Originally Posted by
Stannian
1) How much time would you expect to spend, or did you spend, with a sales guy to feel satisfied on a $500 purchase? $1,000 purchase? $2,000 purchase? $3000 purchase? $5,000 or custom purchase?
2) What about accessory add-ons after the bicycle decision? 30 minutes? An hour?
3) How about specific accessory trips? $30 lights versus $1,200 wheels?
4) How many times would you or did you visit the store before making your final decision?
5) Were you influenced more by the sales staff or by personal research?
6) What factors made you choose a particular store to buy from? Brands, product knowledge, store experience?
7) Maybe you bought online, why, and what could have made you buy from a bike shop besides lower prices?
1) My most recent single bicycle purchase went like this ... Rowan looked up titanium frames on the internet because I knew I wanted a titanium frame. Rowan found a Hasa frame which a company in Melbourne had in stock. We drove into Melbourne to see the frame. We spent about 30 seconds asking the salesperson to take the frame off the wall for us, and then we measured the frame to ensure it matched the measurements of my previous bicycle which I had recorded in a spreadsheet. It did, so we bought it. All up, we spent about a minute of the salesperson's time. Because we knew what we wanted, the salesperson was only incidental to the whole process.
When we purchased the tandem, the sales guy spent a little bit more time with us. He put the tandem on the trainer and spent a few minutes setting us both up, and then sent us on our way for a test ride. We decided to buy it, he spent a little bit of time making a couple modifications, and we were on our way. So, not more than an hour of the salesperson's time.
2 & 3) Buying accessories doesn't take up much of a salesperson's time at all. Occasionally we might have a question ... most of the time they are just there to man the till.
I personally really like buying bicycle stuff from places like Anaconda, Decathlon, and MEC because they are like department stores ... the staff is there if I need them to get something from the back or look up what they have in stock, and maybe to answer a question or two once in a while, but most of the time the staff leaves me alone and I can go in, get what I want, and go home.
4) For both the Hasa and tandem, we went to the shop ... and bought the bicycle that day on the first visit.
5) Personal research.
6) The shops we bought from were the ones that sold what we were looking for (the Hasa and a particular brand of tandem), in our area (200 km radius), in the ballpark of the price we wanted to pay.
7) We buy most of our cycling stuff online. It's hassle free! Sales people don't follow us around asking us if they can help us or offering us unsolicited advice. The prices are good. And we don't have to travel!
We live way out in the country. The nearest shop of any worth is about 75 km away, so we only go when we've got some other shopping to do. And there's never any guarantee that the shops in the city will have what we want in stock, or that they will be open when we want them to be. Whereas, when we order something online, it arrives at our door usually within a week. Quick and convenient.