Berlin, 7 May 2025 | The ZIV – German Bicycle Industry is expanding its market data offerings and initiating development of a comprehensive market data service for the entire German bicycle industry. The new service will provide in-depth up-to-date point-of-sale data, enabling both retailers and the bicycle industry a better overview of bicycle, e-bike and accessory sales in the future. The ZIV moreover expects to gain greater insights into the economic processes within retail and the industry, which it can then use for its political work.
The development of the ZIV market data service is part of the project MDSInternational co-funded by EIT Urban Mobility, an initiative of the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union. The project forms part of EIT Urban Mobility's mission to foster a competitive and sustainable European bicycle industry.
Better market insights for the industry
The ZIV has been publishing market data on the German bicycle industry for over 50 years now. "Our ZIV market data means we have very good information up until goods are delivered to the retailers. The data on what happens afterwards in shops is often inaccurate however. Better insights are important for the entire industry to be able to plan production and sales in line with demand," says Katharina Hinse, Head of Economic & Industrial Policy at the ZIV. With the Bicycle Association (BA) of Great Britain, the association has gained a partner with a wealth of experience: The BA has successfully operated a Market Data Service (MDS) for more than five years now, providing detailed sales figures for the UK bicycle market.
Competitive advantages for retail and industry
"We're taking the BA's MDS as our model and applying it to the German market in close collaboration with our British colleagues. Allowing us to complement our existing service with a focus on retail," explains Burkhard Stork, CEO at the ZIV. The first retailers have already expressed an interest in cooperating with the ZIV. Retailers, who contribute anonymous sales data, are able to access the data dashboard for free and to compare their own data with the data for the market as a whole. This should bring considerable competitive advantages. In future, ZIV member companies will be granted access to the anonymised, aggregated data based on a cost-covering subscription model.
"With this project, we're addressing a long-standing wish within the industry for more data insights," tells Katharina Hinse. "We want to offer the entire industry a comprehensive solution that benefits both retailers and manufacturers," adds Burkhard Stork.
Retailers and stakeholders from the bicycle industry can now register their interest on the ZIV website in becoming a data supplier or subscribing to the market data service. The association expects the first meaningful data from 2026. The ZIV is partnering with the Bicycle Association of Great Britain and Edinburgh Napier University Business School on this project; the funding will enable rapid expansion of the service this year.
Learn more about the ZIV Market Data Service »
EIT Urban Mobility
EIT Urban Mobility, an initiative of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union, aims to accelerate solutions and the transition towards a user-centric, integrated and truly multimodal transport system. As the leading European innovation community for urban mobility, EIT Urban Mobility works to avoid fragmentation by facilitating collaboration between cities, industry, academia, research and innovation to solve the most pressing mobility challenges of cities. Using cities as living labs, its industry, research and university partners will demonstrate how new technologies can work to solve real problems in real cities by transporting people, goods and waste in smarter ways.
ZIV – German Bicycle Industry
The ZIV represents the interests of and is a strong voice for the Germany bicycle industry. As an industry association, the ZIV brings together and represents around 140 member companies vis-à-vis lawmakers in the EU and Germany, the German government, authorities, media, institutions and organisations. In 2024, around ninety percent of the bicycles and e-bikes produced in Germany were from ZIV member companies, which export 1.3 million units every year in addition to sales on the domestic market. The ZIV represents established companies and start-ups, manufacturers and retailers (including importers and wholesalers) as well as players from the entire bicycle ecosystem.
