in online and total sales during the coronavirus, with online sales increasing nearly 400% year-over-year in 2020 .

He believes that bicycles are a very popular product during the pandemic because they are an outdoor activity as well as a mode of transportation, which means that when many non-essential bicycle stores were closed, shoppers across the United States wanted to ride a bicycle.

For Eriks Bike Shop, May is going to be a sales surge.

At Erik’s Bike Shop, online purchases have fueled a surge in store sales. Sales through buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS) have driven a large portion of Erik’s Bikes’ overall sales growth. During the early months of the pandemic, many shoppers who would have walked into the store chose to do their research online and pick up their orders curbside, Saltvold said.

BOPIS has also grown because many bikes are expensive to ship and shoppers are choosing curbside pickup to avoid shipping costs. Also, some bike manufacturers require merchants to assemble and size the bikes for customers and do not allow direct-to-consumer shipping. So, as online sales and demand for bikes grow, BOPIS has also surged .

“BOPIS is growing exponentially,” said Erik Saltvold. “That’s our biggest growth area in sales.”

Saltvold said inventory visibility went into effect in July 2020, about 60 days after discovering the issue and working with VTEX.

After implementing this feature in July 2020, Erik's Bike Shop saw a 68% decrease in live chat interactions, a 44% decrease in communications per order, and a 20% decrease in emails per order compared to the first quarter of 2020.

Saltvold believes that despite e-commerce accounting for three times more total sales in 2020, stores are still the main driver of its business and likely will be in the future. He is pleased with the growth rate of BOPIS in the past year because it allows shoppers who might normally go into a store to ask a colleague a question to do all their research online.

Erik's Bicycle

North America

BOPIS