The first Asia Bike Summit will take place alongside the fifth Asia Bike show in Nanjing, China, from 9-12 October 2015. The forum, hosted by Asia Bike, will invite industry leaders to voice and exchange ideas on hot issues and developing trends in the bicycle industry.
By cooperating with leading manufacturers such as Cannondale, Specialized and Trek as well as domestic professional bike website BIKETO, the summit aims at establishing a high-quality industry platform to ‘explore the present and future of sport bicycles’.
The year 2014 was not without speed bumps for the bicycle industry in China. Although the sport bicycle market in China continues to grow, it has become more challenging due to the increasing number of brands, sales channels and counterfeited products.
“As a result, it is especially necessary and worthwhile to exchange ideas on the industry’s development, explained Stefan Reisinger, head of OutDoor and Eurobike.
“The summit has been organized to deal with these issues in depth. As a professional bicycle exhibition with numerous brands, distributors, trade visitors and media representatives, why not integrate all these resources in order to not only provide an opportunity for all involved parties to discuss and solve problems, but also to build a bridge between brands and cyclists.”
After collecting discussion topics from a variety of people within the industry, the organizers of the summit received a wide range of suggestions, including some of the most pressing issues faced by the industry over the past year.
E-commerce
The rise of e-commerce influences all areas of life, and the bicycle industry is no exception. Brand-operated online stores, distributor online stores and major ecommerce platforms all play an important role in increasing sales, but even these channels have faced difficulties.
The organisers ask: what is the position of brands in e-commerce? If brands are dominant, what kind of model is needed to achieve mutual benefits for brand image and store sales? If distributors are dominant, how will brands manage distributors selling the same product at different prices?
Professional events versus amateur games
In the past, Asia Bike notes that people have viewed professional sporting events and amateur games as serving different purposes in that the former is primarily commercially oriented and the latter is more focused on the pure enjoyment of riding.
Of course, the involvement of commercial operations is necessary in order to organize and promote these events.
“We agree that mature businesses will bring huge economic benefits to sports, but what we want to see is how this can ultimately help to promote the development of the sports themselves,” said Stefan Reisinger.
He added, “Currently in China, despite significant efforts, professional sporting events have not been met with great public enthusiasm. We therefore need a well-developed business model to change the situation. But what will this model look like and how can it be established? The organizers of amateur games can offer insights in this regard. We are looking forward to hearing many excellent ideas from both sides at the forum.”
Cross-industry sales tips
The Asia Bike team notes that the outdoor and the bicycle industries are not mutually exclusive. The two overlap and influence each other to a certain extent. The outdoor industry has experienced a rapid increase in brands, a significant expansion of retail outlets, a slowdown in market growth and an increase in market share.
However, it is difficult for outdoor brands to find retail outlets due to fierce competition and excess inventory. The experience of the outdoor industry may be relevant to the bicycle industry in some regards. For example, certain outdoor brands excel at inventory turnover.
How can others draw lessons from their success? Some outdoor retailers successfully transfer their sales from physical stores to ‘social’ sales through online micromarketing platforms such as WeChat. What factors contribute to their success?
Bicycle Tourism
In recent years, cycling vacations have become popular all over the world. At the 2014 Asia Bike trade show, a ‘Bike Travel Village’ was set up to invite cycling enthusiasts to tell their stories and share their experiences. As cycling vacations become increasingly popular, a greater number of bicycle retailers are hoping to expand sales channels for long-distance cycling and bicycle tourism outside of China.
The first Asia Bike Industry Summit Forum will discuss these issues and more.
