Cycle insurance provider Laka has launched a new bike shop membership program. The initiative is designed to provide any size of bike shop with the means, via simple plug-and-play online technology, to create its own customer membership programme, providing added value to its customers as well as an additional and recurring revenue stream for bike shops.
Laka’s Bike Shop Membership Program is free to participating retailers who can register their interest via a dedicated page on the Laka website.
Members are provided with their own dedicated, co-branded membership website, together with a package of co-branded marketing collateral, so that the retailer can promote its new membership programme in-store, online and via social media.
Individual retailers are also able to tailor their own membership program benefits to suit their own customers, for example, by providing additional perks such as an annual service, a loyalty discount on accessories or free puncture repairs.
As for the bike shop’s customers, above and beyond the shop’s own perks, there are a number of incentives for them to join the program.
- Firstly, within each membership, Laka includes ‘protection for the cyclist at market leading rates’. This includes up to £200 of emergency travel expenses to help cyclists get back to their bike shop or home when they get stuck on the road, whether they have been hurt or are simply unable to fix their bike.
- There’s third-party liability cover to help cyclists defend themselves against others in court and pay for liabilities that arise from cycling accidents when it’s their fault.
- Plus, there’s legal cover to help cyclists pursue claims against other road users when they have been wronged.
- In addition, there is 30 days free bike insurance cover against theft and accidental damage.
According to Laka, ‘Comprehensive and affordable, from just £2.50 per month, this represents the only cycle membership a cyclist will ever need.’
‘For the bike shop itself, there are a number of advantages to the new membership programme, which has been specially designed by Laka to be completely hassle-free.’
All aspects of membership from handling payments to customer support are handled by Laka, so the retailer will not be distracted from its main focus of selling and repairing bikes. Retailers will earn commission every month on every membership (which helps with stabilising cash flow), and they also benefit from generating a deeper, more engaged relationship and loyalty with customers, to keep them returning. Laka will also pro-actively promote participating stores to people in their area.
According to Tobias Taupitz, CEO at Laka, “Our Bike Shop Membership Programme is the logical extension of our tried and trusted collective insurance model. We are ingrained in the cycling community and recognise the important role the independent cycle retailer plays, as both a supplier of essential services and also as a pro-active dispenser of general and local cycling advice and knowledge.
“We fully appreciate how busy bike shops are and have therefore created a solution that adds benefit to all parties without creating any additional burden. It’s a win-win all round.”
Laka’s collective insurance model claims to have revolutionised the traditional cycle insurance market. It provides cyclists with a cost-effective way of protecting themselves in the event of theft, accident or injury.
