Gotham Bikes and Toga Bike Shop are familiar names to New York City’s biking community.
Toga Bike Shop, which handles bike sales, rentals, and service, is now in its 27th year. Gotham Bikes was created in 1995 to focus on the biking community- racing, advocacy, riding clubs- in addition to serving as a second retail outlet.
The companies were co-founded and are jointly operated by Luis Viera and David Nazaroff, both avid and active cyclists.
We met Jon Lancaster, the General Manager for both Gotham and Toga in October at the Crain’s Business Expo. We wanted to know what he thought were the challenges and benefits of taking their shops on line.
Jon tells us that co-founder Luis Viera was the driving force behind getting the shops on-line, and they have created one site to represent both of the separate but interrelated companies.
The motivations to create the Internet presence were twofold: Gotham Bikes would benefit from having an additional advertising tool which also heightened awareness of the city’s active cycling and racing communities, and the Toga site would spark interest in the shop’s merchandise and drive people into the store by showing some of the popular items available.
E-commerce was the next logical step for the site. "Any sort of exposure you get, you’d like it to be a profit tool," Jon reminds us.
Since the company didn’t have, or need, a technical team, they sought an outside company to create their back end and host the site. They enlisted the services of SmartEtailing.com, and Jon has no regrets about their choice.
SmartEtailing.com became a major player in the creation of the current site, and he credits them with being helpful and reliable as they developed the site from "a very minor marketing tool" to a commercial and informational site.
"Now, we want to be much more thorough with what we show on the website. We didn’t just want links to the manufacturers’ sites, we wanted the actual products on our site.
In addition, we wanted people to be able to purchase from the site. So whether they were already a customer of ours or if they just found out about the site, we wanted to make it as easy as possible for someone to make that first purchase on-line."
Despite the fact that the site is a point of sale, the shops continue to leverage their relationship with the suppliers by linking to their websites.
"It’s a win-win situation. The manufacturer gets more exposure and the consumer can see what they’re getting. It’s easier on everybody." But what’s in it for the shop? The photos and specifications for all products are taken directly from the manufacturer, which not only guarantees the accuracy of the product descriptions, it saves Gotham/Toga the time, money and effort necessary to create their own catalog shots.
Since the launch of the E-commerce element, Toga has seen sales growth, including purchases from customers outside the New York City area. However, most of the customers are still local. Jon remarks that many local customers find it helpful to shop and make purchases on-line, and then pick up the merchandise from the store personally, at their convenience.
Furthermore, Jon notes that many customers are taking advantage of the site’s service component to solve problems that previously required a phone call. A wide range of informational articles and FAQs are available on the site that cover a variety of topics, including picking the best bike for your needs, bike maintenance and repair, riding techniques, and safety.
The community aspect of Gotham Bikes plays an important role on the website. The site has many affiliate relationships with other cycling groups both in New York City and beyond.
Links are provided to racing clubs, groups aimed at encouraging riding for sport and pleasure, and alternate transportation advocacy organizations. Interested cyclists can move directly to these sites through reciprocal links, and in turn, some discounts and promotional offers are available to members of these organizations.
When asked what he would like to see happen with the site in the next one to three years, Jon sums it up in one word: Synergy. They have their eye on a total system solution that would allow them to integrate their online sales with their sales in the store.
"We’re getting everything automated, everything combined into a single system." Looking back, is there anything they wish they had done differently? He admits that he would have liked to launch their E-commerce efforts earlier, but otherwise, he’s happy with the choices they have made.
"There are caveats with every business venture, but overall, it’s been pretty successful for us."
