BOULDER, Colo. (BRAIN) — The National Bicycle Dealers Association once hosted its popular Super Seminars annually at Interbike, focusing on topics like industry research, market trends and retail best practices.
With Interbike's demise after the 2018 show, the NBDA sought to continue its retailer education, leading to a creation of webinar series that's growing in popularity among members.
"We've started branding them Super Webinars, which is a nod to the old Super Seminars that the NBDA put on at Interbike," said Brandee Lepak, NBDA president.
With a goal of having a live 30- to 45-minute webinar each Tuesday — with recordings available afterward on the YouTube channel — topics cover wide-ranging subjects. From breaking news, to how to sell e-bikes to learning how to create a shop email newsletter that consistently gets opened, the Super Webinars are a free educational resource for the taking.
"Quick, direct education," Lepak said, summing up the best aspect of the webinars.
Lepak said the most popular are the breaking news Super Webinars hosted by Specialized Executive Vice President Bob Margevicius, drawing over 100 registrants. Margevicius discusses updates on tariffs, COVID-19 virus "and how the industry is handling that type of scenario," Lepak said. "They are the most popular industry-wide because we'll open those up to not just retailers but everyone."
Retailer best practices topics are the next most popular, with an average of 30 to 40 registrants. Lepak said the NBDA puts those on the YouTube channel for retailer reference.
The next webinar will be on the topic, "What Every Bike Retailer Should Be Doing Now for a Profitable Buying Season," on Tuesday at 2 p.m. EDT. Retail Toolkit's Jason Windsor and Justin Bolinger will host. Windsor has 17 years of experience in marketing and retail, and Bolinger has worked in the bicycle retail industry for more than two decades.
"We've talked with hundreds of independent bike shop owners, and we're hoping to share what we've learned from them: That planning their busy season now gives them time back when business picks up, and helps them sell through the product they ordered during preseason before they're forced to mark it down," Windsor said. "These markdowns can lead to the kind of serious cash flow problems that our experience tells us can eventually force a bike shop to close. We'll cover planning promotions, including inventory, merchandising, staffing and training, and marketing, to make those promotions as successful as possible."
Windsor said 30 have registered so far and it's common to have retailers registering right up until the start time. Retail Toolkit's last webinar had 112 registrants. Everyone who registers will receive an email link to watch any time afterward.
In addition to Super Webinars, the NBDA also has Bicycle Retail Radio. "We do a lot of interviews with retailers and will have one retailer interviewing another one about best practices," Lepak said. "And then we have industry leaders interviewing other industry leaders. And that's gaining a lot of popularity. And those we're averaging about 400 listens per episode so far."
NBDA's calendar of events, which lists upcoming webinars, can be found here.
