BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Cyclescheme director Daniel Gillborn writes for BikeBiz…
Last month I urged you all to take part in Cycle to Work Day and ‘pledge’ to offer Free Bike Health Checks. This month, with less than four weeks to go, the message is still much the same, but I’m delighted to say that we now have over 300 retailers on board which is fantastic news! But we do not wish to rest on our laurels, so if you haven’t yet visited www.cycletoworkday.org and pledged your support there is still time.
We truly believe Cycle to Work Day is one of only a few events in the national calendar that celebrates cycling in its most simple, universally relevant form. Cycle commuting touches every part of our industry, and the Cycle to Work Day campaign provides a much-needed focal point for us all to work together to raise the profile of cycling to work in the UK.
By getting behind Cycle to Work Day and running in-store events, reaching out to local employers or creating news at a local level, we hope that retailers will find it easier to make a splash in their community. 2013’s event even saw a independent bike shop get TV coverage with a Top Gear-style race between a car, bus and bike – it really is a chance to think outside the box and make yourselves known.
I’ll provide a comprehensive analysis of Cycle to Work Day once the event has taken place and we’ve had time to digest all of the events and success stories from the campaign. In the meantime, I wanted to keep you all updated with our retailer plans that I laid out to you earlier this year. One of which, is the Cyclescheme B2B.
We are still in the pilot phase of this exciting new development which brings together a whole host of new improvements including expanded shop profiles on our website, a new event administration tool and enhanced information on our employer clients. It is early days, and we are using this pilot phase to get input from stores, but initial feedback is very encouraging. One retailer in particular remarked: “So handy. We will be using this a lot. It’s really useful to be able to quickly find an employer and see the certificate limit. In the past we had to send employees away to ask their employer.”
Not a bad start, I’m sure you’ll agree.
Cycle to Work Day takes place on September 4th.
This article originally ran in BikeBiz August 2014, issue 103. Read the full mag here.
