Study: How Does a Bike Shop Know What to Buy?

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By Charles Pekow — How can a bike shop predict what two-wheelers consumers will buy? The art of prediction is still emerging, but one study says the bike’s cost and the income of the buyer play the biggest roles in determining what will make money. The size of the bike and the brand name don’t affect profit as much, says an examination done by the Department of Industrial Engineering, Capital University of Economics and Business, Beijing.

Rydjor Bike Shop in Austin, Minnesota. Photo by “darb02”. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

With cycling’s booming worldwide popularity, the study says, “businesses in the bicycle market face the challenge of accurately predicting sales to ensure optimal inventory management, production planning, and customer satisfaction.”

The study looked only at correlation and could only speculate as to cause. Possible economies of scale present in large orders increased profit only slightly. But when people are willing to pay more for a premium product, profit rises.

The authors suggest further research into factors they didn’t explore, such as national policy, season, and local terrain.

See Bicycle Sales Prediction Based on Ensemble Learning at:                                              10.54254/2754-1169/59/20231135                                                                                  

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Charles Pekow
Charles Pekow is an award-winning Washington correspondent who has written about bicycling for years in publications such as the Washington Post, Bicycle Times, Dirt Rag, SPOKES, etc. as well as Cycling West/Cycling Utah. He also writes frequently on environmental issues and beer, among other topics. Weather permitting, you'll find him most weekends and some summer evenings astride a bicycle in a park. He is also a charter member of the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy.

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