DURANGO, Colo. (BRAIN) — Erik Saltvold of Erik's Bikes, Board and Ski is the latest guest on a special podcast series produced by Verde Brand Communications and BRAIN.
In this episode, Saltvold, whose retail chain has 30 locations, shares his approach to winning in specialty retail. He said he takes calculated risks, re-invests in his business, and also is continually testing and learning what works. He also talks at length about the challenges of being a specialty retailer with an assortment of brands that is also evolving. Often, retailers are left to manage processes and new systems from brands as they too strive to meet the needs of today's Amazon-trained consumers, he said.
Saltvold and Verde's Kristin Carpenter discuss a number of other headlining topics, including:
- The recent news headlines around Performance Bikes shuttering and REI burning the boats by investing and committing to bike
- How 'show and ship' is evolving in the specialty bike market today — hint, it's in a bit of an awkward teenager phase for many brands, and the retailers are often stuck trying to figure out how to make the model work for multiple brands — all with multiple approaches
- What brands need to do to continue to evolve their operations to get more consumer-centric
- How click and collect is evolving for the omnichannel consumer seeking a specialty experience
The episode is the second in the special series of Verde's Channel Mastery podcast, called Shifting Channels in the Specialty Bicycle Market. This special series includes six more interviews on tap with specialty retail and branding experts from evolving brick-and-mortar retail, marketplaces, direct-first brands, SaaS providers, and established broad-market global retail in the bicycle and lifestyle space. The goal is to discern the top five key levers that will drive specialty businesses to success in 2019.
You'll be hearing from leaders from companies like SRAM, Canyon, GCN, Erik's Bike and Board, Decathlon, Beeline and other leading companies.
The first podcast, posted last week, featured guest Kate Powlison of SRAM, who talked about the company's recent AXS launch.
You can listen to the podcast in the player below or subscribe to it from your favorite podcast apps: iTunes | Google Play | Stitcher. Or visit the Channel Mastery episode page.
