Bike shops the UK’s most populous independent store

Research led by South Western Railways and based on shop data held by IndieRetail.UK has bike shops down as the UK’s most populous independent store.

Though the number of stores has fallen in the past decade from north of 2,000, the analysis says that 1,675 true independents remain across the UK as a whole, which is significantly ahead of the second most common store – literary indies – at 868 stores.

Perhaps unsurprisingly given its slow moving traffic and prevalence of cycle lanes, London is said to have the greatest volume of indie bike shops, followed by Bristol, Edinburgh, Cambridge and Glasgow.

The subject has been muddied somewhat by what constitutes a bike shop and an independent in recent years, with adaptations revolving around more the workshop and less on sales now much more common. Alongside this, the pandemic’s ‘bike boom’ and a consistent trend of greater volume and high-ticket electric bike sales has driven expansion and store buyouts in some quarters.

Nonetheless, there is merit to the findings, CyclingIndustry.News’ bike shop database is closely aligned to the figures and registrations have gradually been rising again following a high pre-pandemic closure rate. The rise was most pronounced during the earlier part of the pandemic when greater uncertainty on employment existed, alongside an emerging trend dubbed ‘The Great Resignation‘. Since that time, a return to normal opening/closure rates appears evident.

Great Western adds to its research Google trends data, discovering that searches for the term ‘local bike shops near me’ grew 783% in the UK from 2018-2022. Similarly, searches for the term ‘independent bike shop’ increased 270% between 2018 and 2022. Initiatives like ‘cycle to work day’ also saw a 22% search increase.

The demand, while certainly calmer than peak pandemic, is certainly still there. Department for Transport data illustrates the effect of the 2020 spike, showing that cycling levels increased to their highest levels in decades and that the trip count per person is up 26%. More recent Statista research suggests cycling uptake in 2021 did continue to grow, apparently up 19.5% in 2021.