Pedelecs talks to the Electric Transport Shop about their brand, history and plans for the future:
Who is behind ETS and how did you first become interested in electric bikes?
Eddie Kehoe & James McAlley – we are friends from from college.
When you try an electric bike for the first time it’s an experience that you want to tell people about. Like when you bought your first smart phone and needed to share the wonderful things you could now do with your phone. We got hooked to the point that we had to spend all of our time showing people these wonderful new products.
When did you open your first shop?
In early 2005 we took in a single lock up unit in Cambridge’s Hope Street Yard. The yard is an eclectic mix of antique restorers and dealers some of which have been there for 40 years, as well as modern start-ups.
It harks back to a time when people that were ‘working’ had time to stop and chat to each other….for most of the day! A few of our customers have suggested it reminds them of Steptoe and Son.
It is tucked away, but we are still there, albeit with a larger setup. You may think being off the high street is a big disadvantage for a small retailer but we believe our stores will only be sustainable if they integrate into the communities they serve and Hope St Yard is very much a community hub.
As a company you’ve grown since then. Where have your expansion plans take you so far, and why those locations?
We now also have shops in London, Oxford, Bristol and York.
Our understanding is that customers get the best e-bike experience when they can rely on convenient local support and to that end we follow our customers and where they want us to be we go. We receive emails all the time asking us to open a shop in someone’s community. As more people realise that there’s a cheap, healthy alternative to waiting for a bus or wasting life stuck in traffic, more villages, towns and cities will have a specialist electric bike store & workshop, these products are here to stay.
What about your ethos, what is the thinking behind the company?
First and foremost, electric bikes are not just an evolution of cycles, they hail the return of cycling to mainstream transport.
Following on from that, this is what we believe in:
Advice not Sales: Most electric bikes are used daily – even if that wasn’t the initial plan. E-bikes are never left to live a lonely existence in the back of a shed, but instead become an important part of our customers’ transportation options, often replacing cars or a cancelled bus route.
Electric bikes fulfill a community need, helping older people transport themselves safely around their locality to their friends, family, or even the local public house. Younger people use electric bikes to whizz past the urban SUVs on the school run and of course to get to and from their place of work all the time in control of their exertion. We have many lucky customers enjoying leisurely touring activities and for all of these uses we need to help our customers consider aspects of the bike’s design, specifications and capabilities that will help them experience the best and allow us to provide the support they may need. With such fundamental functions and so many very different products to choose from, it’s important that customers are treated individually, can test a few options and receive honest advice based on their requirements.
Support: Electric bikes, once purchased, tend to become as important to our customers as their most prized possessions and possibly more important than some family members (so we’ve been told)! We need to ensure the whole supply chain is ready behind us to keep our customers on the road. A few days without your main transportation, or the bike you’ve planned your holiday around, is a lot to ask so any diagnosis and repairs need to be swift.
Passion & Delight: We regularly hear people say things like “I’ve spent a lot of money on stuff in my life and this bike is the best thing I’ve bought. I use it everyday”.
Everything we do is designed to deliver that level of satisfaction and delight to our customers. It’s that simple. We are geeks (even if some of my colleagues dispute this) happy to be employed doing what we love and we realise that in order to find people to pay for what we love, we need to be the best at what we do.
So what do you think you do differently to other retailers?
We are 100% experts in what we offer and we carefully select the products we sell based on the real value they offer; then we stand behind them and support our customers purchase locally for as long as they wish to use that product.
We are 100% into what we do! We are the guys that stand in the cold with bikes and leaflets in the city centre trying to show people the future; we are the guys that visit schools and places of work and talk to whoever will listen about the technology.
We’ve been focused on electric bikes and almost alone in offering repairs on all makes and models for over 8 years. That’s given us a great understanding of how components work together and which combinations perform particular functions better and suit particular customer requirements the best.
The true cost of anything can be more than the purchase price and not all products are best experienced if bought in boxes!
We are in the age of the internet and that’s great right? The real-time connectivity of humanity is the wonder of our age. Does that mean everything we need or want should be virtual until the postman delivers reality?
It has been difficult for us to invest in ‘old fashioned’ and ‘expensive’ bricks and mortar stores to support our customers in the face of online buying trends, however as many professional cycle shops will agree – it is the only way to ensure your customers get a great experience and real value over the life of their product. Selling is just a small part of what customers need us to do (don’t tell our bank manager) so why would we base our business solely around flogging stuff in boxes with the lowest overheads possible – other than extra beauty sleep? Our business is based around long term relationships with our customers, our community and being at hand to enjoy the good and help with the bad.
What has supported your growth?
What we “should” have done
We should have hired a business mentor, done an MBA and learned how to scientifically flog lots of things to people through a beautiful website. On top of that we should have crafted careful adverts, spent money ensuring journalists were favourable towards our products and paid Google to have us at the top of the search results..
That would have been the Dragons Den business plan. Geared around a formulaic approach to growth that we feel puts marketing and selling at its beating heart.
What we have been doing
As simple as it sounds, we’ve just put our heads down and grafted, listened to our customers and kept an eye on our competition. Customers are at the focal point of what we do and to best please them we cram in on average over 60 full on e-bike tests a year so that we know all the systems available and can discuss fairly with customers.
What key brands do you stock and why?
We are very fussy about which products we offer our customers and in order of priority we look for:
1. Reliability
2. Value for money and sensible specification (only UK/EU source-able bike parts)
3. Professional UK or EU based product support backed by a sound business model
4. Performance
5. Something special
Testing: Every single model is put through a 1700 mile destructive test before other points are considered.
At the lower price points we stock our own products. We started making our own e-bikes to try to improve the inconsistent quality and support we experienced at these prices and over the years we’ve managed to improve our bikes to the point that our SMARTA e-bikes are the current Electric Bike World Champions, beating much more expensive electric bikes.
Because these products vary so much in terms of capability and feel, we try to maintain a large selection and where there are similar suitable models we will select the one that truly offers the best value to our customers.
Have any recent models proved to be favorites with you and your customers?
Some of our own products came a long way in 2013. The BOSS retrofit system for off-road mountain biking for instance is very exciting – a system we all love riding, offering superior performance to weight.
Bosch – you’d have to live in a cave not to notice that 2013 was all about Bosch. In our opinion they make the best mid-drive motor exemplified on great value offerings from KTM, AVE and Haibike.
So what advice would you to give to someone looking for their first electric bike?
Well here’s the thing….or things…you have either:
1. tried one, in which case nothing but armageddon can stop you buying one
2. seen one, in which case you’ve got the curiosity itch
3. read about them, then read some more, then some more, then………help!
If you are considering the purchase of an electric bike, one sign that you are onto something very very good is the enthusiasm with which people write about them. Everyone has an opinion which is generally only the case when something really makes a difference in life. Not even politics arouses as many passions as e-bikes.
So, you start your research diligently, noting the key points, the reviews (I’ll assume you ignore unverified testimonials), the references, the new technical terms etc.. It proceeds swimmingly until at some point you notice you’ve stepped onto a mine field in your slippers. Lots of opinions, lots of marketing, lots of everything that can be said, but nothing that can be touched, tested, tried or evaluated in the real world.
So, not being one for too many words, I can sumarise my advice as such:
1. Try one – if you haven’t already! It will change your life – like fire to the neanderthals or laughing gas to the Victorians – life will just be better.
2. if at all possible find somewhere local to test ride and for after-sales support. The products vary dramatically in terms of capability and feel – they are cutting edge high tech products.
3. Get one! You will love them if you get the right one for you.
4. Get two! The people you love deserve one too…:-)
5. Have fun and change the world one e-bike at a time.
What key improvements to technology are you most excited about for 2014?
This is a difficult question for an enthusiast. There are so many developments underway that may revolutionise the revolution that are electric bikes. Lithium sulphur technology, motors made with soft magnetic composites, advances in control electronics to name but a few. The goals are increased efficiency (combustion engines are approx 40% efficient electric bike motors are generally above 80% efficient) and improved design to win the hearts and minds of the worlds’ urban populous.
Design for 2014: (at the risk of sounding like a broken record) the new Bosch system just looks great. Shimano are launching their STEPS system with automatic gearing although initially only in Germany.
HeroEco may be introducing something particularly new and fan-dangled but I can’t say too much about that. Sorry 🙂
A couple of all-in-one products utilising nifty smart phone apps are due to launch in spring – the long awaited SuperPedestrian from MIT and the Kickstarter star FlyKly.
Also I’d like to see Gocycle have a great year – they are a good bunch of guys with a very sleek product.
Oh and we might have something special for fans of the Specialized Turbo….
2014 and beyond for the Electric Transport Shop
Well in humble terms we are going to be more popular than facebook after a high school disco and I’m going to be the UK’s first bike industry executive to earn enough to be taxed at the lower rate 🙂
In truth we’re all here at TETS because we believe we are making lives better and we enjoy working with that belief.
To add to the feel-good factor we will be starting our own charitable endeavour to build custom e-bikes and e-trikes free of charge for children that otherwise would struggle to cycle. More to come on this one.
This electric bike industry is like a child learning to cycle, it is still a little uncertain but it isn’t adding to the bruise count. The UK is a long way behind our peers in Europe in terms of market size and we have a battle to enter the consciousness of those that have consigned cycling to transport history. TETS in 2014 will be continuing to get people out of cars, off public transport and helping their shoe soles last longer by introducing a new form of transportation…..and in some respects – FREEDOM!*
*That statement can only be understood by trying one.
Events: There will be many throughout the UK. We have a new events manager and he’s one of the nicest people you can meet. In fact if you meet him at an event you’ll struggle not to take him home and feed him. Don’t believe me?…..look out for our 2014 events on our Roadshow page coming soon to our new website.
Irony – new website is coming soon.
How to get in touch with the Electric Transport Shop today:
We’re featured in the Pedelecs dealer directory: Contact either our Cambridge branch, London, Oxford, York or Bristol for more information. Website details and telephone number on each link.
Our thanks to Eddie Kehoe for this interview.
