Webbike

I built the Webbike online store on WordPress and WooCommerce: a catalogue of bicycles, parts and equipment across dozens of categories, filtering by size and type, customer accounts, service booking and fast delivery. The client is a trusted local dealer in Miercurea Ciuc, trading since 2008.

The challenge

Webbike is a bicycle retailer in Miercurea Ciuc, trading since 2008. Because of product counts and parameters, a bicycle webshop is one of the hardest webshop genres: the buyer searches by size, type, frame geometry and part compatibility, and if they do not find exactly what they want, they move on. On top of that there is the service workshop, which for a bike shop is the other half of the revenue.

The solution

• A WooCommerce store with dozens of categories: bikes, parts and equipment organised, not in one large list.
• Filtering by size and type. For a bicycle, nobody can buy without it.
• Customer accounts for tracking orders and previous purchases.
• Service booking on the site, so the workshop is not a phone negotiation.
• Fast delivery communicated in the purchase flow, because with parts the delivery time is a decision factor.

The result

A store that keeps a large and complicated range manageable, and that pulls the service workshop into the online flow too. For a retailer trading since 2008 the webshop runs alongside the physical shop, and service booking connects the two.

Why a bike shop is a hard genre

A garment has two parameters: size and colour. A bicycle has ten: frame size, wheel size, drivetrain, brakes, suspension, material, intended use, load rating. With parts, compatibility is added on top, and that is the hardest part. The buyer wants to know whether the part fits their bike. If the product page does not answer that, they do not order and walk into a physical shop instead.

Filtering instead of searching

Buyers cannot always name exactly what they are after. So the main tool is filtering, not the search box. The range can be narrowed by size, type and intended use until a manageable number of results remain. That is what makes a catalogue of dozens of categories navigable. Without it, a range this large would be a disadvantage.

Bringing the workshop in

At a bike retailer the other half of the revenue comes from servicing, and that is usually left out of the online flow entirely: it gets arranged by phone, which wastes both sides' time. On the site a service appointment can be requested, so the customer handles it in the same place they buy the part. This function is what connects the shop and the webshop: the customer does not choose between them, they use both.

Seasonality and stock

The cycling season compresses into a few months, and during it the stock changes daily. If the webshop is not current, people order something in the spring peak that is already gone, and nothing damages trust more. Stock management is therefore quick to handle from the admin, and a sold-out product stays on the site and shows its state. For a retailer trading since 2008 the reputation is the biggest asset; the webshop must not spend it.