Profibike surpasses expectations with an omnichannel approach: Lowest price guarantee and top-notch service both online and offline.
What began as a good idea in a small family business in 2015 has evolved into a leading bicycle store where everyone in the family can find their perfect bike. At Dutch E-bike and Profibike, bikes can be ordered from various branches across the country and through the online shop. The company not only guarantees the lowest price but also provides an extensive shopping experience online and in physical Experience Centers. A robust omnichannel strategy that has far exceeded the anticipated growth.
Bram Weijerman, who has been with the company since 2017 and currently serves as a project manager at Profibike, reflects on the company’s journey: “In 2017, the company primarily focused on supplying electric bikes to dealers under its own brand ‘Dutch E-bike’. In 2018, Puch came into the picture, and we became the licensee for the Benelux. However, we found it challenging to establish ourselves among larger brands. Simultaneously, there was a growing demand for direct sales in Dongen, where our headquarters and experience center is located. This prompted us to launch an omnichannel sales strategy in 2020, starting with our online platform Profibike.nl, enabling us to serve consumers directly. Over time, we expanded our range with more brands, both online and in our six physical stores.”
In addition to direct sales online and through nationwide branches, the company continues to be a supplier of Puch with various service points (dealers) across the country, serving both consumers and dealers. Last year, the company acquired the brand Tomos, expanding its offerings to include more ‘special bikes’ such as cargo bikes and fatbikes.
The choice for in3
Profibike offers a suitable range of payment methods, both online and offline. “Internally, we assess which payment solutions are relevant to our product. We don’t just accept every payment method. We evaluate its value. There’s no point in offering multiple providers that offer the same in the checkout. That might make it too complicated for the customer. in3 fits well with our product, it was easy to activate it in the webshop via Pay. In addition to in3, we have offered other instalment payment solutions, such as Santander in the past, but we received a lot of questions about it. We are very satisfied with in3 because consumers find it very easy to use. We also notice that in3 is the most used alternative payment method. For us in3 is convenient, if customers have questions because they are not accepted, we can easily refer them to in3.”
Currently, it’s not possible to offer in3 in the physical stores. “We also receive quite a few requests to pay with in3 in the stores, and we would like to add that,” says Bram. The integration with Pay offers this feature and it is expected to further boost sales in the stores.
Successful online strategy
In early 2023, the company took a significant step to enhance its (online) success in the consumer market. The website is completely renewed. Profibike now displays the instalment price per term for in3 and Spraypay on product and overview pages. “The instalment display on the product page just works enormously. We see an increase in conversion, as well as the preference for in3,” says Bram.
The results are indeed impressive; the total number of sales has grown significantly. The number of sales paid with in3 has increased by 4 to 5 times compared to 2022. They also observe a 7% increase in the average order value compared to the previous year. The online success has had a significant impact on in-store sales: “The expectation was that we would grow by about 10% overall, but it turned out to be 40 – 50%.”
In addition to the new website, the company enlisted the services of a reputable online marketing agency (MvH Media) and increased investments in marketing. Bram states, “Online, we have grown about 2.5 times in the past year. It’s all much better now than when we started. We invest more in various campaigns, mentioning in3 as a payment option for consumers, and explore more channels than before. We are also proud to have been nominated for the Dutch Search Awards for the Best SEO campaign B2C this year.”
Exciting future plans!
The company looks ahead with optimism and is ready for new challenges in the future. “We currently have 6 Profibike branches, most of them in the southern part of the country, but we would like to have nationwide coverage to better serve customers in terms of service and after-sales. We notice that, in general, cheaper bikes are sold online than in the store. It’s a challenge for us to provide the upsell possible in the store also online. Furthermore, we have the ambition to become the number 1 e-bike store in the Netherlands,” concludes Bram.
If you, like Profibike.nl, want to meet the demand for interest-free installment payments, in3 is a valuable payment partner for webshops looking to offer customers more payment flexibility responsibly while growing their business. Curious about the impact in your webshop? Contact sales@payin3.nl or visit www.payin3.nl.
