Specialized selling bikes direct to consumer - new news?
- Thread starter rick81721
- Start date
Quite the kick in the nutz. Great day to be a Specialized dealer. I missed the webinar the other day where they announced how great this will be for my business.
Truth.
That cost probably $600 to make and $300 to deliver…
The Kalmyk
Well-Known Member
I want the green bike with purple wraps. Easier to find a diamond mine right now so i will pay diamond 💎 pricing
Bikeworks
Well-Known Member
If something is impossible to get other than through Specialized, then I will go through them. But I will continue to keep buying from my LBS. The real kick in the teeth seems like the buy online and ship to store, with a 50% margin cut. Again, if that's a bike the dealer can't get anyway, then different story, but on the surface it's not particularly nice.
Dealers can't get the bikes if Specialized is withholding them for themselves. This is the plan. It's too bad I missed Thursday's webinar when they announced this to the dealers. I would have loved to hear the spin they tried to put on this to show how great this is for us dealers.
Pricing remains the same. Just a larger cut for Specialized.
sundaydoug
Well-Known Member
I sat in on the call. In all fairness, at no time did they mention how any of this would be good for your store. Unless of course you're a top tier retailer, in which case they'd like to make you an offer to buy your store.
Well, I learned more here than from Specialized. No call or returned email from my sales rep.
sundaydoug
Well-Known Member
That's unfortunate, although I'm not surprised. I can only assume everyone in their sales hierarchy is dealing with a wrath of shit from their retailer base as a result of this.
The details are pretty well summed up in the Bicycle Retailer article below. What really struck me was the callous way this was delivered. They really, really, really do not care about their retailers. And if you're a lower-tier retailer good luck getting inventory. They count Specialized.com as a Tier 1 retailer, which means the web store gets priority on all incoming bikes. You only get dibs on that inventory after it's been sitting there for 3-4 weeks and doesn't sell.
Specialized to add consumer-direct sales on Feb. 1
MORGAN HILL, Calif. (BRAIN) — Specialized Bicycle Components will begin direct online sales of bikes to U.S. consumers next week, adding a “Rider Direct” option for the purchase of non-electric bikes from its website.The company held Zoom calls with retailers on Thursday to go over the details...
www.bicycleretailer.com
Ok, cool, I will continue feeling sorry for people that paid way to much for what Specialized offers. 😉
Honestly when did specialized ever have a soul? How many people have they sued over the names Roubaix? It is a town in France and they trademark the name?
It has been clear for a long time that they only care about $$.
Jmann
Never gonna let you down.
Never going to forget the roubaix lawsuits.