E-Bikes for the Australian Market

E-BIKES FOR THE AUSTRALIAN MARKET
Executive Summary
The concept of e-bikes is taking the world by storm as manifested through the rise in sales. This trend has been observed since 2019, around the same time that COVID-19 was first reported various movement and physical interaction restrictions were implemented. However, the pandemic is not the only reason for the growing e-bike popularity. On the contrary, the need for physical exercise and sentiments towards vehicle emissions are also driving sales. The Australian market is no different since the purchases across the cities have increased significantly. The country has all the necessary characteristics of a lucrative market for new entrants considering that the current competition is not yet cutthroat, which provided opportunities for entrants to build a strong brand. Digital marketing approaches will be the most indispensable tools due to the nature of the market and the potential of such channels as social media.
Market Opportunity
The market for bikes in Australia has never been better and more lucrative, especially with the advent of e-bikes. The popularity and the consequent rise in sales were observed as early as 2019, but the year 2019 and 2020 saw a major increase in sales. With the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic forcing people to isolate and keep distance, bikes have become the best alternative to public transport, especially for the short commutes (Keoghan, 2020). E-bikes are now increasingly produced within Australia, but a high percentage of the e-bikes are imported into Australia. This means that there is a rapidly growing market even for foreign businesses willing to take advantage of the hype around e-bikes. According to Kennedy (2019), people purchasing bikes are not merely doing so for the sole purpose of transport. On the contrary, bikes are used for exercise and as a solution to the vehicle emissions problem. Different region have different volumes weekly cycling as illustrated in Figure 1 below:
Figure 1: Weekly cycling volumes across Australia (MetroCount, 2021).
The main opportunities for e-bikes include consumers purchasing them for personal use. Additionally, the rise of e-bikes has also led to the emergence of new industries or new applications, which present more opportunities. For example, e-bike tourism in such regions as New South Wales (NSW) offers bike tours to individuals, most of whom seek the experience before committing to purchasing their own (Bicycle NSW, 2022). The tours are majorly intended for fun, especially guided tours where guides hope to show the tourists larger areas over a short time. This makes a good case for marketing the e-bikes to tourism organizations and destinations, especially nature parks or trails. The market for e-bikes is expected to continue growing, which means that now is the best time for a company to venture. The rationale is that a business entering the market now will have time to build a strong brand before the market gets saturated and it becomes increasingly difficult for new entrants.
The most important aspect for marketers is the growing popularity of online sales of e-bikes in Australia, a trend observed across the globe. Currently, there exists an ideal supply chain infrastructure in Australia that allows seamless logistics from the manufacturers to the consumers, even via importers, distributors, and online bike shops. As mentioned earlier, online buying increased in popularity due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Consumers not only appreciate the ease and convenience of buying their bikes online but are also faced with a scenario where online purchases are cheaper than through physical stores. Some online sellers of e-bikes have revealed that buying online could save customers between 20% and 40% in cost-saving, which has forced most customers to use the available e-commerce platform. In the near future, it can be expected more e-bike sales will take place via online platforms than through the stores. Therefore, this is an opportunity for prospective business to build their e-commerce framework.
E-bikes are something to be excited about due to the prospects in returns and the possibility of niche markets that can be lucrative. For example, the emerging trends reveal pathways to branding that can be adopted by a business, including luxury folding e-bikes, high-tech e-bikes integrated with smartphones, cargo bikes, mountain bikes, or city/hybrid electric bikes. It is exciting for a business to explore the opportunities presented by each of these categories and to decide on whether to diversify or specialize in any one model. A business that seeks to dominate the market will need to provide all these types, especially if the business is retailing the bikes and not producing them.
The best online tools to use to search trends and keywords are Google search and social media pages. Google search is effective for both long tail and short tail keywords. The recommendation, in this case, is that long tail keywords should be used to specify both the product and markets. In this report, examples of long tail keywords searched included e-bikes Australia, e-bike trends Australia, or e-bike market Australia among others. These searchers produced more useful output that provided direct information regarding the opportunities, the market, and trends in e-bikes in the specific case of Australia. Short tail keywords were less effective since they offered general information, mostly product description and lists of providers. However, not all this information was useless, since some of it could be used to examine such aspects as market shares for the various businesses. Such information is useful in exploring the competitive landscape for e-bikes. Social media searches are often effective in exploring consumer views on the product. Marketers would be interested in establishing how the customers will receive the products, current issues with the products, and the gaps that a new entrant should fill to gain a competitive edge.
The market for e-bikes in Australia can be expected to be competitive due to the presence of both local manufacturers and exporters. The market share data may not be readily available, but a list of the most popular retailers, both physical stores and e-commerce, can be found online. Examples include Advance Traders, Adventure Brands, Bike Corp, Corratec, PSI (Monza Imports), SOLA Sports, and Riese & Muller among others. Considering the Australian market size, it is highly likely that all these companies have not yet dominated the markets. Therefore, new entrants with an effective marketing strategy will have the opportunity to build a strong brand. The level of competitiveness can be considered medium, especially since the consumers are just beginning to purchase and use the bikes. As a looming trend, it can be observed that this level of competition will only increase as the current firms grow in size and others enter the market to capitalize on the growing opportunity.
Persona Research
To develop an in-depth understanding of the Australian e-bike customer, market research would be useful. Market research often seeks to explore the consumption of a product or service by focusing on the customers. Therefore, the market demographics should help answer the question of who purchases a product. In the case of e-bikes, it has been established that there is more than one selling point for the bikes. For example, the bikes can be sold to individuals who need to exercise, can be sports bikes, tour bikes, or simply for transportation over short distances. The problem with this information is that it labels the market for e-bikes as general where anyone can be targeted. However, there can be more than one persona for a product, which means a further investigation into the nature of consumption needs to be conducted.
Further research needed can be found in the sales reports or through social media. The details needed include the average age of the consumer, gender, location, level of income, and occupation. The expected outcome is that a singular view of the market can be obtained. For example, both males and females would be interested in exercising, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, younger people are more adventurous, which means they will mostly be interested in tour bikes and sports bikes. Lower-income people in urban and suburban areas would need a cheaper mode of transport, while the typical office worker whose commutes are simply between home and the office could use the convenience of a bike. Similarly, attitudes towards the environment may also depict another consumer who believes that vehicle emissions should be reduced at all costs (Lee, Casey, and Wigginton, 2019). Such a consumer perceived the bikes as a clean mode of transport. With this information, it is possible to create personas for the e-bike market in Australia.
Overall, market research focusing on consumer demographics is effective in developing personas. The idea of a persona is the representation of a group of customers with similar goals, personal profiles, and buyer journeys (De Ruyter, Keeling, and Ngo, 2018, p. 200). Personal profiles comprise data that describe the attributes of a buyer, including age, gender, occupation, and income among others. Buyer journeys entail the purchasing behavior from researching a product to actual purchase. Goals are simply the reasons why a buyer consumes the product or service. As explained above, the market research reveals all these details regarding the target market. In the case of e-bikes in Australia, the general profile of a persona is that of an urban or suburban resident from adolescents to adults (excluding the elderly). Additionally, this persona is also working-class with low to medium income. There may be more to this persona...