FEATURE
A shot in the arm
The Bicycle Association recently announced the soft-launch of a market data service, offering UK sales data covering bikes, parts, accessories, and services. Laura Laker reports
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n January, a Bicycle Association (BA) led initiative that seeks to provide a shot in the arm for the cycle industry was soft-launched. Market data services aggregate and anonymise sales figures from shop tills, allowing businesses to compare their own performance with regional or national averages. It also allows them to predict trends and growth without sharing their own data with anyone else. While this kind of service is commonplace in some retail industries, until now it has only existed as a much costlier, and less comprehensive service, the BA says.
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Sports Marketing Services (SMS) will manage the service on behalf of the BA, which is funding it for the industry, running on a not-for-profit basis. The service will be available for free to IBDs with a turnover below ÂŁ5 million, who contribute their data. SMS already services the golf, tennis and cycle sport industry. The BA’s Steve Garidis says: “Customers, trading conditions and market trends in cycling have never evolved faster, and the cycling industry has never been more diverse and competitive. Cycling is changing and growing: for sport, for leisure, for health and for transport.
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25/01/2019 15:06