GP Bikes, Off-Season Gains

GP Bikes, a multi-brand retailer of motorcycles and power sports, smoothed out their seasonal revenue through aftermarket parts sales while encouraging customers to make off-season DIY repairs.

551%

growth in eCommerce revenue

287%

growth in off-season revenue

1,000%

return on advertising spend

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Industry

Retail

Technology Partners

Adobe Commerce

Solutions

Commerce Integrations

Digital Commerce Strategy

Email Marketing and Automation

Paid Media (Search, Social, and Programmatic)

SEO and Content Marketing

User Interface (UI) Design

Need to Know

One of the largest Ducati motorcycle dealers in Canada, GP Bikes, was running their eCommerce website on a version of Magento that was about to be deprecated.
GP Bikes smoothed out seasonal revenue by promoting off-season repairs and then giving customers digital access to their sizable network of aftermarket parts.
With Northern’s help, GP Bikes experienced eCommerce revenue gains of 551%.

The Brief

GP Bikes is a multi-brand retailer of motorcycles and power sports, including Honda, Triumph, KTM and Ducati. Their 40,000 square foot store just east of Toronto is one of the largest Ducati dealers in Canada, and they’ve developed a substantial supplier network of aftermarket parts.

In 2018, GP Bikes learned that Adobe planned to deprecate the version of Magento Open Source running its eCommerce website. After assessing GP Bikes’ plans, Northern Commerce recommended switching to Adobe’s more advanced Commerce Cloud. Its enriched feature-set would enable GP Bikes to move to the cutting-edge of the power sports online market. In addition, GP Bikes used the opportunity to expand its online aftermarket parts inventory, leveraging its well-established supplier network.

Challenge

For consumers, finding the right part for their motorcycle is tricky. It includes a sequence of questions involving brand, year, model, and trim - potentially leading to an exploded-view diagram where each part is numbered, priced, and accessible for purchase.

GP Bikes wanted to give their customers direct access to their supplier network of aftermarket parts. However, this required connecting to a wide variety of databases with varying schematics, plus handling and transforming large volumes of regularly updated data. The additional volume and variety of parts also meant increased shipping complexity. And GP Bikes needed an effective way to market this new inventory.

Strategy

Using Adobe Commerce’s sophisticated technological advancements, Northern made several upgrades to GP Bikes’ digital infrastructure.

Left

Multi-Sourced Inventory

The typical GP Bikes customer has a do-it-yourself (DIY) mindset toward maintaining their motorbike. To support their customers, GP Bikes established an extensive network of aftermarket parts suppliers. To help GP Bikes manage inventory from many suppliers, Northern leveraged the multi-source inventory (MSI) feature within Adobe Commerce. In addition, the switch made it easier to offer flexible shipping options like buying online pick up in-store (BOPIS).

Right

Google Shopping

Northern created a product feed for Google Shopping that allowed GP Bikes’ entire inventory to be searchable to a vast audience of motorbike fanatics. Not only was the audience larger, but so was access to rich analytics, which Northern used to maximize GP Bikes’ return on advertising and to develop look-alike target audiences.

Left

Ecommerce Focused Email

Northern helped GP Bikes switch from MailChimp to Klaviyo, an email service platform (ESP) specifically designed for eCommerce websites. Then a series of email automation segments were created, designed to coach consumers on finding obscure parts to repair their motorbikes. The email automation included a welcome email series designed for new customers, a cart abandonment series for those that didn’t complete purchases, and educational content to support large purchases. Live-chat enabled GP Bikes customer service to help consumers find the correct parts for their repairs.

no HST sale promotional banner with image of a person riding a motorcycle

Right

Seasonal Promotions

Seasonal promotions (Labour Day, Father’s Day, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday) and end-of-season clearance sales, coordinated between email campaigns and paid advertising, helped GP Bikes extend their shopping season. And aftermarket parts sales helped GP Bikes smooth out their revenue during the off-season, encouraging riders to prepare their bikes for the next season.

Rapid Growth

Since working with Northern Commerce, GP Bikes has experienced a 551% growth in digital revenue. The combination of upgrading to Adobe Commerce, enhancing their online supply of aftermarket parts, and improving their digital advertising performance resulted in continuous and robust growth. Year-over-year (YoY) average revenue grew by 178% between 2019 and 2020 and 134% between 2020 and 2021. Typically a slow season for GP Bikes, winter revenue grew by 287% between 2019 and 2020.

The return on advertising spend (ROAS) for GP Bikes has grown YoY. ROAS in 2019 averaged 4.98%, 8.82% in 2020, and 10.25% in 2021.

GP Bikes’ confidence in advertising has increased too. Advertising spending grew 61% between 2019 and 2020 and 172% between 2020 and 2021, and 340% since working with Northern Commerce.

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