I met up with a former tenant this week, he works for an online kilt (and other related stuff) retailer.

Apparently his boss met that online bike retailer that recently sold up (I forget who, was on here) and considered buying him out…

..until he saw that the margin was about 1/6 of what he is used to.

How does one business get so price focused? Is it the knowledge gleaned from obsession of upgrading and repeat purchases vs the one-off nature of kilt etc buying?

Market forces I guess. If you have a real niche, rather than perceived niche, you can charge what you like. The rag trade makes loads of dosh, bike shops should make better margin on clothing, than hardware. Some of the online prices we see show how cut-throat hardware can be, but the big guys lap it up on clothing I guess.

I have a few friends who used to run bike shops, no way in hell I’d get into the bike trade, such hard work for so little reward.

Will all come crashing down soon, if it hasn’t already.

Conversely, was on holiday in NZ recently and the bike shops were well stocked with high end kit and lots of customers, kind of what it was like here in the 90s. I’m guessing the geographic location of NZ favours shops still and not online retailers.

Apparently his boss met that online bike retailer that recently sold up (I forget who, was on here) and considered buying him out…

Parker internanational for Telford

Cycle mark up is very poor compared to other retail variants the mark up and real profit is on add on sales where it is great profit margin ,also if you have good,quick mechanics they can earn you great profit by always turning over a busy workshop schedule , great customer service is the key and the ability to explain yourself to make it easy for the customer .

Cycle clothing like Assos, Castelli, Altura, Endura etc isn’t a big markup at retail. It’s the same as everything else.

Direct sales like Rapha will be different I imagine.

Sorry gee , I meant to say components and accessories have decent mark up not the clothing