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The young company expanded its cur-rent bicycle and fitness businesses in twodirections. With the takeover of the moresportive Brügelmann (roadie) shop brue-gelmann.de and the creation of bikeu-nit.de and e-ways.de Internetstores AGopened three target-group-driven virtualbike stores. And with the creation of fur-ther country bicycle and fitness onlinestores they are growing internationally.With fitster.at and fitster.ch the nationalplatform fitness.de expanded intoneighboring German-speaking markets.Since 2010 Fahrrad.de expanded - afterthe creation of bikester.at and bikester.ch

- with bikester.uk, bikester,fr and bikes-ter.nl into further neighboring countrymarkets. It all shows that InternetstoresAG is on the move to become an interna-tional European virtual bicycle shop po-werhouse. Here’s the story.

Company founder René Marius Köhlerhas a bicycle retail family background. At20 years he started his bicycle onlineshop Fahrrad.de. In his first year of busi-ness in 2003 they company had two people and total sales of €400,000. Eightyears later Internetstores AG employs ap-proximately 120 people and boasts an-

ESSLINGEN, Germany – Internetstores AG –parent company ofthe expanding online bike shop Fahrrad.de, among others - isincreasing its business in several directions. On the one hand theGerman company is ‘continuously studying strategic expansionpossibilities in online-affine business fields’. This led to furthershop expansions into the fitness, outdoor/camping and (new!)furniture business worlds.

By Jo Beckendorff

Eurobike Hall A7 Booth-number 105You are welcome at the Taipei show, booth no: L224

nual sales of €30 million. Last year thecompany sold 45,000 complete bicycles.A total of 200,000 parcels leave the ware-house per year, roughly 800 to 1,000 par-cels per day including about 400 comple-te bikes. According to Köhler, “There areapproximately 100,000 customers visi-ting our existing virtual stores per day.”The company headquarters in Esslingennear Stuttgart is also home to a 9,000square meter warehouse. It stores parts,accessories, apparel, and 18,000 completebicycles. “Total capacity is 20,000 units,”states international sales manager Theo-Josef Sandu, Internetstores. All in all,about two thirds of the estimated 30,000offered products are in Esslingen on stock.When Koehler started his company hewanted to do it differently than establish-ed market players. They mainly comefrom the mail order business world. Mo-reover, they were all focused on sportivecyclists. Fahrrad.de however, started withmobility bikes (city- and trekkingbikes)for everyday people. Fahrrad.de’s four pri-vate labels Ortler, Red Cycling Products(RCP in short), Serious and Vermont coverthe entry level price point. TodayFahrrad.de alone has close to 500 brandsto offer. According to Internetstores AGdirector Ralf Kindermann, Fahrrad.de isCube’s largest dealer in Germany.

Young teamRalf Kindermann joined InternetstoresAG in March 2009. The 43 year old indus-try vet has a 20-years management ca-reer in the bicycle business. He alwayshas been one of the youngest executives

wherever he went. At Internetstores AGhe is the oldest. “Average age of our teamis 27 years. That’s more close to companyfounder and CEO René Marius Köhler.He’s now 28,” says Kindermann.”One rea-son for the team’s young age is that theconsumer behavior of today’s under-30years old changed radically. Our em-ployees are close to our virtual experien-ced target consumer group. Many elderpeople haven’t realized this at all”.With Kindermann, Köhler hired a lot of (bi-cycle business) experience. As former Gi-ant-Germany GM and Kettler’s director forits toy and child division he worked withinthe premium brand industry. As CEO andGM at motorbike apparel and accessorymaker Hein Gericke’s parent company Eu-robike AG and at outlet retailer Bike &Outdoor Company (B.O.C. in short) heworked also on the wholesale side. “I lear-

ned a lot about brand management andthe situation on the retail side. Retail is de-tail,” he says. “This combination fits for asuccessful e-commerce business.” Not tomention the good Far East contacts Kin-dermann built up over the years.

Online marketingAnother Internetstores strategy is “just dif-ferent”: While other German bicycle inter-net platforms such as Rose or H&S Bike-Discount are concentrating on avid cy-clists and spend their marketing budgetmainly on special interest magazines, In-ternetstores AG is concentrating on onli-ne-marketing. This virtual business field isstill in the hands of company founder andonline ‘nerd’ Marius René Köhler. With thiskind of marketing Köhler and his team aredefinitely targeting everyday people ra-ther than avid cyclists. After his father’sdeath Köhler took over his Stuttgart-basedbicycle store Roko. “But this is more due tohistory,” explains Köhler. “The stationarybusiness isn’t what we are looking for. Weare a pure web shop player.” Unlike whatmost industry observers believe, Internets-tores AG isn’t seeing itself strictly a bicycleor sports world retailer. “Our business stra-tegy is not concentrating on these fields,”says Kindermann. “We started with bicy-cles and expanded into fitness, outdoorand camping. Our latest newcomer Livin-go.de is for example a virtual furniture sto-re and started in December 2010.”

Strategic cooperationsNevertheless, the bicycle business is still In-ternetstores AG’s major field. Due to strate-gic cooperations with multi merchant onli-ne and mail-order suppliers such as Ama-zon, Neckermann, Quelle and Otto Group(editor’s note: the assets of Quelle were ta-ken over by competitor Otto) the Esslin-gen-based company was able to double itsyearly turnover twice. The reason why the-se multi players rely on Internetstores AG?“For all of them bicycle products are amost attractive seasonal business theydon’t want to miss. But because detailedknow-how is missing margins are low.Especially mail-order suppliers are moreand more counting on these kinds of coo-perations in business fields next to theircore competence. I believe that they recei-ved a lot of pressure from Amazon,” statesKindermann. A larger part of the bicycleproduct line offered by these multi mer-chant partners comes out of Internetsto-res AG’s experienced warehouse and logis-tics center. Ordered products are deliveredby them directly to consumers. At the pre-sent time Internetstore AG’s bicycle busi-ness can be divided into 60% to 65%com-plete bike sales and 35% to 40% bicycleparts, accessories and apparel sales. Withan eye on the future Kindermann wants toreach a 50/50 balance. According to sever-al studies, today’s online sales in Germanyare reaching a seven percent stake of theentire sales pie, and can be expanded to atleast ten percent but no more. “We don’tshare the IBD’s e-commerce fear,” says Kin-

BERGAMONT has been synonymous for athletically designed bikes for everyday use as well as for passionately developed sports machines. With over 170 models in its current lineup, BERGAMONT is one of the leading bicycle manufacturers in Germany.

This season, we’re proud to bring out extremely athletic hi-tech bikes with highlights such as new frame geometries to set the stage. The 29” range in 2012 will be generous, because we are expanding our models in the price range from $650 to $7500 USD. This includes three high-end versions and 6 high-quality carbon bikes with aluminum frames.

In the area of racing bikes, our offer has doubled. Look forward to seeing everything from a selection of high-quality entry-level models with aluminum frames to competition bikes made of carbon in a price range from $1000 to $8500 USD.

The international orientation of BERGAMONT is being strengthened. For new markets, we like to talk with strong sales partners, whose passion for cycling is as great as ours. Please contact us and arrange an appointment with us at the Taipei Cycle Show. For more information about our range, please visit our homepage www.bergamont.com or visit us at our stand at the Taipei Cycle Show, booth number N1129.

“advertorial”

Based in Esslingen near Stuttgart since 2007, Internetstores AG’s headquarters includes a smooth running 9,000 squaremeter logistics center and warehouse. Photos Jo Beckendorff

Before leaving the warehouse each bicycle is completely assembled and checked. Then it will be partly dismantled to bepacked into Internetstores AG’ own large delivery boxes.

Trade & DistributionReport Germany newcomer sees itself as a specialty shop e-commerce company

Internetstores AG: More than bicycles

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dermann. “This market is limited. That’swhy we concentrate on further targetgroup stores such as our Brügelmannshop and on international expansion”.

Core competence: Assortment andwarehouseRalf Kindermann believes that the suc-cess of e-commerce isn’t (as sometimesheard in Germany) rooted in non-satisfy-ing service out of the stationary businessworld. “The topics are a high level of in-ventory and assortment. An IBD forexample can present perhaps 15 modelsof a supplier in his store. But this supplierhas a full range of let’s say 100 models.Different to IBD’s with their stationarybusiness we have them all on stock andcan deliver within a couple of days. Me-ans it’s all a question of width and depthwithin the assortment. Today’s consumerwants to have it all.” Since 2009 – and un-der the leadership of international salesmanager Theo-Josef Sandu – Internetsto-res AG is expanding with online bicycleshops into neighboring core countrymarkets. Under the artificial name “Bikes-

ter” a virtual store was opened in Austria,Switzerland and UK. Last year bikester.frand bikester.nl followed. According toSandu each store is running individually.“Each store is under leadership of native-speaking country managers,” he says.“They are responsible for each shop’semotions and prices.”

Individual country-specific storesSandu underlines that they don’t believein a “one shop fits all” philosophy such asUK’s online giant Chain Reaction Cycles.“We want country-specific shops.” Köhleradds that unlike Chain Reaction, “Wedon’t damage any suppliers’ suggestedprice points”. That might be also the rea-son that apart from some premiumbrands such as Cannondale, Scott, Speci-alized and Trek, Internetstores AG is ha-ving – as Köhler calls it – “free access tomany international top brands”.

Target group oriented storesAs well as the creation of foreign onlinebicycle shops, AG created some nationaltarget group-oriented bike shops. Lastyear the company not only took over theassets of the sportive German (roadie)mail order pioneer Brügelmann, but crea-ted also bikeunit.de (targeting hardcoredual, downhill, dirt- and BMX) and e-ways.de. According to Ralf Kindermann,E-Ways is the first e-bike only virtual onli-ne store in the world. “This is a clear in-vestment into the future. E-Ways offers a

29BIKE europe

Guiding the specialty stores running under the Interneststore AG roof (from left to right): International sales managerTheo-Josef Sandu, company founder, CEO and online marketing expert René Marius Köhler and director Ralf Kindermann.

Internetstore AG’s customer care center employs 16 people. They only answer consumer questions. International custo-mers are handled by native speakers. Each international shop has it’s own native-speaking country manager.

total of 1,200 products with a high levelof fashion bike apparel from approxima-tely 50 brands.” At present time this store,started in May 2010 is concentrating onelectric two wheelers. But as the namesays this could be changed and expan-ded to embrace three and four-wheel e-mobility products. Internetstores AG iswatching carefully each ‘electrifying’ mar-ket trend. With fitness.de the Germannewcomer introduced the first non-bicy-cle online shop in 2006. With fitster.atand fitster.ch this business field is alsomaking its first steps into other (German-

speaking) country markets.Last year the Esslingen-based companyalso founded the outdoor and campingonline shop campz.de and (in December)the furniture store livingo.de. While thestep into the outdoor and camping worldcan somehow count on synergies, themove into the furniture business is some-thing completely new. “Outdoor andcamping is a very promising businessfield. And with Fahrrad.de we have alrea-dy several apparel brands such as JackWolfskin, The North Face and Mammuton board,” states Kindermann.

Trade & DistributionReport Internetshops Discredited by Spanish Dealers

ALICANTE, Spain – Through aFacebook group and an open letterto the bicycle industry a group ofSpanish dealers called upon renow-ned brands to stop supplying theIrish web shop Chainreaction. “Weare not fighting online sales. Despitethat it is rapidly growing, we areaware of the fact that it also providesadditional business to many retailers.We want to fight the price erosioninflicted by the large internet storesthat have global distribution,” saysChristian Tidow, initiator of the cam-paign and owner of Promobicis loca-ted near the Spanish city Alicante.

Tidow has created a website, www.anti-chainreaction.com, which explains infour languages- the objectives of hisnewly created platform. On this websitehe says the renowned brand names’ di-rect involvement with web shops, especi-ally Chainreaction, is destroying the dea-lers’ way of doing business.“The brands, who are well aware of distri-butor’s and IBD’s effort to sell their pro-ducts on the local markets, should neverallow to sell their products in a low-costonline shop as this type of shop makes a

profit from the hard work of smallershops. This is unacceptable and we can’tallow it to go on in any way,” says Christi-an Tidow. “The only reason why this biglow-cost online shop can be successfulon foreign markets is that they are offe-ring products at a lower price thanthrough the official distributors and withfree delivery and customer service in thelocal language.”Tidow continues, “The local distributorcan’t match the prices from this onlineshop as it has to pay the costs of stoc-king, distributing, promoting and adver-tising as well as a commercial margin forthe IBDs. In the same way that a branddoesn’t allow a shop to buy its productsat a foreign distributor, the brandshouldn’t allow a shop from other coun-try to enter into a territory where there isalready an established distributor.” Tidowwants to have full commitment from sup-pliers and asks them to stop deliveringtheir products to this low-cost onlineshop and also to check if their productsare no longer available at Chainreaction.In the end he wants to publish a ‘whitelist’ of brands committed to retailers.

JWvS

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