Two of the more common questions, especially from stores that are new to the Workstand platform, are ‘what are the keys to selling more?’ and ‘what are the really successful stores doing to grow?’. Generally speaking, a shop needs to have four elements to generate revenue. These four elements work together, and missing just one can kill growth. Products that are in demand - Shops need to have products that customers are searching for. That can be 'the next cool gadget', the hot co...
Taking a moment to reframe some thinking that evolved negatively from brick and mortar processes, and that should be thought of as growth opportunities these days. Shipping costs aren't just a dead expense. They can be a tool for strategic growth and customer satisfaction. Read more in this blog post Shipping Best PracticesYour shipping out expense should be considered a marketing expense, and not just a margin killer Similar to your in-store sales, which have a rent, utility, wages, and...
Julie Walsh, Account Manager and Marketing Strategist from the Workstand Marketing Agency Team, joins the podcast to talk about successful strategies for sales success during the 2025 holiday season. Julie has also published a new blog post with even more details and additional resources to help you grow sales in a challenging and competitive market. The high-level tips are: 1. Look through the eyes of your customers If your homepage feels a little out of season, revamp your website for the...
Key Accounts Advisor, David Martinez, works with Workstand merchants to improve many aspects of in-store and online sales execution to grow sales while increasing margin. Inventory management is an important part of David's work with bike shops. As we’ve brought on more dealers to the Digital Advisor Services program, some trends have emerged, offering useful tips for other stores. Obvious, you say? If they are obvious to you, that’s great, but they come up often enough that we think they ar...
It's time again to review the data and metrics from the Workstand platform and talk about what we can learn from sales across our platform. August Workstand platform metricsEcommerce sales saw another month of double-digit growth on Workstand. Online order volume was the strongest it’s been all year, with a YOY increase of 8%, with 20,459 orders being the highest volume of any month this year. Sessions saw another month of decline at -11% (assumed from AI search adoption), but...
Matt Lolli came to Workstand after a long career working in successful bike shops. Matt works with brands and suppliers who want to use Workstand technology and services to support local bike shops in growing sales and better serve their customers. Here’s a high-level overview of Brand & Supplier services that we’ll be discussing in detail later in the episode. Why do brands and suppliers choose to engage with us? What is in it for merchants? Catalog Enrichment Cornerstone...
Ryan has again been on the move. Visiting Workstand team members and merchants in Oregon recently. He'll be here in Colorado soon! July Platform metricsTotal online sales last month showed a recovery from the slowing trend of May and June, which was a likely hangover from the pre-tariff burst in March and April. Total order volume and units sold were relatively flat, but higher average order value drove results. Higher prices on mountain bikes had the largest impact based on volume ...
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 differentiate in that way?With that groundwork in place, we’ll move to...
Boulder visit Doggy happy hourCoffeeBike ridePFB let me work from their officeUpcoming BRAIN article about scheduling software Service Appointment Scheduling feature (drop off)WorkstandIQ staff schedulingNBDA 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 like. Turns out our company perfectly matches their recommendations. Speak...
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 attendeesSolid presentationsDon’t know about the May date, stores are busy, but the meeting is ...
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 technology and marketing know-how up and combines it with his years of ...
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 Bicycle Leadership Conference (suppliers)NBDA Retailer Summit (both) - join the Midwest event in Bentonville in MayCABDA West (both)Uncertainty among suppliers, optimism with dealersTariff confusion and frustrationThrottle elec...
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 introducing new products or spotlighting significant changes wit...
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 MidwestSplit, dealers looking to diversity with ecommerce growthDealers looking for foot trafficUniversal interest in Google advertisingLot of POS conversationsLot of prai...
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 forSearch functionNavigation - minimal clicks, don’t bury the shop button, organizationD...
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 center article. Here's our Around the Workstand Daily playlist...
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 underresourced approach lost ground and saw shrinking sales year over ...
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 for those aiming to grow sales and expand their footprint in 202...
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 so much to me, Suzie, and Ryan that you found some value and ...
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 resultsUse to break a big project or some event planning into easy action itemsAI tools within other applications are an easy way to begin to experiment - Apple Intelligence, email apps, text apps, etc, GrammarlyWarnings and pitfalls merchants should be aware of Images of people and bicycles are hard for AIAvoid the uncanny valley:/ - it’s close ...