Hi,
Pricing between continents is a difficult one. Yes you are correct there is a UK distributor. In Germany Haibike deal direct with some bigger suppliers and through distributors to others. Yes you could say there is 'an extra finger in the pie' but other costs are also apparent, for example, shipping, currency rates etc etc. Over time as the brand becomes more established the prices may even out. I also know that, although hard to monitor, brands like Haibike are putting a stop to sellers between countries, some other brands already are doing this and can make it work. That said I don't think a bike will ever be as cheap as it will be on their home turf. I know 'some' people are after a bargain, but you would be surprised how few times the European pricing thing crops up. Most of my customers appreciate that you pay for what you get and feel that sometimes a little more is well spent to have the local support and back up, leading up to the sale, help making the right choice, initial set-up of the bike and then being there for you in the future. I have plenty of testimonials all over the internet that will back this up (hopefully one of my regulars on here will now 'pipe up' and back me up here).
I saw a shiny new LCD TV advertised on the TV last night, it was coming up at £599.. Now I could pop to Currys and buy it tomorrow, that TV is probably on sale for around a fifth of that price in the far east. But if I buy it and it developed a fault after a few months, could I just return it? Even if I could, would the foreign seller be interested?.. Probably not once I got past the language difference. If they even responded etc.. Would I even meet the seller? How could I trust someone I have never spoken to in person to be there for me when I need it?.. How will I even know my item will turn up once I hand over some money?.. No I think I would rather just go buy it from Mr Currys. Yes its a little more but at least I have some piece of mind. Electrical items aside, I personally would visit my local shop, at least I can go in there, probably have a good chat with some one knowledgeable, buy an item, maybe even haggle a deal and walk out happy knowing that the guy I was just gave my hard earned to will be there next time I need him.
As for the models. You probably have seen that Haibike have over 35 ebikes in the range now. Bringing models to the UK needs to be chosen wisely. So we try to pick a good mix that will fit the requirements of the masses. If you think; if we decide on 5 models, bring over 100 units of each, we then might have 4 sizes within that, all of a sudden that's 2000 bikes and to the consumer we only appear to have 5 choices.
We have actually expanded the range this year from previously 3 last year to now more than 10. At first we did offer to 'special order' on request. Now we could have someone phone after a particular model, it would then take about an hours work of communications to determine the availability, expected date, shipping etc. We then phone the customer back and in that time 'his dog has died and he needs to cancel the sale'.
Of course a way round this is to only supply on a deposit basis. However would you put a deposit down before securing stock and dates etc?.. Its catch 22 for us. If I'm honest we could stock 34/35 models and we would still have an abundance of requests for that 1 that we haven't got. It just seems to work out that way.
Still its always nice to know that the local man has been given a chance to see what they can do.. (Que for multiple emails to arrive in my inbox)
Regards
Martin
Pricing between continents is a difficult one. Yes you are correct there is a UK distributor. In Germany Haibike deal direct with some bigger suppliers and through distributors to others. Yes you could say there is 'an extra finger in the pie' but other costs are also apparent, for example, shipping, currency rates etc etc. Over time as the brand becomes more established the prices may even out. I also know that, although hard to monitor, brands like Haibike are putting a stop to sellers between countries, some other brands already are doing this and can make it work. That said I don't think a bike will ever be as cheap as it will be on their home turf. I know 'some' people are after a bargain, but you would be surprised how few times the European pricing thing crops up. Most of my customers appreciate that you pay for what you get and feel that sometimes a little more is well spent to have the local support and back up, leading up to the sale, help making the right choice, initial set-up of the bike and then being there for you in the future. I have plenty of testimonials all over the internet that will back this up (hopefully one of my regulars on here will now 'pipe up' and back me up here).
I saw a shiny new LCD TV advertised on the TV last night, it was coming up at £599.. Now I could pop to Currys and buy it tomorrow, that TV is probably on sale for around a fifth of that price in the far east. But if I buy it and it developed a fault after a few months, could I just return it? Even if I could, would the foreign seller be interested?.. Probably not once I got past the language difference. If they even responded etc.. Would I even meet the seller? How could I trust someone I have never spoken to in person to be there for me when I need it?.. How will I even know my item will turn up once I hand over some money?.. No I think I would rather just go buy it from Mr Currys. Yes its a little more but at least I have some piece of mind. Electrical items aside, I personally would visit my local shop, at least I can go in there, probably have a good chat with some one knowledgeable, buy an item, maybe even haggle a deal and walk out happy knowing that the guy I was just gave my hard earned to will be there next time I need him.
As for the models. You probably have seen that Haibike have over 35 ebikes in the range now. Bringing models to the UK needs to be chosen wisely. So we try to pick a good mix that will fit the requirements of the masses. If you think; if we decide on 5 models, bring over 100 units of each, we then might have 4 sizes within that, all of a sudden that's 2000 bikes and to the consumer we only appear to have 5 choices.
We have actually expanded the range this year from previously 3 last year to now more than 10. At first we did offer to 'special order' on request. Now we could have someone phone after a particular model, it would then take about an hours work of communications to determine the availability, expected date, shipping etc. We then phone the customer back and in that time 'his dog has died and he needs to cancel the sale'.
Of course a way round this is to only supply on a deposit basis. However would you put a deposit down before securing stock and dates etc?.. Its catch 22 for us. If I'm honest we could stock 34/35 models and we would still have an abundance of requests for that 1 that we haven't got. It just seems to work out that way.
Still its always nice to know that the local man has been given a chance to see what they can do.. (Que for multiple emails to arrive in my inbox)
Regards
Martin
