Retailer Spotlight: New Farm Bikes
New Farm Bikes has been in business for 28 years, located in the beautiful pocket of Brisbane that is New Farm and situated close to the City and The Valley. Owner Tina Quintner has established an ethos for quality, function and purpose and is a premier shop for families and urban riders. She prides herself on not being a ‘mainstream’ bike store and specialises in kids’ riding and scooting needs. Tina was one of our earliest stockists of ByK Bikes and has grown with the brand. They are a premium dealer for ByK, Micro and Nutcase Helmets and kids bikes and scooters make up 80% of all sales in the store. Why did you start stocking ByK Bikes? We previously only sold Mongoose bikes - the 12” and 16” models. I never liked the Mongoose 20” models as they were just ergonomically wrong and we couldn’t sell a bike that we didn’t believe was up to standard. I met Warren at a trade show and was immediately struck by the design and the ethos of the brand. 
How much of an impact does stocking the full range have on your sales? Huge impact. We stock ByK for a reason - it is one of the best designed kids bikes on the market - the quality is 100% and for that reason it makes sense to be able to offer the whole range to customers when they walk into the store. 
What would you say the rate of return is for a ByK customer coming back to upgrade to another ByK? A lot - probably 75%. You’ll hear that they have begun to look at other brands but mostly they come back to ByK as the design is unmatched on the market and kids learn to expect the same ride, the same quality themselves. 
What percentage of your shop sales are kids bikes? And are kids bikes sales rates similar to adult bikes or have they grown faster? Around 80%. Kids bikes grow year on year, alongside our scooter sales. We also sell more adult Micro scooters than anyone else in Australia. What percentage of new customers come in for ByK Bikes and end up being a 'family' customer whereby other members of the family end up buying bikes too? It happens a lot. We also have a lot of word of mouth business. Do you find most ByK Customers arrive in the store knowing what they want, having already done their research? Most parents come in thinking they want a 250 but their kid is perfectly fit for a 350. So they have an idea but are often wrong as they are not considering all the factors for how to fit a kid’s bike properly - ability, confidence, height and age. Do you use social media to promote your range of ByK Bikes? If so, how often? We have a facebook page but no we haven’t spent a lot of focus on using it for marketing and promotions. We hope to get going with that in the near future.
Stocking ByK made sense - quality, function and purpose were all aligned with our bike shop philosophy and the range filled the need in our store of what we wanted to offer parents.
How many models do you stock? All of them! Except for the balance bikes. We are a premium dealer for Micro Scooters and stock their balance bike range. So we stock every single pedal bike from ByK from the E-250 all the way to the 620R Road Bike. How much of an impact does stocking the full range have on your sales? Huge impact. We stock ByK for a reason - it is one of the best designed kids bikes on the market - the quality is 100% and for that reason it makes sense to be able to offer the whole range to customers when they walk into the store. Customers see the full range and know they can confidently come back when they’re ready to upgrade to the next model. The full range also shows a commitment from both the shop and the brand to providing a quality and functional range to suit all kids’ needs.
What is your top selling model? E-350 in Red and Pink Who is your typical ByK customer and do you find that one parent over the other asks the most questions / has been the one to do the research? Usually both parents at the same time together. We get a lot of pre-sales enquiries on the phone with a Mum or Dad asking lots of specific questions before they come in to look at the bikes. What do you find is the best selling point of the ByK Brand? Quality components is a huge factor. Plus the ergonomic design and the number of models in the range.We can happily point out so many aspects of the bike that you are getting - adult-bike quality that is not common on children’s bikes.
What would you say the rate of return is for a ByK customer coming back to upgrade to another ByK? A lot - probably 75%. You’ll hear that they have begun to look at other brands but mostly they come back to ByK as the design is unmatched on the market and kids learn to expect the same ride, the same quality themselves. We pride ourselves on the build of the ByK Bikes - spending the time to build, fit, adjust and get it right for every unique customer. We help to educate the customer too - both parents and children - on how to look after their bike - show it the respect that it deserves.
This commitment to quality advice alongside a quality product is essential to our store brand and customer service. It is this service that enables us to price our ByK range above the RRP and our customers are very happy to pay it. We often move kids into the next size range and turn the handlebars around. The design allows them to reach the ground already but having that little tweak can often mean the difference between stretching onto the next model and therefore getting a longer life out of the bike. What is the best selling point of the 540 range and what type of customer is likely to buy a 540 bike over another brand/model? We like the 540 range as there’s not a huge difference between it and the 450 range so it is often easy to stretch a kid into the 540 when they didn’t expect to be able to fit into it. What is the best selling point of the 620 range and what type of customer is likely to buy a 620 bike over another brand/model? Kids aren’t squashed up to the handlebars and this is a great selling point of these larger ByK bikes. We always say, when you start commuting or riding longer distances, you want your chest open and the ByK 540 and 620 models allow this.Kids who have looked at the 24” Giant or Specialised often find them not a great fit - too heavy, wrong ergonomics, etc. They come in and the 540 and 620s are much better alternatives.
How have you managed to fit 30 ByK bike models on your shop floor? What is your top display tip for ByK? We use our space wisely:- The 250s and most of the 350s are on the wall. We have just 2 of the 350s on the floor to try out.
- The 450s and 540s are all lined up and the 540R and 540CX are neatly above the 540s so people can see the design differences.
- The 620 range are all together in another section.
- We line our MTB range up on the floor as seeing them lined up is very appealing to the eye:
What percentage of your shop sales are kids bikes? And are kids bikes sales rates similar to adult bikes or have they grown faster? Around 80%. Kids bikes grow year on year, alongside our scooter sales. We also sell more adult Micro scooters than anyone else in Australia. What percentage of new customers come in for ByK Bikes and end up being a 'family' customer whereby other members of the family end up buying bikes too? It happens a lot. We also have a lot of word of mouth business. Do you find most ByK Customers arrive in the store knowing what they want, having already done their research? Most parents come in thinking they want a 250 but their kid is perfectly fit for a 350. So they have an idea but are often wrong as they are not considering all the factors for how to fit a kid’s bike properly - ability, confidence, height and age. Do you use social media to promote your range of ByK Bikes? If so, how often? We have a facebook page but no we haven’t spent a lot of focus on using it for marketing and promotions. We hope to get going with that in the near future.