LOS ANGELES, CA (BRAIN)—Currie Technologies will unveil a retail concept store which they expect to have opened for business by early September.
The IZIP Store will be located at 609 Lincoln Boulevard on Highway 1, just south of Santa Monica near the Pacific coast in Venice, California.
Currie’s intention for establishing the IZIP store is to gain a firsthand experience with the consumers so that it can assist in developing retail concepts for their dealer network to use. “This will be a completely different approach to retailing electric bicycles and dramatically different from a typical bicycle store,” said Currie Technologies president Larry Pizzi. “Within the last few years we have been working with many more IBDs, helping them to introduce e-bikes in their stores. The challenges that most have are very similar to one another and I believe that we can help by creating innovative training, developing marketing and merchandising materials, and testing them in this real life retail environment.”
Pizzi said Currie is putting a strong focus on building a model for an electric bicycle store as an individual business.
“Many entrepreneurs see a significant opportunity in the electric bicycle category but most lack the background and experience to do a proper job getting started and they can simply not afford to learn the hard way,” Pizzi said. “Drawing on our teams’ vast array of experience, owning and managing specialty retail stores, and selling to the world’s largest and most progressive retailers, I believe that we can create a diversified model for success in the retail electric bicycle business. This will provide a great springboard to assist our valued retail partners to enhance the customer experience in their own stores.
This new concept store is a key part to Currie’s long-term strategic plan.
“We are setting out to build a retail channel for our electric vehicle products and to differentiate IZIP in the process,” Pizzi said. “We plan to give our customers more reasons to choose to partner with Currie in the two-wheeled light electric vehicle sector. We are also creating a strong lifestyle image for our brand focusing on urban commuters, students, and baby boomers while helping to get more people out of their cars and riding bicycles. I am proud of what we are creating and I am confident that customers will really embrace it.”
For more on this story including why Venice was the chosen location and if Currie plans on doing more concept stores in the future, be sure to read the August 15 issue of Bicycle Retailer and Industry News.
