mdcc_tester seems to think everything should be perfect and that only big companies should be in the business.
You know my mind as well as you know metallurgy and economics, i.e. not at all.
Only big companies can survive in a market where products have no USP, since they are the only organisations big enough to have both the bulk buying power to get things cheap and the brand visibility and distribution infrastructure to sell them in high volume. Even Dani Foffa knows this, which is why he is effectively offering a bicycle consultation and assembly service, the two things you don't have with your 'any colour you like as long as it's black' and shipping in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knock-down_kit]Knockdown Kit form.
If you want to be a small enterprise in the ready to ride bicycle sales sector, you need to concentrate on service and customisation, because there has to be a reason for people to pay more for your bikes than they do from a mail order company selling mass produced cookie cutter product.
If you can't build custom frames, you'll find yourself wedged into a pretty tight corner; noobs who don't have the skills to assemble their own bikes from parts may not yet be ready to part with the cash needed to get something assembled to order, so they'll buy OTP from one of the chains like Evans or Cycle Surgery. By the time they know what they want, most of them will be able to build up their own bikes from parts.
So, you can't be Trek or Roberts, maybe you want to be Tokyo Fixed or Shop 14? Then get yourself a boutique in an area thick with moneyed hipsters, and stock up with brands which have the appropriate cachet. Or be Cyclefit or Sigma Sport, reeling them in with a paid-for fitting service and selling product in the couple of hours you have to spend with the client - again, your one-size-fits-all, internet-only model needs radical modification to get into this market segment.
There is room for companies of all sizes in the bicycle industry, but only if they play to the strengths of their respective scales. Above all, whether you're Decathlon shifting Vitamins at £70 or Roberts doing bespoke £1000+ frames, you have to offer value for money in the eyes of your customers. If we're your target customers, you have signally failed that first, critical, test.
You know my mind as well as you know metallurgy and economics, i.e. not at all.
Only big companies can survive in a market where products have no USP, since they are the only organisations big enough to have both the bulk buying power to get things cheap and the brand visibility and distribution infrastructure to sell them in high volume. Even Dani Foffa knows this, which is why he is effectively offering a bicycle consultation and assembly service, the two things you don't have with your 'any colour you like as long as it's black' and shipping in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knock-down_kit]Knockdown Kit form.
If you want to be a small enterprise in the ready to ride bicycle sales sector, you need to concentrate on service and customisation, because there has to be a reason for people to pay more for your bikes than they do from a mail order company selling mass produced cookie cutter product.
If you can't build custom frames, you'll find yourself wedged into a pretty tight corner; noobs who don't have the skills to assemble their own bikes from parts may not yet be ready to part with the cash needed to get something assembled to order, so they'll buy OTP from one of the chains like Evans or Cycle Surgery. By the time they know what they want, most of them will be able to build up their own bikes from parts.
So, you can't be Trek or Roberts, maybe you want to be Tokyo Fixed or Shop 14? Then get yourself a boutique in an area thick with moneyed hipsters, and stock up with brands which have the appropriate cachet. Or be Cyclefit or Sigma Sport, reeling them in with a paid-for fitting service and selling product in the couple of hours you have to spend with the client - again, your one-size-fits-all, internet-only model needs radical modification to get into this market segment.
There is room for companies of all sizes in the bicycle industry, but only if they play to the strengths of their respective scales. Above all, whether you're Decathlon shifting Vitamins at £70 or Roberts doing bespoke £1000+ frames, you have to offer value for money in the eyes of your customers. If we're your target customers, you have signally failed that first, critical, test.