New U.S. research seeks to map post Covid-19 supply and demand

A research series conducted by the U.S. arm of Sports Marketing Surveys and Human Powered Solutions will map the impact of the coronavirus on reshaping bike buying habits and predict what supply and demand trends the industry can expect next.

A three-wave consumer research project will now progress with founders of Human Powered Solutions and veterans of mapping the U.S. market Jay Townley and Brad Hughes being particularly well placed to compare this exciting period against prior ‘booms’.

“We are including the probable waves of economic stimulus affecting American consumer bicycle buying and use between the second quarter of 2020 and the second quarter of 2021. The focus of the three waves of the study is to determine the actual attitudes and intentions of consumers either actively participating or returning to cycling relative to new bicycles, used bicycles and e-Bikes, bike share usage and indoor cycling,” said Brad Hughes, Managing Director and a founding partner of Human Powered Solutions.

Jay Townley, Resident Futurist for Human Powered Solutions added: “Right now some bicycle industry executives and managers are predicting a second bike boom as sales of new and used bicycles, e-Bikes and indoor trainers are off the charts and demand for service work is at all-time highs. With more Americans riding bicycles some cities have turned streets over to bicycling and walking only.

“However, retail inventories are being depleted and the supply chain is essentially disrupted. There is a high probability that new bicycles will be in short supply and many models and brands will be out of stock for an extended period,” Townley said.

There is caution in the industry that should things return to ‘normal’, that the demand will once again fall quickly behind supply and that boom time ordering could therefore prove flawed. The bike industry is now moving its weight behind campaigns to retain temporary safe cycling infrastructure and fund new and permanent lanes in a bid to keep active travel appealing to new cyclists.

There are numerous other factors at play too, namely the weather, people returning to work that were cycling for leisure purposes and an anticipated spike in the second hand market as interest tapers off and cycling conditions deteriorate once more.

“Providing guidance and understanding consumer response to this and related questions is what this three part study of end users is all about – to bring the facts about what the American consumer intends to buy, how much they intend to spend and how they intend to use the bicycles they acquire, new, used, rented or shared!” said Keith Storey, President of Sports Marketing Surveys, the research company that will be conducting the three waves of consumer research and writing the reports.

The research pairing would normally price such data at around $100,000 for the report – but by committing to a subscription that includes all three waves of research, brands and companies can obtain the findings for a total cost of $10,489, we’re told.

Enquiries can be made via www.humanpoweredsolutions.com, or by calling Brad Hughes on (US) 805-901-9772.

Jay Townley has written at length about the bicycle business’ past, present and future for CyclingIndustry.News. You can catch his work here.