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Giant launch Home Set Up delivery schemeGiant Home Set Up2

Giant launch Home Set Up delivery scheme

Buy your bike online and have it setup and delivered by an authorised dealer
by Mat Brett
Mon, Jan 21, 2013 16:18
6

Giant are offering a new Home Set Up service when you buy a bike online, where an authorised Giant retailer will deliver it fully built up and make sure that it fits you.

You can order a bike direct from Giant’s Click & Collect website, then pay an additional £14.99 for the convenience of having it delivered.

Here’s Giant’s marketing spiel: “We want to ensure you have the best experience with your new bike, that’s why we don’t deliver bikes in boxes, assembled or not. Home Set Up takes the concept of home delivery further. When your bike is delivered you get more than a bike dropped at the door – you get an authorised Giant retailer checking that the bike fits and is right for you. Any company can deliver a bike in a box but no-one else offers a unique service like Home Set Up exclusively from Giant.”

So, you don’t even need to turn the bars or pump up the tyres – that’s all done for you. Plus, the same retailer will carry out your first three month service, free of charge.

The whole internet sales thing is tricky for bike brands. On the one hand, you have brands like Canyon who sell direct to the consumer, cutting bike shops out of the equation. That means they don’t have to factor in the retailer’s margin, so they can pass on savings to the rider.

 

Brands with a dealer network sometimes walk a fine line. They want to offer consumers the convenience of buying online but they clearly don’t want to upset their dealers, who they rely on for sales. The new Giant system seems to offer the cyclist the convenience of having a bike delivered to their door, along with the assurance of having the bike setup and checked by a retailer who knows what they’re doing.

Plus, it seems to us, there’s the benefit to the dealer of establishing direct contact with the consumer who’s going to take their bike in for a service a few weeks down the line. Nothing wrong with that, of course – everyone needs to have a good relationship with their local bike shop.

Ian Beasant, Managing Director of Giant UK, said, “Home Set Up offers customers more. Everyone leads busy lives and with Click & Collect and Home Set Up we are responding to consumer demands – whilst still maintaining Giant principals and ensuring customers get the right bike and have great riding experiences. This, supported by a great independent retail network, offers consumers peace of mind and confidence in their online retail experience.”

For further information on Home Set Up and Click & Collect visit www.shopgiant-bicycles.co.uk

Home Set Up
Giant
Click and Collect
Click & collect
Mat Brett

Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. We send him off around the world to get all the news from launches and shows too. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.

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6 comments

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themartincox | 11 years ago
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seems like a cracking idea, the customer gets to purchase online, the shop still gets to be introduced to the new customer and build a long-term relationship that way.

simple, and effective

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Tony Farrelly | 11 years ago
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I think the way it works Simon is that the shop you select as your click and collect store gets credited with the sale (or at least a portion of it) plus the retailer gets the chance to establish a relationship with their new customer that will see them coming back for future servicing and to buy accessories and the like. My guess is that Giant can do this cos as a manufacturer that distributes it's own products there is no (or less distributor margin) and if there is one it's simply moving money around within Giant - the also benefit from the economies of scale of making very large numbers of bikes.

As for what happens if you live in a remote place, well if you bought a bike from your 'local' bike shop and you lived in a remote place it'd be just the same - you'd have a long trip back to the shop, but then you might be used to that…

One of the things that Giant don't mention is that some of their dealers offer lifetime free servicing if you buy a bike from them which is a fantastic deal I reckon.

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cidermart | 11 years ago
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Sounds like a good idea to me i can't see why they don't all offer this type of service.

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Simon E | 11 years ago
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How does the dealer benefit from this scheme? Do they get a slice of the margin they would have got from the sale via some kind of 'support contract'?

And what kind of service can a customer in remote areas expect? They're most likely to be interested in getting a bike delivered instead of a 100-mile (or more) round trip. And what happens when the gear cable stretches or a spoke breaks?

Perhaps I'll email Giant to ask if I can have a Defy at wholesale if I put it together myself. I know the correct size and can pump up my own tyres.

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Mat Brett replied to Simon E | 11 years ago
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It's a delivery service, Simon E, with the bike fully built up by an authorised retailer.

You get a three-month service in there from that retailer (it says all this in the article, by the way). If you have trouble with your gears beyond that or break a spoke, why would you expect it to be any different from normal? You're just paying £14.99 for the convenience of having it delivered and having someone check that it fits you. Seems reasonable enough to us.

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Simon E replied to Mat Brett | 11 years ago
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Mat Brett wrote:

It's a delivery service, Simon E, with the bike fully built up by an authorised retailer.

You get a three-month service in there from that retailer (it says all this in the article, by the way).

Yes, I gathered that. I wondered how it would affect the retail network. Perhaps it will be better, but the dealer will have to find time for a person to drive to the customer and back, spending time with the customer. That person will have to understand bike fitting, bike mechanics, customer service, be able and insured to drive the company vehicle and fuel isn't getting any cheaper. While he's doing that he won't be at the shop so could mean they have to take on another employee. That's fine if business is good and income steady, but not everyone is so fortunate.

Customers who travel to buy something know that they may have to return for adjustment or repairs. It's different if the customer is an hour or more drive from the retailer. They would surely have to book a time window, which adds complication.

It also means that the Giant website, online reviews etc could influence the buying decision more than the showroom salesman (and possibly bypass the appeal of competing brands they also have on display).

I'm not saying it can't work or that it won't suit some people, but struggle to see how it fits in with the current relationship with retailers, who will still have to run their shop with its overheads. I also think there is no substitute for kicking tyres, seeing bikes for real and sitting on a few models to help you make your mind up. You get the opportunity to try on some helmets, maybe a jacket, decide you should have a lock and a pump, a puncture kit and maybe a couple of inner tubes. If you get the bike delivered and the shop isn't nearby the chances are those items will be bought online.

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