Case Study: Village Bicycle, Westport, Mass.

            “…we want to be known as a wellness center.”

- Jim LaBelle, Owner

There is a retail movement in America that is, in reality, a return to the way things used to be done. In 1902, a young man by the name of James Cash Penney started a general store in Kemmerer, Wyoming. One thing that he strived to do in his store was to make his customers feel that they were welcome. “The friendly smile, the word of greeting, are certainly something fleeting and seemingly insubstantial. You can't take them with you. But they work for good beyond your power to measure their influence,” said Penney. He also strived to know his client, remember their wants and needs, and to be able to offer them merchandise that he thought that they would like when they walked in his door. Penney knew his client and his business grew meeting their needs.

This type of retailing that Penney was delivering is getting a new look, and a new name – consumer-centric. There are bicycle retailers that are moving towards this consumer-centricity. If you would ask them about it, however, they might reply, “I am just trying to meet their wants and needs.” These retailers are no longer selling product they are delivering individual solutions by listening to their clients, asking the right questions, and providing services and goods keyed to that specific client.

One of these retailers is in the interesting market of Westport, Massachusetts. “I did some research into how it used to be done, 90 or 100 years ago,” said Jim LaBelle, owner of Village Bicycle. “Money seemed to be tighter and retailers had to work harder. One thing they did was know their customer. Their wants and needs. That was my model.” 

The first time you walk into LaBelle’s store you may not think it is any different then any other bike dealer. That is up until the moment that you are greeted. “If it is a person’s first time in the store he gets the red carpet tour,” explained LaBelle. “We start off by showing him the fitting room which highlights the Body Scanning system. We explain that fit is everything and that we invested a lot of money to get the most advanced bicycle fit system on the market. We explain that the process is quick and non-invasive but essential before a bike is selected. And that with the program a six-week training plan can be developed.

“We then move on to the massage and nutrition center. We work with a massage therapist and a nutritionist who are here, in the store, three times a week. We explain that we are not just going to be your bike store but your wellness center. We want our clients to not only ride for enjoyment, but ride for their health.

“The lounge area is pointed out where they can get a juice, a coffee, a water, or a beer, if that is appropriate, and a place to sit down and relax.

“We next show them the sales floor, but we do not dwell on that right now. We want them to meet the people that are going to be working on their bikes. Everyone in the shop is introduced by name and hands are shaken. And all the employees are taught that whenever they walk by a client they are to say hello. No matter what they are doing.

“Finally it is on to the bikes, but all the time we are asking questions about not only the type of riding they want to do, but their goals and life style. If they are ready to look at bikes at that point it is back to the fitting room. If they don’t have time or just stopped into look they don’t leave empty handed. A folder is given to them with an explanation of the stores philosophy, and services, and brochures of all our products are included.”

T.H.: This sounds like it is time consuming. Do you see immediate benefits from the tour?

LaBelle: We don’t want to be thought of as just a bike shop. We want to be known as a wellness center. We not only work with the massage therapist and the nutritionist but we have relationships with orthopedic doctors, chiropractors, and other health professionals. If it takes a little more time to get to know someone it is all for the better in the long run.

T.H.: You must have an upscale market to be able to do this?

LaBelle: We have a very mixed market. On one hand we have working class families. On the other hand we have people that own their summer homes here. It may be their second or even third home. I would say that that is more of our client. But we are striving to become a ‘unit’ in the community. With the help of two of our clients, a chiropractor and a brewer/wine maker, both of whom have children, we are opening a BMX park. I see it as something in the community for the kids to do, rather than play video games or join the soccer leagues. Not all kids want to play soccer.

This venture is costing me a bit, initially, but in the long run I hope to be setting kids on the path to seeing cycling as a viable sport.

T.H.: You seem to work with a lot of different professionals, how do you keep your staff professional?

All the mechanics, no matter what their experience, are sent to the Barnett Bicycle Institute. The entire staff gets cliniced by the area reps. That is the biggest role I see reps playing, if they come in just to take my order they might as well stay home and call me. I want them to teach my staff about their product.

Once a year I rent a banquet room at an area restaurant. For the entire day we meet. I talk about the shop, its goals, its philosophy, and its direction. I have reps come in and talk about their product and why we should be selling it. We then head to the restaurant for enjoyment after a long day.

It just isn’t a yearly thing. Quarterly, I bring in motivational speakers. We close for a day and the staff learns about different aspects of relating to people. And all of February is education month. We have reps coming in and speaking about their products and we even get company people to come in from the west coast.

But it not all work all the time. This year we, as in the staff, are taking a mountain biking vacation in Arizona. For one week we will play on our bikes. This is what keeps us fresh.

T.H.: It sounds like you have a motivated staff. How do they perform?

LaBelle: We have a 68 percent closing rate. And I spread that out over a three week period. Since we strive to educate our clients many will walk away at first. But if we have done our job properly then they will be back.

T.H.: How about margins?

I really wanted to hit a 41 percent margin on bikes this year. We came close at 40.6 percent. And I was attempting to get 70 percent on accessories but fell short of that with 64 percent. Part of the reason was repair items; we end up price matching way too many times. Part of the problem is we have developed really loyal clients that don’t want anyone else working on their bikes, but they also have been checking prices. So when they came in to get a Shimano drive train replace on their bike and they know they can get it on line for so much we end up moving our prices down.

T.H.: What is the average selling price of a bicycle at Village?

You know, I haven’t run that report yet to close out the year, but I will guess it is between $650 and $700, based on what I have on the floor. We did have a good year selling a few $4000 road bikes, but I would guess that $650 is the average.

T.H.: How about accessories?

That is a bit harder to track. I explain, and my staff explains, to the client that they will need a few things to make their riding more enjoyable and safe. Not every bike will leave the shop with the same amount of accessories. I don’t want them to feel that we are piling on to the sale, but we also don’t want them to leave with the feel that they did not get complete service either. We give a 15 percent discount for 60 days. Whenever they are ready to accessorize we are going to be there. We encourage that if they have a flat that we just don’t offer to fix it for them but we teach them how to repair it. We really want them to feel secure when they ride so they do it more often.

T.H.: How do you keep track of your clients?

Well, we do it point of sale, but my best database is the one in the Body Scanning software.

We use the email feature as soon as they buy a bike they get a thank you from us. I don’t like SPAM so I don’t use the email too much. But we do send them a reminder that their bike is do for service.

We have had a couple of situation where a client bought one bike from us and now wants a different style. What is great is we can just pull up their numbers, change the bike and we are ready in just a few minutes. I had one of our summer residences call me from his winter home in Texas and he wanted a bike for down there. He liked what we did for him and didn’t want to buy anywhere else. I looked up his information on Body Scanning, chose the correct size and sent him the bike.

T.H.: Do you use the fitness and training plan feature?

Offer it to every person we Body Scan. About half of them take us up on the offer. The great thing about that is we only give them two weeks at a time and have them come in to re-evaluate. This gives us a chance to talk to the person and make sure everything is great. Recently, we had one woman, when she came back in, say that she wasn’t comfortable on her bike. So we put it up on a trainer and started to re-assess her position on her bike. So instead of having a client out there that was unhappy and not riding we were able to get her to come back in and make some adjustments so she was happy.

But in general the fitness and training plan just fits into our whole wellness philosophy. It really works well with what we are trying to achieve.

T.H.: Where do you see yourself in five years?

Hopefully doing the exact same thing that we have started. There isn’t a day that I don’t wake up and I can’t wait to get to the store and meet the first person coming through those doors. I want to know what I can do to help that person achieve his wellness goal.

I think that the industry has to change and look at itself as a wellness industry. Look at Interbike. All day long we are in the hall talking about, and learning about how to make people happier and healthier in their lives. Then we walk out to the exact opposite. It would be like going on a great bike ride and following that up with smoking cigarettes and drinking shots. The two just don’t get along great.