Around the Workstand

Mark is joined this week by Matt Viara, leader of the Workstand paid Google ads team. What are paid ads? How do we help bike shops participate in paid Google programs? What are the costs and benefits? We talk about all of that!

We give a high-level overview of our paid ads programs and touch on the 4 offerings that we’ll discuss in detail during the episode.

• Why Local and Full Service?
• What is product vs awareness?
• Why do we differ...

Boulder visit

• Doggy happy hour
• Coffee
• Bike ride
• PFB let me work from their office

Upcoming BRAIN article about scheduling software

• Service Appointment Scheduling feature (drop off)
• WorkstandIQ staff scheduling

NBDA State of the Industry webinar reinforces our value

• The recent National Bicycle Dealers Association hosted a webinar with expert guests, with a lot of time spent talking about what successful retail looks lik...

Ryan and Mark discuss results from May, with a quick note on the strong March and April numbers that we didn't get to talk about due to Ryan's many travels when we'd normally record an Around the Workstand episode.

We mention this recent episode with our Key Accounts Advisor, David Martinez, and the Digital Advisor Service he's offering Workstand clients

NBDA Summit recap

• A good number of supplier att...

The idea of leveraging catalog-enabled websites and ecommerce to grow sales beyond a retailer's home market is one of the main reasons Workstand has so many bike shops using our platform. In addition to the website platform, Workstand's marketing agency team helps more than 400 stores manage their digital presence and promote their store locally and nationally. As our Key Accounts Advisor, David Martinez wraps all of that...

Ryan Atkinson has continued his travels and brings us the latest in how brands, suppliers, and merchants in bicycle retail are feeling during some uncertain times. There are bright spots and some optimism, particularly among retailers. 

Themes from industry events

1. Bicycle Leadership Conference (suppliers)
2. NBDA Retailer Summit (both) - join the Midwest event in Bentonville in May
3. CABDA West (both)

• Uncertainty among suppliers...

In this episode, we delve into the intricacies of conducting successful promotions, a pivotal segment in our ongoing year-long marketing program aimed at empowering businesses. We focus on strategies that not only help retailers remain competitive but also enhance customer engagement, particularly as we approach the prime spring sale season. Our discussion emphasizes that promotions extend beyond discounts; they can also include in...

Ryan is back with us after some travel, but he's not done yet! There are a few more trade shows and industry gatherings on the horizon, and he'll be presenting at most of them. We talk about those shows and the state of the bicycle industry, and the vibe and attitude of the dealers Ryan is meeting at shows like CABDA.

• CABDA Midwest
  • Split, dealers looking to diversity with ecommerce growth
  • Dealers looking for foot tra...

We continue our series on marketing your business for sales growth in-store and online in 2025 with tips on website and marketing setups that make shopping your online store easier and reduce purchase friction,

For more details, check out our latest blog post - https://blog.workstand.com/make-shopping-easy

• Design - minimal clutter, accessibility 
• Make it easy for shoppers to find what they are looking for
  • Search function
  • Navigat...

Around the Workstand Daily - we are often asked about training and our How To videos are the most viewed videos we produce so Around the Workstand Daily hopes to address frequent, short, videos to help our clients learn important features and do so more efficiently than the production work that goes into a more planned video. So, they won’t be perfect sometimes but they’ll help those who would rather watch a video than read a help ...

Today is the first episode of a series for 2025 focused on helping bicycle shops effectively market and grow their businesses. We’ve always talked about marketing on the show however, we saw in 2024 that merchants who proactively promoted their businesses, the ones who engaged with the tools available to make their stores more visible to shoppers, those stores had impressive wins while business owners who took a passive or underres...

Wow, 2024 went by in the blink of an eye, faster than a Di2 shift, how was your year? Ryan, Suzie, and Mark take a look back at our bicycle industry sales results for the year, broader economic conditions that contributed, and where the winners made a difference. Then, a look at the trends heading into 2025 and what we can all expect for bicycle and aftermarket sales. Marketing and, specifically, Google ads, will play a big role fo...

We’ll be taking some time away from the podcast during December so this will be our final 2024 episode. We thought we’d recap some of the accomplishments of 2024 and look forward to 2025. Around the Workstand will resume in January 2025 and we’re looking forward to another year of sharing tips and actionable information with you all.

Around the Workstand grew a lot in 2024 so thank you to everyone who watched and listened. It means ...

Tips for how AI can help in retail - what other ways are you using AI?

• Great brainstorming partner 
  • Start with clear goals 
  • Ask for specific results
• Use to break a big project or some event planning into easy action items
• AI tools within other applications are an easy way to begin to experiment - Apple Intelligence, email apps, text apps, etc, Grammarly

Warnings and pitfalls merchants should be aware of

• Images of peo...

It's hard to believe we are nearing the end of October 2024, but it's true. If you've looked at your inbox, gone to your mailbox, or watched any TV, you will have noticed that holiday marketing is in full effect. If closing out 2024 sales well is on your to-do list, now is the time to start implementing holiday marketing for your bicycle shop. We have resources, we have support, and Suzie and Mark are here to help.

September ecommerce metrics show consumers shopping but the typical bike shop not seeing the results online.

• Site traffic remains strong at +7%
• Google search volume for “bike shop” comparable to last year
• Total ecommerce sales +7%
• Typical dealer ecommerce sales -11% (leading indicator for industry)
• 1,800 fewer click & collect orders than August = less retail traffic

PeopleForBikes Webinar

• Nerd Collective
• Stock to Sales rat...

Gearing up for our season

• Fall is when shops start working “on” the business, not “in” the business
• For 25 years, without fail, our phone rings off the hook in the fall
• Gonna have a lot to talk about this year
• Always talking about websites, ecommerce, and Google search
• Point of sale is the center of a lot of our conversations
• BRAIN: 35% of shops are considering a change in POS in the next 12 months

We delivered for shops this sum...

Ryan has a cool trip planned with friends on the Aquarius Trail hut to hut next week. 6 days in Southwest Utah with Nebraska friends and no logistics work required.

June retail sales PeopleforBikes

• Bright spot is inventory stabilizing across the channel
  • I’m joining a PeopleForBikes webinar later this month to discuss
• June is typically the high point for sales, but this year the month was very soft. 
• Bike shops were -11% in ...

We often get wrapped up in the day-to-day, putting out fires type activities, and we don’t want this to sound preachy but, cycling competes with other consumer goods for attention and dollars so bike shops that don’t stay top of mind with the shoppers who have already done business with them are at a disadvantage but it doesn’t have to be that way.

Sometimes I’m sure we all wish it weren’t this way, there is a lot of communication b...

Suzie is under the weather this week so Ryan and Mark take on recent issues affecting the retail bicycle landscape. We hope you feel better soon, Suzie!

Law firm focused on electric bike injuries

Electric Bike Library Content - included in all Workstand website subscriptions

Premium Electric Bike Content - included in our Marketing Subscription, available to all Workstand website clients for $400 per campaign.

Learn about People for Bi...