Hi everyone,

I am Shia a student from the Netherlands and I am currently trying to graduate. My topic of my end thesis is
the functionality of web shops (mostly bike webshops). And I need a little bit of help from you!
It is not that I will try to sell stuff or anything like that, it is an independent research.

I would really like to start a conversation about your favourite web shops and why you like it so much.
Is it because they have the best customer service, do they always deliver on time or is the website clear and easy to use? If you could create a perfect webshop what kind of functions would it have?

Also, I have made a small survey just to get a big quantity of data. 12 questions and it's done in no time.
but im not allowed to post that link yet :'(
Thanks for your time!

Shia

Amazon and Merlin's

Why do you like Amazon and Merlin's? Can you clarify?

I like saint John Cycles for their wide inventory.
Chainreaction has a good mix of prices and inventory.
Don't like to shop there unless I get into the "free shipping" category.
Wiggle has less stuff, and also makes most sense If I get into free shipping.
Rosebikes have cheaper shipping, so better for smaller orders.

I owned and ran a web shop for about 8 years, not bike stuff but I moved about 10K items per year. If you have any questions from that end.

I buy online because there is only one bike shop in my small town and they usually don't have jerseys that fit, but I do buy bibs and gloves from the shop.
I don't have a favorite web shop but at online shops I can find a variety of sizes, cut, colors, designs and the prices are usually (but not always) in my price range.

Thanks for the responses! I'm mostly interested in the future of web shops, at this moment they
are designed to be really easy to use, great customer service and always trying to get the best sales.

But what do you think the future will bring?

I like Ebay best due to their simplicity, but I wish they had a better customer review option like Amazon.

I like Niagara, because they have the best selection of parts, especially for my older bikes. Plus, their consumable components are just dirt cheap.

I dislike them, because their shipping times varies wildly and I really have no clue as to when I will ever get my order.

I'm mostly interested in the future of web shops, but what do you think the future will bring?

There is a movement in three areas, all related: micro-purchases (enhanced selection), delivery systems (fulfillment) and the user interface (search).

We don't see it in bike stuff very much, because if I want an 8-speed Hyperglide cassette or equivalent for example, I know what it is, where to get it and I don't mind waiting a week or longer to get it. And that's scratching the surface of the product knowledge of many of the people posting here.

But consider the more normal consumer case, say my wife is in the middle of a crochet project and needs a particular color of yarn, the right thickness and material or whatever. Or I want a J-clamp for something, a certain size and I need a rubber grommet in it. As it stands now, either of us will follow a similar process. Check the usual sources, zero in with their clunky keyword searches, study the product page or specs which may still be a guess on whether it meets our requirement. The yarn color might be "luscious raspberry", is that the same as "raspy red" and is the stock photo even close? That sort of thing. When it comes up dry, we'll expand the quest to local sources that have web presence, with likely inaccurate inventory listed. And so on.

That's all changing. By "micro-purchases" I mean any little thing, like that yarn, that you suddenly want or need. It's going to be stocked by someone, easy to find, and quickly delivered. Why - because in that scenario above some business - actually several of them - lost a quick sale where price was not a determinate.

Delivery because for that to work it has to be quick. There is a window of time where it becomes less urgent, and if she has to wait, say, five days she's going to put it aside, work on something else and grab the yarn later whenever she happens to come across it. On sale. What that window is exactly, I don't know but Amazon for one is devoting a lot of resources to delivery systems. They're not the only one, and even conventional carriers can potentially provide the capability, at the right cost, when there is enough demand for it.

It's about more than the one "micro-purchase" sale by the way. I once experimented with selling 1 to 5 cent items with free shipping. Sure there were some jack-legs that wanted to "punish" my "mistake" by purchasing just one, but most of even those eventually bought something else, because I knew how they got there and therefore what their interest was. That type of information is also being refined and consolidated, and the future of web shops will also involve very in-depth and detailed individual consumer profiles, which is a good thing for the consumer because it will facilitate finding what you actually want instead of that wild goose chase you sometimes go through.

Maybe you, In return, in NL, can help me find the small plastic parts for my Koga 04 WTR, by calling around to the Koga Dealers in your counrty..

IE top tube cable-hose guides, and extras to use the rear disc hose fittings. (03 wcame with discs 04 used magura rim brakes)

Telephone, locals? you first..





....

Amazon price and selection free 2 day shipping with prime. convenient I have zero LBS close to my home.

We expect a web shop to offer more choices than a brick-and-mortar shop, because they can simply cross-ship from their suppliers if they don't carry an item in their own warehouse. What customers are starting to expect more and more is the 'free' shipping. It does no good to offer a cut-rate price on an item only to have shipping bring the total to more than a local shop would have charged.