General Cycling Discussion - Interesting observation re: online shopping sites

Just messing around tonight I decided to check on prices for the Profile Jammer GT aero bar on some of the online sites and noticed an interesting phenomenon -- a lot of sites seem to share the same basic web design for their online shopping any many appear to carry the same inventory, but the prices are WAY different! I found the Jammer GT listed on AEBike.com for $58.99, but didn't see it listed on some of the other more popular sites (Nashbar, Supergo, Pricepoint) so I did a Google search (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=profile+HB1508) for 'Profile' and what appeared to be a stock number on the AEBike site and got some interesting results (try the link and see for yourselves -- look at the cached links since these pages may have changed). The pages on the sites that came up all looked very similar with the same layout and had the same inventory list, pictures, descriptions, everything -- but the price for these bars ranged anywhere from the $58.99 on AEBike to several at $92.99! Sheesh... :eek:

It kinda looks like all of these places get their inventory and site design from the same place, maybe even the same wholesaler who provides all the inventory behind these operations? I've ordered from AEBike in the past and have found them to be very good on their prices, but they take forever to get your order to you (a couple of days to get the order processed and then they only ship by UPS ground -- ugh!).

Not to the point, but Alfred E. Bike always seems to have one of the lowest price profiles when I do a search.

When I ordered something from them, their exchange with me left an interesting clue behind. Seems that when I ordered an item, they in turn ordered it from their supplier. That makes me think that they have next to no overhead (in an inventory sense anyway), and may pass the savings on to us.

BTW, I was very satisfied with them.

Cheers...Gary

for your personal edification... Nashbar is owned by Performance bike. ;)

Well the reason they look the same is because there are packages sold as content managers for e-business. Most of these are designed with a similar look. The reason? Forcing someone to learn a new way to shop online would be suicide. It is good e-business to make it as familiar as possible in order to maximize customer base. So you will find all basic things similar. The look is different sometimes but the whole e-business side shouldn't be.

Originally posted by stumpjumper
for your personal edification... Nashbar is owned by Performance bike. ;) Nope,the same outfit or company owns performance,nashbar and now supergo

Originally posted by gmason
Not to the point, but Alfred E. Bike always seems to have one of the lowest price profiles when I do a search.
Really? I just checked their prices and everything I have bought recently was bought for a good bit less, and I don't spend alot of time looking or the 'best price'.

My guess is that one of the major distributes provides the software to shops for free. Pre-configured with all the graphics, product information and prices for the items that they provide.

The shop has little or no upstart costs, and can just about drop ship for the distributer (be it QBP, Hawley, JB, BTI?). The distributer wins as its really a one time cost for the software and customization, and then life time customers for the shop, with little or no competition.

I'm sure the admin CP of the software would allow you to set rates by commission, or dollar / flat rate, or a combo of both ($1 + 25% on top of wholesale?). If you have some time, i bet you could figure out the algo by looking at prices on all of those sites listed in google, you could then figure out what the actual shop price is, and if you dare, try to drop the price down a bit. Once you know the algo, you could find out the price to any item listed on the website, or for that mater, any website that uses the software! (but you wouldn't do that, would you? ;) )

Ok bike shop guys, am I close? :)

Originally posted by pokey
Nope,the same outfit or company owns performance,nashbar and now supergo Performance just bought Supergo but Nashbar is still it's own company...;ast I heard.

The way I understand it Performance, Nashbar and Supergo are all owned by the same holding company but remain separate entities.

Originally posted by Joe Gardner
My guess is that one of the major distributes provides the software to shops for free. Pre-configured with all the graphics, product information and prices for the items that they provide.

The shop has little or no upstart costs, and can just about drop ship for the distributer (be it QBP, Hawley, JB, BTI?). The distributer wins as its really a one time cost for the software and customization, and then life time customers for the shop, with little or no competition.

I'm sure the admin CP of the software would allow you to set rates by commission, or dollar / flat rate, or a combo of both ($1 + 25% on top of wholesale?). If you have some time, i bet you could figure out the algo by looking at prices on all of those sites listed in google, you could then figure out what the actual shop price is, and if you dare, try to drop the price down a bit. Once you know the algo, you could find out the price to any item listed on the website, or for that mater, any website that uses the software! (but you wouldn't do that, would you? ;) )

Ok bike shop guys, am I close? :)

I'm not a bike shop guy but you have to be close here. The web sites of a couple of bike shops in my town have the same "cookie cutter" type of site. I've since noticed several other bikes shops with the same looking site.

Tom

Im glad to see local bike shops get online, my shop has a website, but not online ordering / pricing.

re Alfred E. Bike


Really? I just checked their prices and everything I have bought recently was bought for a good bit less, and I don't spend alot of time looking or the 'best price'.

I suspect that this may vary by manufacturer. In my case I bought (please forgive me :rolleyes: ) a bunch of Shimano SP-55 cleats. They were almost 50% less than anywhere else, and I did shop around for those because of the high prices I saw everywhere else.

Then there is the age-old concept of loss leaders, which may play a part.

Cheers...Gary

And in some cases, a single retailer has multiple URLs.