Why Aren't Local Bike Shops Selling More Cargo Bikes?

Question

I have observed that the local bike racks don't seem to be producing a lot of cargo bike sales. Why could that be?

Answer 1

The sale of cargo bikes at local bike shops may be hindered because these shops do not seem to effectively promote these bikes as such. They could neglect to even inform prospective customers that they stock the cargo bikes, explain the use of such bikes or try to create a community around these bikes. Also, when walk-in customers have an interest in the bike for which the shop or bicycle business has no knowledgeable staff, or when the bike cannot be shown to have suitable accessories, it is often a tough sale. There is also the need to prove that these bicycle businesses are the leaders and movers in the field so as to be able to attract customers from online bike sellers.

Comments

I'm a mom of 2 elementary school aged kids. I was so excited to get an electric cargo bike. Once I got it, I took a minor spill with my kids on board and that just released a flood of worry about my kids safety that I haven't been able to recover from yet. When you ride on the street, you are taking a gamble that you will not encounter a reckless, distracted driver that day. If we had a network of protected bike lanes, I would be much more likely to give my cargo bike another shot. I know, I am way too risk averse, but I don't think I'm alone in worrying about the dangers of being on the road on a bicycle with precious cargo onboard.

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I'm in Ireland so not speaking for North America.
I just took delivery of my first e-bike at the end of July. I spent several months going into a lot of different bike shops in a 50 km radius checking out what was available beforehand.
I'm 2 metres tall (over 6'6) and 120 kg so I knew I was going to be limited to a smaller selection of what was available and it would probably have to be a special order too. Which is exactly how it turned out to be.
I wanted what I described as an all round commuter cargo bike lite workhorse (but not an actual cargo bike) and showed photos and videos of what I was doing with my existing ordinary hybrid to warrant that description. A picture really is worth a thousand words sometimes.
I still regularly got directed to the e-road bike and e-mtb sections although that was absolutely what I did not want. Oddly enough for whatever reasons, there seemed to be a pretty large selection of e-road bikes in extra large frame sizes available even though I didn't want one.
I rarely saw family orientated or utilitarian bikes at all in these shops apart from kids bikes.
And 80% of them who said they'd look into availability for something to suit me never made contact again.
They appear to be selling almost exclusively expensive road or mtb bikes for the sport and recreational market or cheap crappy pretend versions of road or mtb bikes for whatever market that is.
I ended up buying from a shop that persuaded me to buy a cheaper model with a less sophisticated but more durable and cheaper to repair drive system.
I'm happy with being persuaded now. And I had to wait several months for the manufacturer to actually make more 62 cm XL frames but that wasn't a problem.
But absolutely, most bike shops are not showing they are very interested in the utilitarian or family end of the market and are missing out on attracting a market that's ready to grow rapidly with additional encouragement.

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I completely agree with many of the things you mentioned in this content. Here in Australia, I tried to purchase a Tern HSD S00, and after waiting for more than six months, I followed up directly with the brand, but they couldn't give me a delivery date. On the other hand, the shop kept me updated and communicated well. It's almost a $9,000 AUD bike, and I was shocked at how little they cared about me buying one. Instead, I purchased a Riese and Müller Charger 4, even though it didn't necessarily meet all my needs, because the service was better.

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You just described, to a T, our experience trying to buy an Urban Arrow locally. We went to the store to test ride the bike, but the guy at the store knew nothing at all about it, gave me bad advice about how to use the kickstand, was clueless about any accessories I mentioned. He clearly had never used a cargo bike in his life, and he took me on a Kafka-esque experience over the course of a month as I tried to buy the bike, which culminated in us no longer being able to reach them by phone, then pulling up at the door and finding the store completely empty. We ended up ordering the bike from Toronto, halfway across the continent. But he’s still listed as the Urban Arrow dealer in our province. It doesn’t surprise me at all that his business went under. Our local Kidical Mass group tried to get his shop to bring their Urban Arrows to an event so families could try them out, and the dealer said it wouldn’t be convenient for them. I’ve been a cargo-biking parent here for years and had no idea we had any Urban Arrows locally — THAT’s how disconnected and out of touch they were with our bike community!

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My frustration with the dealer locator is that, in my city, a few of the LBSes are dealers in name only. You showed Tern in your content. My local Tern dealer has just one Tern bike in the store and has gone years with zero Terns in the store. There's a growing cargo bike culture in the city but many of the owners had their bikes shipped in from different cities, myself included.

I have a small channel where I like to talk about cargo bikes. I'd love to demo more than just the Urban Arrow that I own. Right now, I'd make content about hauling a freezer home from Costco by cargo bike but, as far as I know, none of the LBSes in my city would loan/rent a flatbed bakfiets. Stuff like that would be good marketing for both of us.