[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”no” equal_height_columns=”no” menu_anchor=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_position=”center center” background_repeat=”no-repeat” fade=”no” background_parallax=”none” parallax_speed=”0.3″ video_mp4=”” video_webm=”” video_ogv=”” video_url=”” video_aspect_ratio=”16:9″ video_loop=”yes” video_mute=”yes” overlay_color=”” video_preview_image=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” padding_top=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” padding_right=”” type=”legacy”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ layout=”1_1″ align_self=”auto” content_layout=”column” align_content=”flex-start” content_wrap=”wrap” spacing=”” center_content=”no” link=”” target=”_self” min_height=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” sticky_display=”normal,sticky” class=”” id=”” type_medium=”” type_small=”” order_medium=”0″ order_small=”0″ dimension_spacing_medium=”” dimension_spacing_small=”” dimension_spacing=”” dimension_margin_medium=”” dimension_margin_small=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” padding_medium=”” padding_small=”” padding_top=”” padding_right=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” hover_type=”none” border_sizes=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” border_radius=”” box_shadow=”no” dimension_box_shadow=”” box_shadow_blur=”0″ box_shadow_spread=”0″ box_shadow_color=”” box_shadow_style=”” background_type=”single” gradient_start_color=”” gradient_end_color=”” gradient_start_position=”0″ gradient_end_position=”100″ gradient_type=”linear” radial_direction=”center center” linear_angle=”180″ background_color=”” background_image=”” background_image_id=”” background_position=”left top” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_blend_mode=”none” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=”” filter_type=”regular” filter_hue=”0″ filter_saturation=”100″ filter_brightness=”100″ filter_contrast=”100″ filter_invert=”0″ filter_sepia=”0″ filter_opacity=”100″ filter_blur=”0″ filter_hue_hover=”0″ filter_saturation_hover=”100″ filter_brightness_hover=”100″ filter_contrast_hover=”100″ filter_invert_hover=”0″ filter_sepia_hover=”0″ filter_opacity_hover=”100″ filter_blur_hover=”0″ last=”true” border_position=”all” first=”true”][fusion_imageframe image_id=”24526|full” max_width=”900px” sticky_max_width=”” style_type=”” blur=”” stylecolor=”” hover_type=”none” bordersize=”” bordercolor=”” borderradius=”” align_medium=”none” align_small=”none” align=”center” margin_top=”” margin_right=”” margin_bottom=”” margin_left=”” lightbox=”no” gallery_id=”” lightbox_image=”” lightbox_image_id=”” alt=”Ryan Atkinson – President and Co-Owner of SmartEtailing” link=”” linktarget=”_self” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” sticky_display=”normal,sticky” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=”” filter_hue=”0″ filter_saturation=”100″ filter_brightness=”100″ filter_contrast=”100″ filter_invert=”0″ filter_sepia=”0″ filter_opacity=”100″ filter_blur=”0″ filter_hue_hover=”0″ filter_saturation_hover=”100″ filter_brightness_hover=”100″ filter_contrast_hover=”100″ filter_invert_hover=”0″ filter_sepia_hover=”0″ filter_opacity_hover=”100″ filter_blur_hover=”0″]https://nbda.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/BRR-Ryan-Atkinson.png[/fusion_imageframe][fusion_text columns=”” column_min_width=”” column_spacing=”” rule_style=”default” rule_size=”” rule_color=”” content_alignment_medium=”” content_alignment_small=”” content_alignment=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” sticky_display=”normal,sticky” class=”” id=”” margin_top=”” margin_right=”” margin_bottom=”” margin_left=”” font_size=”” fusion_font_family_text_font=”” fusion_font_variant_text_font=”” line_height=”” letter_spacing=”” text_color=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=””]

Ryan Atkinson – President and Co-Owner of SmartEtailing

[/fusion_text][fusion_code]PGRpdiBpZD0iYnV6enNwcm91dC1wbGF5ZXItODQ1MzA0OSI+PC9kaXY+CjxzY3JpcHQgc3JjPSJodHRwczovL3d3dy5idXp6c3Byb3V0LmNvbS80OTYwOTMvODQ1MzA0OS1yeWFuLWF0a2luc29uLXByZXNpZGVudC1hbmQtY28tb3duZXItb2Ytc21hcnRldGFpbGluZy5qcz9jb250YWluZXJfaWQ9YnV6enNwcm91dC1wbGF5ZXItODQ1MzA0OSZwbGF5ZXI9c21hbGwiIHR5cGU9InRleHQvamF2YXNjcmlwdCIgY2hhcnNldD0idXRmLTgiPjwvc2NyaXB0Pg==[/fusion_code][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container][fusion_builder_container type=”flex” hundred_percent=”no” hundred_percent_height=”no” min_height=”” hundred_percent_height_scroll=”no” align_content=”stretch” flex_align_items=”flex-start” flex_justify_content=”flex-start” flex_column_spacing=”” hundred_percent_height_center_content=”yes” equal_height_columns=”no” container_tag=”div” menu_anchor=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” status=”published” publish_date=”” class=”” id=”” link_color=”” link_hover_color=”” border_sizes=”” border_sizes_top=”” border_sizes_right=”” border_sizes_bottom=”” border_sizes_left=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing_medium=”” margin_top_medium=”” margin_bottom_medium=”” spacing_small=”” margin_top_small=”” margin_bottom_small=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” padding_dimensions_medium=”” padding_top_medium=”” padding_right_medium=”” padding_bottom_medium=”” padding_left_medium=”” padding_dimensions_small=”” padding_top_small=”” padding_right_small=”” padding_bottom_small=”” padding_left_small=”” padding_top=”” padding_right=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” box_shadow=”no” box_shadow_vertical=”” box_shadow_horizontal=”” box_shadow_blur=”0″ box_shadow_spread=”0″ box_shadow_color=”” box_shadow_style=”” z_index=”” overflow=”” gradient_start_color=”” gradient_end_color=”” gradient_start_position=”0″ gradient_end_position=”100″ gradient_type=”linear” radial_direction=”center center” linear_angle=”180″ background_color=”” background_image=”” background_position=”center center” background_repeat=”no-repeat” fade=”no” background_parallax=”none” enable_mobile=”no” parallax_speed=”0.3″ background_blend_mode=”none” video_mp4=”” video_webm=”” video_ogv=”” video_url=”” video_aspect_ratio=”16:9″ video_loop=”yes” video_mute=”yes” video_preview_image=”” absolute=”off” absolute_devices=”small,medium,large” sticky=”off” sticky_devices=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” sticky_background_color=”” sticky_height=”” sticky_offset=”” sticky_transition_offset=”0″ scroll_offset=”0″ animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=”” filter_hue=”0″ filter_saturation=”100″ filter_brightness=”100″ filter_contrast=”100″ filter_invert=”0″ filter_sepia=”0″ filter_opacity=”100″ filter_blur=”0″ filter_hue_hover=”0″ filter_saturation_hover=”100″ filter_brightness_hover=”100″ filter_contrast_hover=”100″ filter_invert_hover=”0″ filter_sepia_hover=”0″ filter_opacity_hover=”100″ filter_blur_hover=”0″][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ layout=”1_1″ align_self=”auto” content_layout=”column” align_content=”flex-start” content_wrap=”wrap” spacing=”” center_content=”no” link=”” target=”_self” min_height=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” sticky_display=”normal,sticky” class=”” id=”” type_medium=”” type_small=”” order_medium=”0″ order_small=”0″ dimension_spacing_medium=”” dimension_spacing_small=”” dimension_spacing=”” dimension_margin_medium=”” dimension_margin_small=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” padding_medium=”” padding_small=”” padding_top=”” padding_right=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” hover_type=”none” border_sizes=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” border_radius=”” box_shadow=”no” dimension_box_shadow=”” box_shadow_blur=”0″ box_shadow_spread=”0″ box_shadow_color=”” box_shadow_style=”” background_type=”single” gradient_start_color=”” gradient_end_color=”” gradient_start_position=”0″ gradient_end_position=”100″ gradient_type=”linear” radial_direction=”center center” linear_angle=”180″ background_color=”” background_image=”” background_image_id=”” background_position=”left top” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_blend_mode=”none” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=”” filter_type=”regular” filter_hue=”0″ filter_saturation=”100″ filter_brightness=”100″ filter_contrast=”100″ filter_invert=”0″ filter_sepia=”0″ filter_opacity=”100″ filter_blur=”0″ filter_hue_hover=”0″ filter_saturation_hover=”100″ filter_brightness_hover=”100″ filter_contrast_hover=”100″ filter_invert_hover=”0″ filter_sepia_hover=”0″ filter_opacity_hover=”100″ filter_blur_hover=”0″ last=”true” border_position=”all” first=”true”][fusion_text columns=”” column_min_width=”” column_spacing=”” rule_style=”default” rule_size=”” rule_color=”” content_alignment_medium=”” content_alignment_small=”” content_alignment=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” sticky_display=”normal,sticky” class=”” id=”” margin_top=”” margin_right=”” margin_bottom=”” margin_left=”” font_size=”” fusion_font_family_text_font=”” fusion_font_variant_text_font=”” line_height=”” letter_spacing=”” text_color=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=””]

Retailer’s Top Takeaways:

1. Current e-commerce landscape
2. Add on sales in e-commerce
3. Forward trends in e-commerce

In this episode we talk with Ryan Atkinson, President and Co-Owner of SmartEtailing;  a company committed to the success of local independent bicycle retailers by providing software and services that help them effectively compete in an evolving retail environment. Smartetailing provides website, marketing, and data solutions exclusively in the cycling industry. Bike shop e-commerce has seen tremendous growth recently which has solidified the value SmartEtailing delivers for bike shops. The company recently announced their planned merger with Retail Toolkit as they expand their capabilities into business intelligence and marketing automation. In this episode, we chat with Ryan about the current landscape as well as engage with him in an NBDA member-submitted Q&A session.

Support the show

[/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container][fusion_builder_container type=”flex” hundred_percent=”no” hundred_percent_height=”no” min_height=”” hundred_percent_height_scroll=”no” align_content=”stretch” flex_align_items=”flex-start” flex_justify_content=”flex-start” flex_column_spacing=”” hundred_percent_height_center_content=”yes” equal_height_columns=”no” container_tag=”div” menu_anchor=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” status=”published” publish_date=”” class=”” id=”” link_color=”” link_hover_color=”” border_sizes=”” border_sizes_top=”” border_sizes_right=”” border_sizes_bottom=”” border_sizes_left=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing_medium=”” margin_top_medium=”” margin_bottom_medium=”” spacing_small=”” margin_top_small=”” margin_bottom_small=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” padding_dimensions_medium=”” padding_top_medium=”” padding_right_medium=”” padding_bottom_medium=”” padding_left_medium=”” padding_dimensions_small=”” padding_top_small=”” padding_right_small=”” padding_bottom_small=”” padding_left_small=”” padding_top=”” padding_right=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” box_shadow=”no” box_shadow_vertical=”” box_shadow_horizontal=”” box_shadow_blur=”0″ box_shadow_spread=”0″ box_shadow_color=”” box_shadow_style=”” z_index=”” overflow=”” gradient_start_color=”” gradient_end_color=”” gradient_start_position=”0″ gradient_end_position=”100″ gradient_type=”linear” radial_direction=”center center” linear_angle=”180″ background_color=”” background_image=”” background_position=”center center” background_repeat=”no-repeat” fade=”no” background_parallax=”none” enable_mobile=”no” parallax_speed=”0.3″ background_blend_mode=”none” video_mp4=”” video_webm=”” video_ogv=”” video_url=”” video_aspect_ratio=”16:9″ video_loop=”yes” video_mute=”yes” video_preview_image=”” absolute=”off” absolute_devices=”small,medium,large” sticky=”off” sticky_devices=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” sticky_background_color=”” sticky_height=”” sticky_offset=”” sticky_transition_offset=”0″ scroll_offset=”0″ animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=”” filter_hue=”0″ filter_saturation=”100″ filter_brightness=”100″ filter_contrast=”100″ filter_invert=”0″ filter_sepia=”0″ filter_opacity=”100″ filter_blur=”0″ filter_hue_hover=”0″ filter_saturation_hover=”100″ filter_brightness_hover=”100″ filter_contrast_hover=”100″ filter_invert_hover=”0″ filter_sepia_hover=”0″ filter_opacity_hover=”100″ filter_blur_hover=”0″][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ layout=”1_1″ align_self=”auto” content_layout=”column” align_content=”flex-start” content_wrap=”wrap” spacing=”” center_content=”no” link=”” target=”_self” min_height=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” sticky_display=”normal,sticky” class=”” id=”” type_medium=”” type_small=”” order_medium=”0″ order_small=”0″ dimension_spacing_medium=”” dimension_spacing_small=”” dimension_spacing=”” dimension_margin_medium=”” dimension_margin_small=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” padding_medium=”” padding_small=”” padding_top=”” padding_right=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” hover_type=”none” border_sizes=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” border_radius=”” box_shadow=”no” dimension_box_shadow=”” box_shadow_blur=”0″ box_shadow_spread=”0″ box_shadow_color=”” box_shadow_style=”” background_type=”single” gradient_start_color=”” gradient_end_color=”” gradient_start_position=”0″ gradient_end_position=”100″ gradient_type=”linear” radial_direction=”center center” linear_angle=”180″ background_color=”” background_image=”” background_image_id=”” background_position=”left top” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_blend_mode=”none” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=”” filter_type=”regular” filter_hue=”0″ filter_saturation=”100″ filter_brightness=”100″ filter_contrast=”100″ filter_invert=”0″ filter_sepia=”0″ filter_opacity=”100″ filter_blur=”0″ filter_hue_hover=”0″ filter_saturation_hover=”100″ filter_brightness_hover=”100″ filter_contrast_hover=”100″ filter_invert_hover=”0″ filter_sepia_hover=”0″ filter_opacity_hover=”100″ filter_blur_hover=”0″ last=”true” border_position=”all” first=”true”][fusion_accordion type=”” boxed_mode=”” border_size=”1″ border_color=”” background_color=”” hover_color=”” divider_line=”” title_font_size=”20px” icon_size=”” icon_color=”” icon_boxed_mode=”” icon_box_color=”” icon_alignment=”” toggle_hover_accent_color=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=””][fusion_toggle title=”Episode Transcript” open=”no” class=”” id=””]

Ryan Atkinson – President and Co-Owner of SmartEtailing

Tues, May 4

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

retailers, bike shops, sales, customers, bike, business, website, brand, consumers, question, smart, online, shops, retailing, industry, product, work, retail, bicycle, toolkit

SPEAKERS

Heather Mason, NBDA , Ryan Atkinson

NBDA   00:10

You are listening to bicycle retail radio brought to you by the National bicycle Dealers Association.

Heather Mason  00:16

Welcome to another episode of bicycle retail radio brought to you by the NBA. This is Heather Mason. Thank you for listening. I’m so happy you’re here. If you’re a first time listener, be sure to check out all the previous episodes do us a favor and leave a review. As always, NBDA is thankful for our donors and association members. If you’d like to make a donation to the NBA, you can do so directly on our web page. A special thanks this week to bicycle industry jobs for their donation. As you can see bicycle industry jobs and outdoor industry jobs is doing a great job serving the bicycle industry and others for over 15 years. All MBDA members receive a discount to post bicycle jobs on bicycle industry jobs calm. To receive this discount, you can visit the MBTA webpage, and bicycle industry jobs has a preferred partner page where you can learn more. Today’s guest is Ryan acticin. He is president and co owner of smart detailing a company committed to the success of local independent bicycle retailers. They provide software and services to help retailers effectively compete in an evolving retail environment. Smart retailing provides website marketing and data solutions exclusively for the bicycle industry. Bike Shop, the conference has seen tremendous growth recently, and it has solidified the value of the smart retail and delivers for bike shops. The company recently announced their plan merger with retail toolkit as they expanded their capabilities into a business intelligent and marketing automation. Welcome Ryan, how are you?

Ryan Atkinson  01:50

Very true.

Heather Mason  01:51

That is like a mouthful.

Ryan Atkinson  01:55

That’s always been the funny thing on smarty Tony’s is fundamentally a really simple company. But when you try to explain it, it gets complex really quick.

Heather Mason  02:03

Yeah, so I’m so glad to have you on because I hope you just help me like dial it down today for our listeners.

Ryan Atkinson  02:09

Now, before we get started, I’ve got to say I am so impressed by the transformative energy you brought to the NVDA is so impressive. And I am responsible for generating some content. And so I know what goes into it. And you are so prolific. I don’t know how you do it.

Heather Mason  02:27

Ryan, you’re awesome. When we first spoke a maybe a month ago now, I had always been a huge fan of yours. We’re having a moment here where we’re gonna find out. But I mean, you’re continually bringing content on my LinkedIn feed, I see you constantly bettering our industry and I am now in a position where I can do that too. So I take you know, leadership from you know, the people that are in my network, and you are fantastic. So thank you for that. I’m loving what I’m doing. And I saw you at the people for bikes leadership conference where you were great. Your inclusion in the event was fantastic. So thank you for being there as well.

Ryan Atkinson  03:01

Thank you. That was a ton of fun. I mean, how lucky am I that I got to host a panel with so many talented people. Like, I’m not just a bike nerd. I think I’m a bike industry nerd. So to be able to like interview before the panel, you know, people from SRAM and CSG and had an HLC and Jensen like, I’m so lucky.

Heather Mason  03:23

Our industry is so diverse, seeing everyone come together and the interviews that you did at that event were fantastic. And Gosh, I got tongue tied in our in my intro of you. And so before we keep going, can you just give us some background, maybe just on your history and how you got into the cycling industry.

Ryan Atkinson  03:44

I got into bike shops in college, got super into bikes in in high school. And then when I went to college, obviously bike shops are a great fit from Omaha, Nebraska. And so you know, got a call out the bike rack in Omaha, Nebraska. That’s where I got started. That’s pretty high volume shop. And so I started in a kind of a standalone assembly warehouse. And did my whole career has been defined by luck. But when I joined the bike rack, their service manager was a guy named Brett Fleming who now runs a company called efficient velo and in arguably one of the best bike mechanics in the bike industry. So he taught me all about you know, how the fundamentals and principles behind how a bike works and kind of how to efficiently work on it. So I parlayed that into service riding. So then I got that joy of taking what I’ve learned and talking to customers about it, got into shop management, and then the lance boom hit and I stumbled into a career at track and was lucky enough to then get into marketing and Gary Fisher and kind of steward the two Niner into the position. It’s in an industry now. You know, a certain point I decided that I’m just unemployable because I’m so I guess headstrong might be the way to say it. And so my wife and I started a marketing company and we saw an opportunity that because my I’m at track, I saw that suppliers are very good at marketing to consumers. They’re very good at marketing to retailers. But there was kind of a gap in that. There were limited options for retailers to help retailers market to consumers. And so I tried to fill that gap. And then about five years ago, I had the opportunity to buy into smart retailing and take over this company, which let me kind of expand the scale of ways that I can serve bike shops, I went from having roughly 40 clients to well over 1000 now, and being able to build a team from starting 12 people now to 60 very talented people. And right now a big part of my job is is kind of leadership and kind of guiding strategy. And I’d like to there’s only one job in the world like mine, and I’ve got it and I’m very lucky.

Heather Mason  05:44

What an interesting career path that is something about life that has always fascinated me as you never know where you’re gonna get. And I love how you said, You’re headstrong, because I think you need to be to be in a position where you’re creating and you’re bringing unique ideas to the table and you’re seeing future things. That’s such a great you know,

Ryan Atkinson  06:04

your perspective and in this is any business owner. I mean, you have to believe in what you’re doing. But not be unyielding, you have to still be open minded and be willing to change your perspective and then throw all your belief behind that. And again, it sounds like you share that.

Heather Mason  06:19

Are you a cyclist?

Ryan Atkinson  06:22

I don’t know. Yeah, no, I’m I’m a pretty big bike nerd. I mean, I’ve I’ve written my life. I don’t know maybe I have eight or nine bikes now my wife and I ride a tandem so we got like we got a gravel tandem gravel tandem to what’s at a gravel panda. Yeah, well, it’s a it’s a salsa Powder Keg that we put drop bars and bar con shifters on. And it’s really cool. And then yeah, to fix gears, performance mountain bike, bikepacking mountain bike, I just sold my gravel bike. And then I have a really cool, oh, my favorite bike is a 1997, Gary Fisher conquer replica that’s been cobbled together in a really unique way. And then I’m such a nerd that I also have a dedicated basement bike, because I’m not I’m not in the smart trainer thing. I still ride rollers. But I got like an old 1980s to track that I got built up, Miss only written in the basement. So it’s like,

Heather Mason  07:16

I have a secret for you. I have a basement bike.

Ryan Atkinson  07:19

That’s awesome.

Heather Mason  07:20

I love that. Okay, so your background, you know, from working in a bicycle, retail store to sales position with track and then your marketing career, you’ve really just spanned when I would say the industry. And it’s great now that you’re in this position that you can bring all of your background and knowledge to smart retailing. And smart retailing, just I looked on your website, it says you provide services for roughly 20% of us bike shops. And that’s supporting high volume ecommerce sellers and also neighborhood shops. I know smart retailing my history is that when I was working at a shop, you know, we started services with you. And it was so simple and so easy to get online. And ultimately have a you know, the next day have a storefront online, which was at the time, you know, not one of our strong suits. So thank you for making it so simple and so easy. In your words, why is smart Italia a good choice and a good fit for bike shops?

Ryan Atkinson  08:15

Well, I think you have to kind of start with the level of caring we have for kind of the concept of independent bike shops like we everybody here believes that bike shops are a part of cycling infrastructure. Like if it’s not for the independent business owners who are there to answer questions for new cyclists to show up at city council meetings and advocate for bike lanes to organize trail building days or events. What does cycling look like? And so we really want to play a role in helping preserve and grow that. And so everybody here buys in, you can always pick up the phone and find real people to help you. But from a more mechanical standpoint, you know, we make it easy, you know, we’ve we’ve got 20 year reputation working with cycling industry suppliers. And so then we prebuild 10s of 1000s of catalog items every single year that are there and ready in our database. So then when we connect to a retailer’s point of sale system, that automatically display on the website at local pricing, but beyond that, we’re also connected over 40 supplier warehouses. So that means that whereas a shop can showcase their local inventory, they can sell out of a suppliers inventory. So that really lets you generate revenue without without having to always invest in the on hand inventory. And so it’s that automations it’s a prebuilt content, and then it’s there, we’re there to help because, you know, whereas You’re right, we work with some of the largest volume bike shops in the country, and many of them have a dedicated staff for this business. The vast majority of our customers are small businesses where owners are wearing 18 hats and working 1214 hours a day. So they just need somebody to solve problems for them. And so if you call our support team, you know, if you want to learn how to do something, we’ll teach you how to do it. If you want us to just take care of it, we’ll take care of it. And if you want somebody to merchandise and market your website, we do that, too.

Heather Mason  10:13

Yeah, it’s no small task. And what has always been something that I’ve noticed with smarty telling us, it’s not only super simple to be online, but you also have content available where retailers can choose and select, you know, what they want to show to their audience. And it, it looks genuinely like it comes from the retailer out of on a very authentic level, but it’s content that you’ve curated for them, which is amazing. And this past year, I mean, Ryan talked to me about what we’re noticing this past year with e commerce growth, right? Are you seeing it? It’s, it’s huge, right?

Ryan Atkinson  10:46

It’s, it’s been crazy, it’s maybe not the right word, what I can say that online sales growth has vastly exceeded overall industry growth by at least a factor of 10. So it’s just really shown that it’s always been said that the consumer is king or queen. And now that is more on display than ever. And consumers have shown a willingness to buy a lot of products sight unseen, and buy from bike shops. I mean, there were certainly a time when a lot of bike shops felt that, you know, why would a consumer buy online from me when they can go to a big ecommerce seller, but the consumers voted and our customers are doing very well. And then I think a lot of our shops really appreciate that over 60% of all orders placed on smart detailing are for in store pickup. And so I think that’s been a real other shining spot out of what’s happened in the last year is not only as e commerce grown, but there’s also been a shift back to local and that those two things come together and local shops have an advantage because oftentimes, consumers can get their hands on a product faster that’s on the shelf, while still ordering online, or avoid shipping costs by having local pickup. So just a lot of trends have lined up to serve our business and our customers.

Heather Mason  11:59

Well, that’s a timely topic and such a timely time to have you on the podcast. All right. So when we were prepping for this, you and I had this email exchange, and you just threw out to me, this one liner that was like, Hey, I’m totally okay, being in the hot seat. And if you want to solicit some questions from me, from your members feel free and right. I loved the idea. I have to tell you, I was like, cuz, you know, I have a ton of questions. I think I could, you know, sit here all day and chat with you about but I’m sure our members have some specific ones. And they did, I reached out to a few friends of mine. And I was like, I’m having Ryan on the show. And I got back dozens of questions like within the same night. Within hours. Ryan says there’s no right. I was like, oh my god. Right, I gonna be talking for hours. So I’m just gonna dive into some of these questions and throw them out at you. Okay.

Ryan Atkinson  12:53

Yeah.

Heather Mason  12:54

All right. So the first question comes from a shop owner in South Dakota. And he says we’re seeing a huge increase in online sales regionally and nationally, due to the pandemic, we’ve changed our purchasing to include what will sell online? With so many people moving to purchasing online? Should we continue to expect this type of increase in online sales?

Ryan Atkinson  13:20

So yeah, so I spent a lot of time looking at broader retail. And the general consensus among experts right now is is that e commerce accelerated its its pre existing growth rate. So for the last 20 years, ecommerce is growing, they’ve been growing as a percentage of overall retail sales. So the assumption is, is it accelerated about 10 years in the last year. And so you’ll see the forecasts shift from, you know, it represents 25 to 30% of overall retail sales in the coming decade. And so the bike industry won’t be insulated from that. In fact, I think that, you know, consumers have really shown a willingness, especially as much as there’s more generational change to buy high ticket items online. the automotive industry is shifting really rapidly to e commerce. And and then obviously, in our space, consumers have shown they’re perfectly willing to buy bikes online sight unseen. I do expect, as markets open up, there will be some retreat from 2020 highs, but it will not retreat to 2019 levels. And so I think that most shops should anticipate that over the next few years five, if they have e commerce capabilities, five to 10% of their gross sales will close on their website. And I would encourage most shops to start having some intentional plans for how they want to nurture that growth. Because obviously, this industry is so we operate on thin margins. And so incremental losses of sales over time can really add up. And so not only do we want to look at the changes in consumer behavior, but we also need to look at Channel dynamics and how consumers have so many more options on how to buy a product. So when you start adding things up, there’s the potential for kind of very impactful losses in revenue, that five years down the road could really impact a lot of businesses. So I don’t know if I answered your question.

Heather Mason  15:17

No, you, you got it. And actually, I have another one. I’m gonna interject one of my own in here now. So this retailer asked that they’ve changed their purchasing, and they’re now buying stuff, specifically, based around this, what will sell online? So I want to ask you, Ryan, is your data indicating that certain, can you give me like the top five things that sell online, you know, that retailers should consider?

Ryan Atkinson  15:39

Well, it’s not gonna be a satisfying answer, because, because it does align within store. So like, number one, buy units, tubes? Yeah. Number one, buy dollars, mountain bikes, the product makeup matches with the store? So I think so it’ll be interesting to see what the questioners when they said they are buying products that sell online. Does that mean that they’re selling a new type of product? Or does it mean that the product that they had been purchasing at wholesale in the past? Based on anticipating when a customer wanted to buy, does that actually line up with what the organic customer demand was? So I think there’s some kind of nuance to that question. In terms of how to adjust your purchasing. I think that is a question on, like, Where’s your what’s your growth strategy? So if you’re, if you’re, if you’re intending for 85 90% of your sales to happen within your kind of traditional market area, five to 10 miles from your store, then yeah, you might change your purchasing because because you can use those online sales as basically customer surveys, you know, what, what price point Am I selling most of my pumps at? What brand of helmet is selling better, so you may change your assortment in store to match it. But if you’re looking to grow online sales regionally or nationally, I think most retailers don’t have to shift their in store assortment. If you use smarty candling, because you can just sell straight out as a player warehouses. And in more and more cases, those suppliers offer drop shipping. So put yourself in the position of being the marketing and customer service, kind of interface with the customer, but leverage other people’s inventory and logistics.

Heather Mason  17:24

Yeah, that’s great advice. That’s great advice. And then in the same area, this question also came in from another retailer. He states that this last year, our online sales went from 2%, of gross sales to 12%, of gross sales. And he asked, should we expect that that is going to continue, but with a limited inventory?

Ryan Atkinson  17:47

So So yes, I think I’d go back to my previous answer in terms of expect that to continue to grow, every shop will be different. And let’s also not pretend that every shop needs to pursue the same strategy, there are going to be plenty of retailers that have a reasonable growth plan around closing all sales in the store. But I do believe that the vast majority of shops are going to want to consider how do they adapt their retail operations to changing consumer preferences? And yes, I believe that most shops will be doing closer to 20% of sales online over the next five years. The inventory component is interesting. I think there are plenty of shops you see kind of Jensen as a primary competitor. But I did get to interview Mike for the supply chain conversation last week that PLC and I don’t think you would mind me sharing that. He and I discussed that. If you’re viewing the current inventory situation exclusively through the lens of wholesale purchasing, I think the situation actually looks a little worse than it is if you look at it from a consumer standpoint, consumers are visiting a website, oftentimes looking for a particular brand, what will say, you know, they’re looking for brand X’s $120 helmet in red. And they go to a website as not available, they still need a helmet. And so they’re going to find a helmet that is that fits them in is in their price range. And so when we look at our sales numbers, you know, I still talk to plenty of retailers, you know, obviously, overall business growth is is was really up in q1, but online sales growth was still up significantly higher. And I think that’s because when the consumers put them in a position to decide is the product I want available. There’s actually a lot more inventory in the channel, I think than it appears.

Heather Mason  19:39

That is so thoughtful. Yeah, right. So we’re looking at it one way through our eyes. It’s really bad because we’re looking for a specific item. But when a consumer is visiting your website, there’s some flexibility and understanding there. They’re just looking for a helmet. I mean, of course we’re going to have those certain people are looking for specific But absolutely, yeah, I love that answer. Thank you for that, Ryan. Okay, ready for the next one? Here we go. All right. So this comes from, I think a retailer considering working with smart retailing. And he says this smart retailing has been really powerful with a mantra that anyone can manage their own website, using your skills, they can get set up quite easily. But he noticed that smart eating has evolved their services to include more hands on website management, so retailers don’t have to do it all themselves with it, you know, so much happening right now. He asked specifically, what should a retailer expect to budget for the setup and management of their website.

Ryan Atkinson  20:35

So set up, you know, we typically don’t charge any setup fees, you know, there’s certainly value to it. But we’re we want to reduce friction in the signup process. So you know that, it would be rare for you to experience that. If you want to use one of our standard templates, and we have multiple templates. And we have a theme editor that lets you adjust, obviously, insert your own logo, your brand colors, choose your fonts, use our page builder tools to build your site on your own. We have a huge library of not just product content, you know, a bike at this price, but we have like about electric bikes and car racks. And I mean, just we had three or four different kind of rich content pages every month. So if you if you kind of you could do it all yourself, there’s no no startup, we do offer services of Do you want an accelerated build out? Are you too busy? Do you want to delegate it? Do you have certain quality expectations that you don’t think you could achieve on your own up to completely custom web services, so you’ve got a very talented team that, you know, can build a really premier looking website, if that’s right for your brand. That’s kind of startup on an ongoing basis, you don’t have to pay for any services, everything is self serve, you can edit it on your own. But we do our marketing packages, starting in the low one hundreds, I’m not good at remembering pricing. And that’s for kind of maintenance and housekeeping. So I always relate everything back to the shop. So like with a customer site, yes, and owner can do their own build out on a store, if they hire a contractor, typically the quality is going to be a little higher. Same with their website. And then with maintenance, you know, you do need to, you know, shift your bikes around and pull them off the top rack, you do have to inflate tires, you do have to dust in the corners. That’s what are kind of entry level marketing packages do. And then if you want to advance into a marketing package that starts to get into, you know, a couple $100 then you get into the space where you’re reaching out into the market more actively and really trying to attract new business. So I would say, if you want to say total marketing are total smart detailing bill, obviously, it starts at $79 a month for entry level website package. If you add a marketing package onto that, I think you’re probably around 150. You know, if you want to go all in with our professional website at 499 a month and a marketing package, you can get up into 750 800. But you know, our typical client today is selling between 10 and $20,000 a month on their website. So the ROI is really strong.

Heather Mason  23:08

Yeah. And then, you know, I thought of another question too, you know, we can’t just set it up and forget it. Are you suggesting that shops dedicate maybe a staff member? I mean, you have to be facilitating the sales and answering the responses and email questionnaires quickly and timely, right?

Ryan Atkinson  23:24

I really want shops to realize that you don’t need a dedicated staff member, okay, reach a certain point. Yeah, now you need to have people who, who kind of have the accountability. So you do want somebody who is fully trained on customer service and order management, because it is customer service. I mean, we can’t say anymore, that there’s an online customer, you know, and then a completely separate in store customer. It’s just a customer who’s choosing which cash register to use your online store in store. And so a local bike shops, customer service standards are essential. But the typical bike shop can check their inbox three to four times a day and offer at it you know more than adequate customer service order management. A general rule of thumb is when your online sales, you know, get over $200,000 it serves your best interest to have a dedicated order manager. But this is not the same as a web store manager. This is somebody who is detail oriented offers good customer service, and is available to offer kind of more timely support. And then in terms of maintaining the website, most retailers if they just can set aside an hour a month to draw upon their free resources that we put in what we call our library and that gets updated every month. And just do some basic housekeeping. We call it merchandising. So just like you don’t want to set up your sales floor and just leave it there all year. You want to rotate what’s in the kind of entryway and that landing zone. The same thing on your website. So do that for an hour a month. That’s the basics. Obviously, the more You invest in terms of time and better your experiences. I do think most retailers should visit Rei with somewhat regularity as a good reasonable benchmark in terms of how do they merchandise their online store and the retailer’s mind, does that represent quality? If it does just use that as a simple standard that most retailers should go for, or pick another business pick back Best Buy or Patagonia whatever you want, but pick somebody and ask him and see how frequently they update their website.

Heather Mason  25:31

I love that you’re taking in store sales and an online sales and you’re saying it’s really it’s really the same, like your homepage is like your front window of your store, you know, you really need to consider it just another environment. Thank you for that. Okay, so another question. This one comes from a retailer in Massachusetts. He says, How does smart retailing see competition from the likes of lightspeed websites? Shopify magnet isn’t Magneto Magento? Yeah, thanks. So what about those websites,

Ryan Atkinson  26:05

we have a distinct value proposition that puts us in somewhat of a class of our own for the bike shops that value, the pre built content automations and hands on support that I talked about earlier. There’s really nobody else offering that certainly not at the scale or degree that are experienced away as we do. When you look at some of those other platforms, a bike shops probably second most reasonable choice would be lightspeed. And they’re both a partner and a competitor. So we integrate with lightspeed if it’s operates as a retail urgent store point of sale, and that can be plugged into smart retailing. But lightspeed does offer an e commerce solution as well. And they have many aspects of the automations that we have. Currently, we have much more product content, we have all the marketing content and a different level of support. But but there are reasonable choice for retailers to look at, as long as they really understand some of that nuance around what gets merchandised online between the two companies, the other vendors you mentioned, and the same would go for, you know, more affordable options like Wix or Squarespace. smaller ones are very reasonably priced options to get a good looking website online. But if you see the value in merchandising your product online, you really have to take into consideration the payroll dollars invested in trying to get the product online. And then if you want that product to be tied to actual balance on hand, that’s a pretty big technology lift to overcome. And so then when you get into the Magento, and the bigcommerce, and Shopify is that gets amplified, because those are more expensive platforms that do have tremendous capabilities. But do you have a couple $100,000 to try and build that custom integration? Do you have $50,000 a year and extra payroll you want to put towards creating the content? Can you keep pace with the rapid rate of product launches in the bike industry so that you’ve got product merchandise, you know, at the same time that a nationwide launch happens? So there’s a lot of trade offs if for a retailer to choose something other than smarty tailing, but ultimately, it’s each retailer’s choice in terms of what fits best for them.

Heather Mason  28:15

Yeah, I would think just the access to the simple, you know, Product Catalog. I mean, I remember just going in and just clicking a box, and all of a sudden, a giant, all their bikes were on my website. It’s that simple. So

Ryan Atkinson  28:25

it is and honestly, now you do that once, and then we just check your balance on hand and, and supplier inventory, you know, I think up to every 15 minutes, depending on your point of sale system or supplier. And your website just automatically displays product for you. It’s to me, it’s less about who’s our competition, and more, what’s our value proposition. And I’m just so confident that there’s no better choice for bike shops than us. Yeah.

Heather Mason  28:52

And you’re continuing to evolve. And we’ll talk more about the merger with retail toolkit. But it seems if you’re always forward thinking you’re just constantly delivering added benefits to retailers, so

Ryan Atkinson  29:02

you can count on us to always be trying our hardest. I always want more for us. I mean, I mean, you can follow me on LinkedIn, like I’m, I tried to be progressive in my thinking, and I wish technology moves faster. But we are working very hard for our customers.

Heather Mason  29:19

So okay, Ryan, the next question we have comes from a retailer in Florida, and it’s really based around how we were able to meet consumers this past year, because of the pandemic we had to adjust and maybe didn’t even meet consumers in our store, we maybe had to close and only did sales outside or online. So this question comes in and asked you if you have had some feedback from other clients of yours. What are the top five things that smart retailing clients are doing to increase add on dollars right now?

Ryan Atkinson  29:52

Yeah, that’s a great question. I mean, obviously because we have such a deep understanding of the bike industry. We recognize you Why add on sales with like sales are so important and how that impacts margin. And so the sales process in store, you know, has been refined over the course of generations of the salesperson is kind of seeding suggestions to the bike sale process, they close the sale, they walk through a process on how to get the add ons before they ring up, you know, the way we look at it is, we just need to change some of the order of the customer service process. So now the consumer is buying the bike online before they’ve talked to anybody. If a retailer chooses to kind of simply process that order, and you know, then they can certainly talk to the customer when they come in the store. But I’d say the most successful retailers today do offer a personalized outreach. So bike sells online, and the retailer will reach out via email and say, Hey, I saw you ordered this bike, I just want to confirm kind of your sizing, before we get this prep for you. I’d also like to suggest some accessories that will improve your experience. And I’d be happy to add those onto your bike and have them waiting for you and come in. So it’s still a selling process. It’s just the initial sale closed in a different place. And the order of operations changed. That easiest way to try and involve yourself if you want to try and have that conversation before the sale closes is to put live chat capabilities on your website, because then you can have that dialogue as the customer is choosing their bike. But then also, you know, especially when there’s this just massive volume that everybody has now, maybe that personalized outreach isn’t right. So and then that comes to employee training, because majority of bikes are friends for pickup. And so a customer is going to walk in and pick up the bike. What is your sales process when the customer comes in. So you know, there’s obviously validating the purchase. Great choice, let’s get it sized up for you. Wonderful. While you’re here, I want to get all your accessories installed, so you don’t have to worry about it at home. Let me show you your options. And then I’ll have somebody take care of those for you while we’re ringing through. If you want to lean on technology, build the pages on your website with common accessories and find different ways to hyperlink to that either, you know, at the time of purchase from the from the checkout page or, or in a post purchase, follow up email, and then disperse broadly that post purchase marketing. And we can talk about retail toolkit later. But that’s one that’s one of the key reasons that we’re kind of inviting that team and those features into our company because there is a big opportunity to leverage marketing automations in order to really increase that, that customer lifetime value especially associated with with like person.

Heather Mason  32:38

There’s some great suggestions, I love the live chat because you can get them when they’re right there and communicate anything additionally that they might not be aware of. And then when they come in that install process for click and collect that is something that we’ve been talking about with retailers and helping them redefine. And if we flip that question, though, what is Is there anything that smart retailing is doing on the data side, or you know, on the coding aside, I guess, to encourage shoppers to purchase related items, when they’re on the website,

Ryan Atkinson  33:06

we’ve got a lot of data. And we also have some pretty advanced software. And so you know, in particular, we have a software that powers both the search function. So when you search for a particular bike, that also powers the sorting and filtering, you know, if you were to in a catalog and want to filter down to mountain bikes a certain size, that software has the capabilities to really have a pretty powerful recommendations engine applied. And that is one of the features that we have in our roadmap. And it’s it’s very popular, there’s a lot of customers who are waiting for that. And so myself in our leadership team, we re faced hard choices around prioritizing projects, you can make a really solid case that that might be the most important thing for us to work on. But we do have hard choices to make. So what we’re working on right now is our order management system. Because as e commerce volume has gone up, payroll costs have gone up, I think too much with it, there’s too many clicks, there’s too many touch points. And so, so we’re focused on reducing payroll costs associated with online sales growth. So we’re working on that, which we think does have higher business value in the near term. And then we’re also rebuilding our shopping cart and the checkout process. And that’s because before you focus on on sales, you need to convert the sale. And so just streamlining that checkout process we see as a more valuable investment right now. But the product recommendations is right there at the top of the list that we’re considering kind of after those projects.

Heather Mason  34:33

That’s fantastic news to hear that, you know, I was just thinking as you were describing that process, Ryan about the online service scheduler, and I had a Monday mingle recently with our members and one of our members is using smart retailing and using the online service Scheduler. And there’s been some questions from retailers about how well that works or shops that are using it seeing some strong benefits. Can you speak to any of that I just throwing this one out? Is my own question for you?

Ryan Atkinson  35:01

No, I know, I just talked to our client success team about that the other day, feedbacks been really great, I think we’ve had a few retailers who have chosen not to use it because it lacked certain capabilities, especially relating to integrating with their point of sale system. But the adoption rate each month is kind of holding steady. And generally, the feedback has been very good, it really reduces friction in the kind of process of getting a customer to book a drop off appointment. You know, that’s obviously kind of a point in time thing, because there’s an aspect of point in time and that a customer doesn’t want to go into a retail store and wait in a line. But then also, time is such a commodity for people today and that so I think that convenience will persist. But I’ve been really pleased with the feedback.

Heather Mason  35:49

This past year, it seems convenience and minimizing the line whenever possible. So that those are the two things we’re hearing from retailers. And many are thinking right now about online service scheduling and implementing it and I knew you had just launched this most recently. So okay, so another question from the northeast. And this one goes more into your licensing and copywriting, the smart retailing si allowing license and copywriting of item creation as a future business model, like selling a stream to Shopify,

Ryan Atkinson  36:21

simple answer’s no. We were in that business. So when I came to the company, we were offering data licensing. But it proved very problematic, because once we let that data leave our system, we lose influence over it. And so what was happening is retailers were taking that product data and listing it on third party marketplaces like Amazon. And I think many of your audience knows that. There’s not a lot of transparency into who marketplace sellers are. And so we ended up in a position where many suppliers were hesitant or even just pulling back from providing us content that supports the vast majority of our customers. Because they were finding that the content they provided us were showing up on marketplaces below math prices. And so it was really disruptive to the market. And so we really quickly made the decision that it was in the best interest of the vast majority of our customers to shut down that service, and focus on our core business because that product content is so important.

Heather Mason  37:25

That makes perfect sense to me. The retailer asked specifically, how can I compete against the brands online that are so much bigger than I am? So I guess the question is like, how can their website compete against let’s say, you know, either the big bike brands or let’s say, Colorado cyclists, or Jensen or anyone else who’s an online retailer,

Ryan Atkinson  37:48

the simple answer is local. You know, I think that, well, my predecessors, when they founded the company, they made them very valuable assumption. So you know, at the time when ecommerce started to rise, you know, those of us who have been around for a while recall that the belief was is that e commerce was gonna allow local businesses to have access to global markets. And what my predecessors realized was that e commerce was going to let local make it easier for local customers to connect with local businesses. That has panned out. And so the fact that you’re right around the corner that your brand is a familiar to local customers, because you know, they drove by your sign or you were offering sex support at a at a charity ride, or they’ve seen your name on a jersey, your brand and is in itself powerful locally. In addition, if you look at the largest growth area in e commerce over the last year has been for click and collect and local retailers offer that and national online sellers don’t. Some of the brands in particular leverages their dealer network to capitalize on that movement. And then lastly, Google really wants local businesses. Google wants to serve up businesses that are close to the customer, because it’s selfish. They want to serve the consumer need of getting product fast, that is getting the right information fast as Google’s business. But also the more small businesses are out there, the more businesses that Google can sell ads to and so there’s a number of things going in the bike shops favor that I would encourage them to consider.

NBDA   39:22

Bicycle retail radio is supported by our NBDA members, all our member benefits can be found at nbda.com Join the NBDA today

Heather Mason  39:35

what I’m hearing is we almost need to switch our thinking when we go online. We always I mean I would think we think oh my god we’re on this national level now people can buy from from me from anywhere from any state. But we almost need to realize that it’s more so majority of your customers are going to be local.

Ryan Atkinson  39:53

Now export your transaction history from the last month and it were not last month or last year or go back two years. You know Because last year, obviously, consumers were buying whatever they could get from all over the place. But you’re gonna see the vast majority of your online customers are in your same market area, you know, and you can export your customers and upload it into free Google Maps, and it’ll drop the pins on a map, and you’ll see exactly where people bought from you. And yeah, the majority of your sales are, are in your market area, and the cook and collect numbers back that up, it’s over 60%, at the peak of last year, it was 75% of all orders were friends.

Heather Mason  40:30

So I’ve worked with my ETL, I know I have a website, my bike shop is online, we’re ready to go any tips to get more engaged with my local audience.

Ryan Atkinson  40:41

I come from a marketing background after I got into sales. And it doesn’t have to be paid, you know, be active on social. I mean, like any email marketing system will cost you 30 bucks a month, but it’s not expensive. You got to broadcast yourself out there. I mean, we don’t you know, we like to say that in your physical store, you can’t just unlock the door in the morning and expect your business to grow, you need to do the work to make people aware your business, the same thing applies, you know, great customer service in the store is gonna lead to referrals, great customer service for click and collect business is going to lead to repeat business and referrals. You know, I do think that bike shops should be budgeting, money for marketing, you know, obviously, we’re in a, we’re in a market right now, where where demand is very high. And so we call it you know, organic demand. But it’s not always like that we know that business goes through cycles. And so we do recommend that you set aside to two and a half percent of your, your, your forecasted revenue for marketing, and spend that money in your area, decide, am I going to do that math exercise I talked about? If you do the majority of your business within five miles of your store, spend money advertising on Google on Facebook within five miles of your store? And that just it just amplifies your exposure? And so that would be my recommendation.

Heather Mason  41:57

All right. All right. Well, here we go. Let’s keep going. We got a lot of questions. Why do brands want to sell their product their own products online, but won’t let shops sell their product online? Can you speak to that?

Ryan Atkinson  42:11

I don’t know if that’s true, I’d be interested to talk to the questioner. Well, I think it’s very rare. I can’t think of a case where a brand restricts the retailer’s ability to sell. Shipping bikes is a different story. I mean, and that’s obviously a dynamic situation. But I also can’t think of a single brand that will ship a bike straight to consumer, if they don’t allow a retailer to. Yeah, and the questioner can reach out to me as well. Like, if I’m missing something, I do want to answer the question.

Heather Mason  42:39

Okay, you’re so kind. Alright, so from a marketing standpoint, and I love this question, but I think we kind of maybe just touched on this a little bit in our conversation about local. But in your opinion, what has more power brands trying to advertise online, nationally, across many regions, or 1000s, of retailers advertising online locally,

Ryan Atkinson  43:01

making that an either or scenario is I think, just the wrong way to look at it, I think, assume that nationwide brands are going to advertise across their market area. So when it with digital marketing, by Brand X is going to decide, do I want to market at the same level across the entire United States? Or am I going to look at particular metro areas where I either a have a proven high market share, and I want to fortify that in as many ways as I can, or a market where I’m underrepresented with my dealer base, I’m gonna put particular energy there. So just from the brand standpoint, it’s not an either or they have a lot of granular control. at them a retailer standpoint, you know, why choose? I do think it is a mistake for a retailer to think, Well, my brand sells online for me. And so I get the customer relationship, I might even get, you know, really generous cuts of the sale. But is that a sustainable long term strategy to lean on exclusively? I do believe that, that a vast majority of retailers need to establish that online direct sales capability as a part of a balanced sales strategy. And then from an advertising standpoint, it’s all about what your growth plan is like, you have to be intentional about growth. The market is not always like this. And so in a normal market, do you want organic to 3% growth? Because you overdraw me to serve your customers? Or do you want 678 percent growth by by leveraging marketing, and deciding do I want to only sell in that market area? Or do I think there’s opportunity in my region to leverage my brand to open up markets that I just simply don’t have with my physical store? So I hope that that answered the question.

Heather Mason  44:57

Yeah, I definitely think that it’s not an either or you Yeah, definitely answered it. Interesting question, right?

Ryan Atkinson  45:04

Yeah, when I got into the bike business, it was relatively simple, like a premium brand was available at premium independent retailers. And now the customer just has a lot of choices. And we just so we just all need to adapt, you know, we’d like to say accept the reality of your situation. So the majority of factors that influence business success are completely outside of your control. But observe them, acknowledge them, adjust your strategy, according to them. And so that’s what I would encourage your audience to do.

Heather Mason  45:36

Yeah, you can’t just pretend that things aren’t happening. And it doesn’t affect you, you have to be eyes open and ready to move forward confidently. For you know, whatever that looks like. This one is on pricing. And this is something we’ve been battling in our industry for a long time. But there seems to be a bit of a race to the bottom when it comes to online pricing. And the question is, what do you feel is the best way to reduce this behavior?

Ryan Atkinson  46:02

I would also kind of ask the question, or to do some more independent research. So we do a lot of product research, because we do Google Shopping ads for customers. So  in that business, we don’t want to spend money advertising a product that’s not cost competitive. If a brand has poor channel integrity, then we don’t want to come try and spend our customers dollars to compete for it. So we monitor and we know there are certain brands that do have poor channel integrity, so we just simply won’t advertise that brand. You know, obviously, a retailer will pick up organic sales, you know, virtually every listener with the smarty tailing website has a story about wondering, Well, why did somebody buy this helmet for me when they could get it cheaper somewhere else. But I honestly, I think that the bike industry, especially premium brands, have done a really good job with map compliance or channel integrity where you want wherever you want to call it. So I think the bigger pricing issues today are around off brand products available on marketplaces like, if you’re a new person to cycling, and you want to floor pump, go look at floor pumps on Amazon, I barely recognize any of the brands. And so I think it’s less about price on a premium product or bike shop quality product, and more category related, and that is just so far out of our control. So I think it’s, I think as an IBD channel, it’s let’s focus on driving home the value of a quality product for improving the experience. And let’s all focus on trying to preserve pricing within the bounds of what’s legal.

Heather Mason  47:33

Yeah, and I would say that our industry has really done a great job, like you say, of protecting the pricing. And if anything this past year, I’m you know, learning now that retailers can charge a little bit more, you know, and that seems to be, especially with new bike sales, you know, there’s the add on price for the build and other inclusions that the shop can offer. So, yeah, kudos to our industry for really standing firm on that. But I would agree, you go to Google, like a pump or even a tube, and there’s like a multitude of things that come up. So it makes it challenging.

Ryan Atkinson  48:03

And Google i think is better. But Amazon is not. I mean, it’s just, you know, because of that the Google a business has to have invested in their own sales platform, like, you know, with Google, a business has to focus on spending their money on customer acquisition, if you sell in a marketplace, you just, you just need access to product and willingness to set up an account on Amazon. So there’s just a lower barrier of entry. And so there’s a lot of lower quality product there. I suppose the other issue related to price is, you know, close out pricing. But that’s just not going to go away. I think that a retailer has to ask, Are you better served having your suppliers with capital tied up in stale inventory? Or are you better served by getting that product flushed out into the market so that its suppliers resources can be invested in product development and filling their warehouse with inline product? What’s the consequence of not having any close outs in the market

Heather Mason  49:05

with smart utility like a website, you know, if I was to work with you, as a retailer, all the MSRP is already you already have pricing art, it’s a great catalog, right makes it super simple.

Ryan Atkinson  49:14

Yeah, it’s already built out with MSRP. But also map protection. So many brands subscribe to our free map protection service, where they deliver us also their map pricing. What that does is it avoids accidental map violations. So let’s say you as a retailer received a floor pump last year, and it’s not a stocking pump. But you you received it at last year’s price. Well, now your website is going to maybe display it at that price you received an app, but that might be below map. We have business rule set that says if your local price is lower than map display map, so that way you’re not getting those letters from suppliers about violating just because it slipped through the cracks.

Heather Mason  49:53

Yeah, because a lot of times you just wouldn’t know. Right? That’s fantastic. I guess if we’re going to talk about vendors, let’s stay on the backs We had a question that came in about just the process that vendors have to go through to get their products on the smart retailing platform, maybe just give us a better understanding of what that looks like. Because I think, you know, maybe that unknown, some time is a little bit nerve wracking, or

Ryan Atkinson  50:17

it’s a lot simpler than some might expect. So we have a team of people here is called our content team. I mean, they formed the backbone of smart detailing. But they maintain ongoing relationships with 400 brands, we have two people in particular that are just constantly in communication, but it’s a People to People business. So it’s the marketing manager, or the business operations manager at a brand, who’s working with our team, and constantly updating product information in a in a standardized format, really communicating well around product launches, or model your rollovers like, we’re working with brands, oftentimes, well in advance of, say, a bi product release. And we are able to build that product down. And we have embargo date functionality. And so if you have brands that are important to your business that are not in smarty tailing, either work your way up the sales kind of channel and say, Hey, you know, I think I could, I could sell more of your products if my customer saw online that you have it, or that it’s in my store. I choose to invest in smart detailing so that I can save my payroll dollars, will you please contact smart detailing and then work with them on content? It is free to brands, it has to start with a phone call.

Heather Mason  51:30

Yeah, and I can speak to that when I was with Eddie Merckx cycles as a national sales manager, we had retailers asking us to get our products on smart retailing. And it was super simple. It was just a data Upload file we had to send over and painless. And once we did, you know, we definitely saw more active sales because of it. So yeah, pretty easy.

Ryan Atkinson  51:51

Yeah. And we’ve been really lucky, a lot more and more brands are very proactive with us now. But we also develop a backlog sometimes, you know, I mean, we’re gonna bring, you know, hundreds, if not 1000s of items every single month, you know, we care about is we’re merchandising product here. So we just don’t take a raw data feed and display it. Like we curate the content, we make sure that the descriptions are consumer friendly. We don’t want to take b2b content and put it in front of your customers. It’s a hands on process. We just a fellow business owners out there I am. Yeah, we make a pretty significant payroll investment and getting quality content on your website every year.

Heather Mason  52:28

How many vendors Do you work with, you know, the number of

Ryan Atkinson  52:32

mostly 400? Yeah, it’s

Heather Mason  52:34

it’s a big effort. Yeah. This one is a very good question. This retailer wants to know how you remember everyone’s login password? Well, there’s a trick in that. for employees of smarty tailing, we have a kind of unified login. So it’s a n, when I have an admin logged in, I can enter in the same credentials and enter in any website.

Heather Mason  52:58

If they specifically wrote to me to try to keep those three phase when I asked you.

Ryan Atkinson  53:04

The internet is complicated. I didn’t.

Heather Mason  53:07

I did my best I did pretty good. I was fine with. This one’s a tough one. I don’t know if I want to be in your seat on this one. But this was from a retailer in California. And he wrote to me, I think Ryan’s take on tracks, retail store, buying spree would be very interesting. He wants to know, if you think this is a positive, if there’s a good marketing opportunity to be had start with that,

Ryan Atkinson  53:31

in many respects, is none of my business. So, you know, I think that’s a really important aspect of we’re in this amazing channel. And there’s a cohesive element to the channel. But every single business within it, retailer, wholesaler brand vendor like myself, we are required to pursue our own self interest. And we design our own strategies. And I have tremendous respect for trucks long term commitment to their strategy. And so whether I or anybody else agrees on whether or not it’s a good consumer experience, or whether it makes it harder for an independent bike shop to succeed. Our job is to adapt to the reality. So I really respect Trek’s pursuits. I think they’ve got a great team. But yeah, it’s changing the dynamic. And I think it’s happening in your market. It could be disruptive, but, you know, if you decide how am I going to respond, or does this impact me? You know, there’s retailers across the country that have been experiencing these track, requiring or opening concepts during their market for 510, almost 20 years now. And the Independent Businesses are still thriving. I would say that most of my customers who have talked to me about this will say that a track store in their market is a good competitor. They’d rather have them as a competitor than then, you know, a lower quality retailer.

Heather Mason  54:55

Yeah, I’m constantly lagging questions about how the NBDA takes on Trek’s, you know, retail stores. And I, myself have one in Saratoga Springs, which is not far from where I live in upstate New York and I went to one the other day, just just, you know, walk into a shop and see what was going on. And their messaging is very consistent. Their customer experience is great. But I guess maybe from an econ standpoint, where smart retailing could come in, does the acquisition of all these track stores? Does it make it even more profound for retailers to have a have a professional website? Like, let’s say truck a setting a standard, right, a very professional standard? Does it make it even more important now for retailers to look at their online presence and set the bar up?

Ryan Atkinson  55:40

I want to come back to kind of reminding people that my stance is is not every business needs to pursue the same strategy. But there’s just so many different ways to do this to shops on opposite sides of the street, the same street can have completely different plans to grow their business. But yes, I’ll go back to kind of holding our AI as a standard consumers make judgment calls within a fraction of a second, I mean, the first they make a judgment call on when I click the link, does the website open fast enough? If they have to wait two seconds, they click back. So price of entry is your say has to be fast enough to load? And then you have to ask, does it reflect the quality of my business? Because yes, consumers will decide, am I doing business with a discount furniture store? Or kind of equivalent? Or am I doing business with a premium retailer and I think most of your listeners would want to position their businesses as premium. So I think it’s just one more aspect of a changing competitive landscape brands choices certainly impact independent retailers. But the other part to remember is is that just you’ve got a whole suite of competitors from outside your market that you do have to focus on. Nobody wants competition to go away. I mean, like

Heather Mason  56:52

we need it, right. I’m thinking like, we only improve when we’re pushed to be better humans and better retailers. So

Ryan Atkinson  56:59

it’s the nature of business as much as it it’s hard to lose sales. It’s hard to have to overcome new challenges. That’s what we signed up for. But yeah, the nature competition is going to continue to change and from smarty tailing standpoint, we would love to help you raise the level of your online presence to help make sure that if it’s right for you, you’re you’re able to compete in this space. from a technology standpoint, I feel very comfortable with smarty tellings ability to compete from both a user experience standpoint for the consumer and the ease of transacting a retailer’s website can be highly competitive with a tracker Rei or a shield and businesses like that.

Heather Mason  57:39

I love this. I love this conversation. You’re amazing. All right, here we go. Ready to keep going. This one is a very inquisitive question from a retailer in the Midwest, who I guess wanted to keep it light for us today. He just simply wanted to know who your favorite guitar soloist was

Ryan Atkinson  57:57

well, I have fairly diverse musical tastes. Growing up I was super into kind of more I don’t know what I call punk rock but I think probably a real punk rock family maybe it’s alternative but like you know minor threat for Ghazi and and then I’ve kind of shifted into like reggae and I have kind of a soft spot for female pop vocalists. But, but lately, I got a Jeep Wrangler last year. And somehow in that process, I have shifted my musical preferences towards classic rock and hair metal. And so I guess in that context, I’d have to say that’s slash from Guns and Roses. I turn the volume up when he comes on.

Heather Mason  58:39

I love that. I wouldn’t even know how to answer that myself. So I love it. I love that we went from the trek acquisition conversation. That’s perfect. Okay, this one wants to know about future planning. Is there any new tools that smart emailing is developing that you can tell us about or anything you can’t tell us?

Ryan Atkinson  59:02

I think so the biggest thing to focus on is the retail toolkit merger. That’s going to bring a ton of capability to smarty telling customers around performance management. So we talked earlier about margin. Traditionally, smart detailing was really only able to impact the sales side of that equation to help you capture more sales at a reasonable price. With refill toolkit merger, we’re going to be able to help play a larger role in your business and helping you make more profitable buying decisions. Adjust your staffing in a way to kind of control that your payroll costs and then we’re going to get a pretty powerful email automation capability out of it as well. So So when you’re in the software business, you know, it’s about feature development and there’s multiple paths to adding features and this merger is one but On a related note, I talked earlier about the order manager investment. I talked about the the investment in the in the shopping cart to increase conversions, but in software Development, we use what’s called the Agile software development project or system. And what that means is we don’t commit to projects early. So we maintain what’s called a roadmap or projects that we anticipate will be starting, we maintain a separate list of it with the vision board, which is ranked based on business value customer requests. But then we don’t commit energy to them. We don’t commit to a timeline or an order. Because if we make those decisions now, and the market is different in six months, then thinking about the amount of payroll and energy that I wasted planning ahead on that. So instead, we run on a rolling 90 day roadmap where we start to pick up projects, basically assessing value as we go. So it’s unsatisfying to our customers. But that means that I can’t say, x feature will be available in December, I invite you to research Agile software development and how that compares to the old way, which was called waterfall planning. And maybe you’ll understand a little better on why we choose to do it the way we do.

Heather Mason  1:01:02

Okay, I only become familiar with retail toolkit in the past year or so. And more so since February when I started with the NBDA, but I think their software is amazing. And I think the possibilities that it opens up to retailers to analyze sales trends. And then also keep in touch with automated marketing is amazing. Just Can you give us anything behind the merger with retail toolkit,

Ryan Atkinson  1:01:27

we share very similar origins in that we both both companies started out a bike shops, and similar values like we placed independent retailers at the center of our universe, we care, we want to support their success and growth. On a personal level, no keggle from William sprocket was the developer of the product. I couldn’t respect him anymore. I enjoy his partnership, I enjoy his friendship. And so we’ve maintained the dialogue over the years. And I think the timing was just right to do it. And so I’ve already explained why I think that features are really good addition to smart retailing. But then the other aspect is they’ve got a really great team. And so we’ve been through one merger in the past where we merged the company, I found it was smart detailing. And bringing teams together was really fun and satisfying. And it made us better. And we’re excited to bring the toolkit team in as well.

Heather Mason  1:02:18

So a specific question is, and I know Noel. And I think he’s amazing. He’s so intelligent. And, you know, I love that I get to work with him, and he’s on our P2 groups. The question I have here, though, is will retail toolkit, give smart retailing any additional inventory in our integration benefits with ascend or lightspeed?

Ryan Atkinson  1:02:40

Yes, the retail toolkit reaches into additional aspects of a point of sales, that the amount of data that is warehouse inside of point of sale. So right now smart retailing really interacts with the inventory side of the business. And then we have integrations that are around order management. So an order placed online, how does it get into the point of sale system? retail toolkit is much more involved in sales metrics. And yes, we love our partnerships with ascend lightspeed, it’ll bring more data in which again, will already will will help with running a better business letting dealers interact with their data in the way that they want. It’ll help power those marketing automations. through programs like like retail toolkit, working with NBDA offers some good benchmarking against, you know, peers. So yeah, we have high hopes for what it can do to help businesses run better business

Heather Mason  1:03:38

conversation, as of late that I’m hearing in our networking opportunities weekly is how we manage this current backorder log. So we have so many shops sitting with lists of potentially hundreds of consumers waiting for bikes. And during a call the other day, I was like, why don’t you just set up an automated email and send notices to the customers that, you know, we still have your order, we’ll be in contact with you, as we know more. And the feedback I got was, well, that’d be great if we could do that. But we can’t connect to our lightspeed that integration doesn’t exist. So with this merger, do you see something like that being a capability in the future?

Ryan Atkinson  1:04:15

I’m still in the learning phase with retail toolkit. So that exact functionality, I’m not sure about what what I do know is that it’s got the ability to set very granular, transaction based rules to trigger those emails. I can imagine there is a scenario where if a certain type of order is placed, that you can trigger personalized or automated emails off of it, but that may be a question, either for the current retail toolkit team or maybe a future question, but it’s a great idea.

Heather Mason  1:04:43

Okay, I guess maybe from you from your own thoughts, what do you think is the maybe one or two best outcomes from the merger or that features that our retailers will be able to see and, and a timeline of when we expect to?

Ryan Atkinson  1:04:58

Well, the firt the first thing I think is going Those email automation. So I think that’s a, it’s a product already familiar with, because we do so much marketing for shops, we are a user of retail toolkit. And so I expect that sometime within q3, and again, there’s a lot of moving parts here that partiton customers will have access to email automations and are embedded would be both able to be set up independently by our customers, or via our marketing team. We need to focus, you know, on developing all these millions of new customers that we’ve got. And so I think that’ll be a really powerful contributor to that. In terms of the rest of the application, we’re going to maintain a really curious stance through the through the whole year, like we really want to learn the team, we want to learn the software, we want to learn the customers, and then we’re going to make choices off of that. So, you know, we certainly have aspirations and what we hope to be able to do, but we really want to learn before we make any commitments to be determined.

Heather Mason  1:05:59

You got you have to you have to take that time. And this one, Brian comes on pricing. And I you know, I’m just gonna read it because it was thrown out. And I if you don’t know yet are from a pricing structure for retail toolkit and smart retailing, is there going to be a planned price increase, decrease, or maybe a package price? for retailers using both?

Ryan Atkinson  1:06:19

I think it’d be unfair to everybody, both on the retail toolkit and storytelling side and the client side to speak specifically because we don’t know yet. I think that one of the things that we’re we’re aspiring for in this merger is to leverage smarty town’s economy of scale in order to really make sure that the value proposition for retail toolkit is great. But what that looks like I don’t really know yet.

Heather Mason  1:06:41

Okay, so from a conversation earlier, you were talking to me about some tips for retailers moving forward. And you mentioned specifically pure play ecommerce. And I want you to just dive into that a little bit in case some of retailers listening don’t know what that means.

Ryan Atkinson  1:06:59

A business that sells online that either has no physical brick and mortar presence, or my I would say has also have without say they have a very minimal brick and mortar presence and representing a small portion of their overall sales. It’s not an easy button for business. But it does have a different cost profile and different operational challenges from from a traditional brick and mortar business. I can say that, that all we do is work with with shops that have a primary brick and mortar business, we don’t live in that pure play space.

Heather Mason  1:07:29

In that regard, I think you were mentioning for bicycle retailers, we’re going to see a competition increase from out of market retailers, pure play compared to competitors, and then direct to consumer. So any tips that you have for retailers with this competition increasing from all these other avenues?

Ryan Atkinson  1:07:45

I know you’re really busy right now. But take some time as you have it to step back from the tactical challenges of the moment. And consider what your long term strategy is for sustainable growth. I do believe that that involves some form of investment at a minimum time. But I do think investing in technology is a wise choice today. Investing in marketing and advertising in order to make sure that you’re building and establishing your brand and focus on customer acquisition. But that all has to fit within the context of what’s that growth plan. You don’t want to be rudderless going into this kind of a transformative time. And so you won’t know until after the fact whether your choices are right or wrong. But make choices don’t don’t simply be blown around by market changes. Decide what your courses make choices. Don’t just do nothing.

Heather Mason  1:08:39

Another one that we heard a lot at the bicycle leadership conference last week is keeping these new cyclists engaged, right? And how can smart retailing help retailers keep new cyclists engaged? Is there anything that they could do within the smart retailing platform?

Ryan Atkinson  1:08:54

Through our retailers, we have a number of rich content marketing packages coming that will really be focused on nurturing and demystifying nurturing customers and demystifying cycling for them to kind of give given some anchor content that our customers can put on their website and then try to use email marketing and social media to drive customer traffic back to those pages. The underlying strategy there is for bike shops to leverage what they already do well, which is helping develop and make cycling accessible on a business to business level, smart retailing, it has really increased our investment of people for bikes because we we do believe that the work that they’re doing on infrastructure improvements in particular are going to be very important. You know, a lot of people join cycling when the streets were empty of cars, and we want them to be as comfortable as possible. So we’re doing I think everything within our capabilities and people for bikes.

Heather Mason  1:09:48

Yeah, I love what they’re doing. I met with him yesterday and talked about the ride spot program. There’s they’re doing some amazing things. Okay, we’re looking towards the future and I can’t thank you enough and smart retailing enough for being a supporter of our bicycle retailer excellence awards we just announced the revision of, and if I stick to that, and I asked you a question and that term in your mind and your experience with the industry, what does excellence in bicycle retail look like to you?

Ryan Atkinson  1:10:16

I have to start with operational excellence. One of our other beliefs is profitability is sustainability. So you need to be able to run a profitable business in order to be there to serve your customers over time. But operations equals also means you know, having the right product, well merchandise in a friendly shopping environment, you’re offering that excellent customer service, I think those things are the cornerstone. But then adding to that doing the things that only a local bike shop can do and, and stepping outside your door and getting involved in the community. We all need that everybody in this channel is in large part if not exclusively, dependent on local bike shops striving and doing what only they can do.

Heather Mason  1:11:00

You’re, you’re so insightful. You continue to inspire me I see daily in my LinkedIn feed. Thank you for everything you do for our industry at large on your drive. If our listeners want to contact you and learn more about smart retailing, I’m sure you’ll share your contact information.

Ryan Atkinson  1:11:17

Of course, of course. So there are a lot of people here smarter than I am. And so using the Contact Us button is always an option. But yeah, I’m always accessible. So Ryan dot A at smart detailing comm send me a note. You know if I can’t answer your question, there’s somebody here who can. If I got you curious, give me a call. I’d love to talk.

Heather Mason  1:11:35

And for our listeners as well on the MBTA website under our preferred partners area. Smart retailing has a page where you can link to a special promotion for their services as well. So thank you and for doing that for our members. That’s so kind of you guys.

Ryan Atkinson  1:11:49

We love the MBDA we want a vibrant IBD network and the energy that you’re bringing to the organization. We admire and respect and we want to we want to support you in any way we can.

Heather Mason  1:12:01

Thanks, Ryan. All right. So that is it. I invite you to connect with me and come on bicycle retail radio, share your story with our listeners. Thank you for listening today for sharing this episode with your friends and on your social feeds. We appreciate your support. So thank you for listening. And now go be great. Bye.

NBDA   1:12:21

This has been bicycle retail radio by the National bicycle Dealers Association. For more information on membership, and member benefits, join us at nbda.com

[/fusion_toggle][/fusion_accordion][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container][fusion_builder_container type=”flex” hundred_percent=”no” hundred_percent_height=”no” min_height=”” hundred_percent_height_scroll=”no” align_content=”stretch” flex_align_items=”flex-start” flex_justify_content=”flex-start” flex_column_spacing=”” hundred_percent_height_center_content=”yes” equal_height_columns=”no” container_tag=”div” menu_anchor=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” status=”published” publish_date=”” class=”” id=”” link_color=”” link_hover_color=”” border_sizes=”” border_sizes_top=”” border_sizes_right=”” border_sizes_bottom=”” border_sizes_left=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing_medium=”” margin_top_medium=”” margin_bottom_medium=”” spacing_small=”” margin_top_small=”” margin_bottom_small=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” padding_dimensions_medium=”” padding_top_medium=”” padding_right_medium=”” padding_bottom_medium=”” padding_left_medium=”” padding_dimensions_small=”” padding_top_small=”” padding_right_small=”” padding_bottom_small=”” padding_left_small=”” padding_top=”” padding_right=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” box_shadow=”no” box_shadow_vertical=”” box_shadow_horizontal=”” box_shadow_blur=”0″ box_shadow_spread=”0″ box_shadow_color=”” box_shadow_style=”” z_index=”” overflow=”” gradient_start_color=”” gradient_end_color=”” gradient_start_position=”0″ gradient_end_position=”100″ gradient_type=”linear” radial_direction=”center center” linear_angle=”180″ background_color=”” background_image=”” background_position=”center center” background_repeat=”no-repeat” fade=”no” background_parallax=”none” enable_mobile=”no” parallax_speed=”0.3″ background_blend_mode=”none” video_mp4=”” video_webm=”” video_ogv=”” video_url=”” video_aspect_ratio=”16:9″ video_loop=”yes” video_mute=”yes” video_preview_image=”” absolute=”off” absolute_devices=”small,medium,large” sticky=”off” sticky_devices=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” sticky_background_color=”” sticky_height=”” sticky_offset=”” sticky_transition_offset=”0″ scroll_offset=”0″ animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=”” filter_hue=”0″ filter_saturation=”100″ filter_brightness=”100″ filter_contrast=”100″ filter_invert=”0″ filter_sepia=”0″ filter_opacity=”100″ filter_blur=”0″ filter_hue_hover=”0″ filter_saturation_hover=”100″ filter_brightness_hover=”100″ filter_contrast_hover=”100″ filter_invert_hover=”0″ filter_sepia_hover=”0″ filter_opacity_hover=”100″ filter_blur_hover=”0″][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ layout=”1_1″ align_self=”auto” content_layout=”column” align_content=”flex-start” content_wrap=”wrap” spacing=”” center_content=”no” link=”” target=”_self” min_height=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” sticky_display=”normal,sticky” class=”” id=”” type_medium=”” type_small=”” order_medium=”0″ order_small=”0″ dimension_spacing_medium=”” dimension_spacing_small=”” dimension_spacing=”” dimension_margin_medium=”” dimension_margin_small=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” padding_medium=”” padding_small=”” padding_top=”” padding_right=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” hover_type=”none” border_sizes=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” border_radius=”” box_shadow=”no” dimension_box_shadow=”” box_shadow_blur=”0″ box_shadow_spread=”0″ box_shadow_color=”” box_shadow_style=”” background_type=”single” gradient_start_color=”” gradient_end_color=”” gradient_start_position=”0″ gradient_end_position=”100″ gradient_type=”linear” radial_direction=”center center” linear_angle=”180″ background_color=”” background_image=”” background_image_id=”” background_position=”left top” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_blend_mode=”none” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=”” filter_type=”regular” filter_hue=”0″ filter_saturation=”100″ filter_brightness=”100″ filter_contrast=”100″ filter_invert=”0″ filter_sepia=”0″ filter_opacity=”100″ filter_blur=”0″ filter_hue_hover=”0″ filter_saturation_hover=”100″ filter_brightness_hover=”100″ filter_contrast_hover=”100″ filter_invert_hover=”0″ filter_sepia_hover=”0″ filter_opacity_hover=”100″ filter_blur_hover=”0″ last=”true” border_position=”all” first=”true”][fusion_separator style_type=”single solid” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” sticky_display=”normal,sticky” class=”” id=”” flex_grow=”0″ top_margin=”” bottom_margin=”” width=”” alignment=”center” border_size=”” sep_color=”” icon=”” icon_size=”” icon_color=”” icon_circle=”” icon_circle_color=”” /][fusion_text columns=”” column_min_width=”” column_spacing=”” rule_style=”default” rule_size=”” rule_color=”” content_alignment_medium=”” content_alignment_small=”” content_alignment=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” sticky_display=”normal,sticky” class=”” id=”” font_size=”” fusion_font_family_text_font=”” fusion_font_variant_text_font=”” line_height=”” letter_spacing=”” text_color=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=””]

The NBDA has been here since 1946, representing and empowering specialty bicycle dealers in the United States through education, communications, research, advocacy, member discount programs, and promotional opportunities. As shops are facing never-before-seen circumstances, these resources offer a lifeline. Together, we will weather this. We at the NBDA will not waver in our commitment to serving our members even during this challenging time—but we need your support.

Now is the time to become a member as we join together to make one another stronger. Whether you’re a retailer or an industry partner, your membership in the NBDA is one of the best investments you’ll make this year. 

Learn more about the benefits of being a member and join now.

[/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]