In-Store vs Online Bicycle Purchase Insights & Trends

Key Takeaways

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In-Store vs Online Bicycle Purchase Insights & Trends

Purchase-Intent Search Trends:

• Since 2018, B2C search inquiries such as "bike shop near me" and "bike store near me," have generated more interest than D2C search terms such as “online bike shop” and “buy bike online”.
• Search trends for "bike shop near me" have increased, while search trends for "bike store near me" have remained stable. Meanwhile, searches for "buy bike online" have trended slightly downward, and search trends for "online bike shop" have risen somewhat.

Competitive Set Analysis:

• Overview: Canyon is the only brand that ships bikes directly to customers online. Trek, Specialized, and Scott offer online bike orders via their distribution partners. Canyon is the only brand which exclusively sells its bikes D2C and does not offer a B2C option.
• Geo-location Focus: All four brands offer online shopping to customers in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, and the US.
• Web Traffic: Trek drives the most web traffic, averaging 3M visits per month, followed by Canyon and Specialized with 2M. Scott only averages 557K visits per month. Over the past year, all brands experienced a decline in web traffic.

• Checkout vs. Store Finder: While Store Finder pages drive more traffic than Checkout pages — Checkout page traffic has trended upward, while Store Finder traffic has trended downward. From Nov. ‘20 to Oct. ‘22, Store Finder traffic decreased by -41% YoY, while traffic to Checkout pages increased by +12% YoY.
• Support Centre: Traffic to Support Centre pages has been trending upward, indicating that consumers are interested in researching and buying bikes online.
• FAQ: Traffic to FAQ pages has trended upward over time, suggesting that the consumer's interest in purchasing online is growing. FAQ pages saw a +17% YoY increase from Nov. ‘20 to Oct. ‘22.
• Contact Us: Traffic to Contact Us pages trended slightly downward over time, hitting a low in Dec. ‘21. 
• Buyer Guide: Canyon, Trek, and Specialized have Buyer Guide pages on their websites, which generate limited traffic. Traffic to these pages have been increasing significantly over time — experiencing a +117% YoY from Nov. ‘20 to Oct. ‘22.

Global Relative Search Interest Over Time

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Since 2018, B2C search inquiries such as “bike shop near me” and “bike store near me” have generated the most interest.

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While the D2C search inquiries, “online bike shop” and “buy bike online”, have generated less relative search interest.

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During the first spring/summer season of the COVID-19 pandemic, D2C search inquiries peaked in May 2020, while B2C search inquiries peaked in June 2020. 

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Searches for “bike shop near me” have trended upward since January 2018.

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While searches for “bike store near me” have remained steady since January 2018.

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Searches for “buy bike online” have trended slightly downward since January 2018.

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While searches for “online bike shop” have trended slightly upward since January 2018.

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The following companies were included in the competitive set for this analysis:

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Of the competitive set, Canyon is the only brand that ships bikes directly to customers online*. Trek, Specialized and Scott offer online bike orders via their distribution partners.

*To select countries only

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Canyon’s bikes get delivered 80% assembled, with tools and instructions for assembly. Additionally, they offer a “white-glove bike delivery and service option” through Velofix Direct. 

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Trek, Specialized, and Scott allow customers to buy online through one of their distribution partners. Bikes can be delivered to the customer's home via a distribution partner or picked up at the distribution partner's storefront. 

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Canyon is the only brand which exclusively sells its bikes directly to consumers and does not offer a business-to-consumer option.

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Canyon offers online shopping to 77 countries, Specialized to 32 countries, Scott to 11 countries and Trek to 6 countries.

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Top Online Shopping Countries Offered

Of the competitive set, all brands offer online shopping to customers in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, and the US.

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Of the competitive set, Trek drives the most web traffic, averaging 3M visits per month, followed by Canyon and Specialized with 2M. Scott only averages 557K visits per month. 

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All brands experienced a decline in web traffic over the past year (Nov. ‘21 - Oct. ‘22), with Scott’s traffic declining the most at -29% YoY, followed by Trek with -26% YoY. 

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Of the competitive set’s web traffic, Store Finder and Customer Support pages drove the most traffic.

Checkout, Contact Us, FAQ, and Buyer Guide pages drove less than 2% of the total traffic.  

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Of the competitive set, Store Finder traffic has trended downwards, while traffic to Checkout pages has trended upwards. Store Finder pages saw a -41% YoY decrease in traffic from Nov. '20 to Oct. '22, while Checkout pages had a +12% YoY increase.

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Canyon drives the most monthly traffic to its Checkout page, averaging 38K visits per month, followed by Trek with 9K and Specialized with 7K. 

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Checkout page traffic trended upward amongst all brands* in the competitive set.

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Trek drove the most traffic of the competitive set to its Store Finder page, averaging 123K visits per month. Canyon does not have a Store Finder page. 

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Specialized and Trek have experienced a downward trend in their Store Finder page traffic, decreasing by -32% and -41% YoY, respectively.

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While Scott's Store Finder page traffic has trended upwards since 2020.

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The Support Centre page is a key feature on all of the competitive sets' websites. Canyon’s Support Centre drives significantly more traffic than the rest of the competitive set, accounting for 5% of its total website traffic.

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Of the competitive set, traffic to Support Centre pages has been trending upward, indicating that consumers are interested in researching and buying bikes online.

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All brands with the expectation of Trek have a FAQ page. However, FAQ page traffic accounted for less than 0.5% of the competitive sets’ total web traffic.

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Traffic to the competitive set’s FAQ pages has trended upward over time, suggesting that the consumer's interest in purchasing online is growing. FAQ pages saw a +17% YoY increase from Nov. ‘20 to Oct. ‘22.

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Contact Us pages accounted for less than 1% of the competitive sets’ total web traffic. 

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Traffic to Contact Us pages in the competitive set has trended slightly downward over time, hitting a low in December 2021. 

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Additionally, Canyon, Trek, and Specialized have Buyer Guide pages on their websites. These guides drive a limited amount of traffic each month.

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While traffic to Buyer Guide pages is limited, it has been increasing significantly over time — increasing by +117% YoY from Nov. ‘20 to Oct. ‘22.

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* Numbers represent search interest relative to the highest point on the chart for the given region and time. A value of 100 is the peak popularity for the term. A value of 50 means that the term is half as popular. A score of 0 means there was not enough data for this term.

* Desktop Traffic Only