September 14, 2021 - Broomfield, CO
Millions of new riders bought bikes in the last year, and bike shops are preparing for the impending wave of bike upgrades by people who fell in love with the sport.
To address the need, Bicycle Blue Book and SmartEtailing have expanded their integration to help local bike shops improve the trade-in experience for consumers and improve conversion rates for retailers.
"We've found that the typical rider finds the new bike they want before they research their trade-in value," says Bicycle Blue Book president Chris McLaren. "That's why we worked with SmartEtailing to improve the valuation experience on retailer websites."
SmartEtailing clients who use Bicycle Blue Book for trade-in valuation can now opt-in to add a trade-in icon to every bicycle in their catalog. Customers can click the icon, complete a short form, and get an immediate estimate of their trade-in value. Information about the new bike they are considering will automatically populate the trade-in form and be passed along to the retailer.
Not only does this reduce data entry for consumers, but it provides actionable data to bike shops using the Bicycle Blue Book lead generation service. This lead generation software is a portal for bike shops to monitor all trade-in requests to personally follow up with customers to finalize the valuation and close the sale.
"Shopping is shifting to a digital-first approach and bike shops with the most effective websites are the likely winners in the post-COVID market," adds SmartEtailing president Ryan Atkinson.
"The Bicycle Blue Book valuation and lead generation tools offer a ton of value to bike shops, and when inventory positions change, then bike shops will seek every opportunity to keep the sales momentum going by helping riders progress with cycling," continued Atkinson.
According to Bicycle Blue Book, bike sales associated with a trade-in have a 172% higher selling price. When a bike shop actively uses the lead generation tool and actively engages with riders then they convert more than double the number of trade-in requests.
"One of our company goals is to help bike shops sell through new inventory at a higher AUP while shifting the used inventory to Bicycle Blue Book where we can resell the bike out of the local market," shared McLaren. "Our clients can embed our basic valuation widget on any website platform - but only SmartEtailing offers the seamless shopping experience and improved data hygiene."
Interested bike shops can contact Bicycle Blue Book to learn more about the program. Select bike shops will be automatically enrolled in the new program and were notified by email.
About SmartEtailing
Founded in 1999, SmartEtailing provides website, marketing, and data solutions to help independent bicycle retailers and suppliers sell more products in-store and online. With SmartEtailing, a bike shop's website is transformed from a passive advertisement to an interactive, content-rich marketing vehicle that informs and sells to customers. SmartEtailing is committed to the success of local specialty bicycle retailers by providing tools that help them effectively compete in an evolving retail environment.
About Bicycle Blue Book
Bicycle Blue Book founders set out to answer the question, "what's your bike worth?" They leveraged their extensive cycling industry knowledge, analyzed millions of transactions, and created a high-performance predictive analytics platform that uses automated machine learning to report on bicycle values. The result was Bicycle Blue Book's Value Guide, the cycling industry's definitive valuation authority. With the Value Guide as its foundation, the company created the Authorized Trade-in Program and Marketplace to help the cycling community upgrade to better bikes more frequently, fairly, safely and conveniently.
