WiggleCRC makes £100m move on German rival Bike24

[Ross]

http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/wiggle ... 3#after-ad

[find_bruce]

Aw nuts. Having gutted chain reaction, now they want to eliminate the next big competitor in Bike24. Unlikely to be the consumer that wins out of this.

[Mububban]

Aw nuts. Having gutted chain reaction, now they want to eliminate the next big competitor in Bike24. Unlikely to be the consumer that wins out of this.

How have the gutted c r c? Are they no longer stocking popular items? Do they want to shut down c r c or are they keeping different brands on the different sites?

[find_bruce]

Aw nuts. Having gutted chain reaction, now they want to eliminate the next big competitor in Bike24. Unlikely to be the consumer that wins out of this.

How have the gutted c r c? Are they no longer stocking popular items? Do they want to shut down c r c or are they keeping different brands on the different sites?

I used to regularly buy parts from chain reaction after comparing them with other sites including wriggle & bike24, but shortly after the takeover prices went up & even worse only half what I wanted would be in stock. Since then bike24 has been consistently cheaper, even taking into account shipping. Other site such as bike-components.de tend to set their prices by reference to bike24, so I try & support the competition.

[MichaelB]

Interesting. I have used Bike24 quite a bit, but their shipping is a pain. Hibike is another that has some damn good prices, particularly ion items like tyres, disc pads, discs etc.

Interesting what findbruce says about Wiggle/c r c.

A recent exercise had me shopping around for a couple of cassettes - an 11-28 11sp shimano and the new HG800 11-34 as well.

I looked at c r c, Wiggle, Rose Bikes, Bike-discount.de, Bike24, PBK and Pushy's. The stock/Availability and pricing was quite amazing ...

Here is a summary of the costs (where available) for the 5800 11-28, 6800 11-28, 8000 11-28 and HG800 (incl shipping) in that order

c r c - $44, $71, $95, $110
Wiggle - $47, NA , $101, $NA
Rose Bikes - $48, $70, $80, $87 plus $21.50 shipping
Pushys - $91, $NA, $74, $98
Bike Discount.de - $45, NA, $76, $87 plus $39 shipping
Bike24 - $54, $80, $78, $89 plus $30 shipping
Hibike.de - $45, $69, $71, $89 plus $34.50 shipping

Note that Wiggle & c r c need to have min order of $80 to get free shipping, but the price differences are varied, and even more interesting is what some stores don't have !!!

[find_bruce]

For some reason tyres show even more variation, eg schwalbe pro one, 622-28 - all prices + shipping.

c r c - $55.49 not in stock
Wiggle - not stocked
Rose Bikes - $56.13
Pushys - $99.99
Bike Discount.de - $49.74
Bike24 - $52.34
Hibike.de - $44.58

As with all these things, it all depend on how much you are getting and in what time frame you need it. Most of my purchases are to restock my consumables - tyres, tubes, chains, cassettes, so the shipping costs & slow speed from Germany are not too much of an issue.

Smaller sites are usually better if you are wanting to get around regional blocking such as SRAM, mavic, ortleib et al

[Warin]

Aw nuts. Having gutted chain reaction, now they want to eliminate the next big competitor in Bike24. Unlikely to be the consumer that wins out of this.

Could be looking at brexit strategies. Maybe they need to consider Ireland (not north)? Anyone with experience of shipping from Ireland (not north)?

[Ross]

It would be interesting to see Wiggle buy out Pushys or Bike Bug but probably too small for Wiggle to worry about.

How does Wiggle compare to PBK?

[AUbicycles]

How does wiggle prices compare to PBK... can't say but I can say that PBK customer service for foreign customers is well-known as woeful. If things don't go well... you are screwed.


One Wiggle and c r c... it was billed as a merger and the old c r c warehouse is on the market and inventory and everything is consolidated in the midlands. The stock is available through both sites though the appear separately (which makes sense) and c r c does have a stronger MTB approach while Wiggle has been pushing themself as a broader sports outlet.

For BIKE24 - I never saw them as a rival. True, some shoppers got the product/price from the German retailer but the purchase is more about Wiggle/c r c getting a stronger footing in a market in which they couldn't compete as well in - the language barrier and market differences for the German speaking market is a new kettle of fish. They announced that they are keeping it as an independent unit and there is no doubt that knowledge will flow across... but I still don't see it as a 'rival'.

There are other strong players on the German market - for example I have found bike-components.de to be quite good (comparing the range and value purchasing a number of items) however I have not ordered with delivery to Australia. They do seem to do a lot of things right and I have just noticed that find_bruce has also mentioned them.

Rose Versand is a funny one. I had direct contact and they saw an interest in Australia - before canyon officially launched - and generally have a similar business model though canyon have reached greater heights and international visibility with their pro-team sponsorship. The basis of the companies is (or was) to be a cheaper supplier but cutting out costs. Canyon however can now afford to price higher and I think Rose are following suit... but Rose are definitely not capitalising with a serious entry into Australia. And the 'closed' nature of German business where 'customers come to you' also puts the German business as a disadvantage over English or Americans who are proactive marketeers.