Former Catalog, Now Digital: These Tools Help Rose Bikes with Online Bicycle Sales

1. From self-construction to complete solution
2. Tool diversity for concentration on essentials
3. Marketing with the big ones
4. These Tools Rose Bikes uses

During the pandemic, the bicycle market is booming - and Rose Bikes from Bocholt is benefiting. The manufacturer and retailer of bicycles and accessories recorded a turnover of 137.1 million euros in 2020, a 34 percent increase compared to the previous year. The Rose Bikes team told us which tools are indispensable for online success and how software solutions help to turn interested parties into loyal customers.

In our series „Tech Stack“ let companies from the digital industry reveal which tools they use and why they have chosen these software solutions. Do you want more information about suitable tools? Then check out our software rating platform OMR Reviews.

“We had our first online store in addition to our catalog in 1996,” says Sebastian Bomm, Director User Experience and Customer Intelligence at Rose Bikes to OMR. “At Rose you can see the entrepreneurial courage to reinvent yourself in a traditional company.” Because Rose Bikes was founded in 1907 as a bicycle shop in the 70,000-inhabitant city of Bocholt near the Dutch border. Today, the company operates stores in Germany and Switzerland. In its online store, it lists 50,000 products related to bicycles. Rose Bikes still manufactures its own bikes and currently has an annual turnover of 137 million euros with these and the sale of accessories. The success is closely linked to the clever use of software that helps with customer loyalty and the management of tens of thousands of products.

From self-construction to complete solution

Sebastian Bomm from Rose Bikes

For an e-commerce player like Rose Bikes, the store system is at the center of many efforts. “We have a few years of experience with a self-knit software. You’ll reach your limits at some point,” says Sebastian Bomm. “In 2017, we decided to use Spryker.” The German provider for shop infrastructure in the cloud is praised in reviews on OMR Reviews especially for its modular structure. This point obviously convinces Rose Bikes: “We can take a setup from Spryker, but we have the maximum freedom in it,” says Bomm. The move to the shopping solution allows changes in the online sector to take place much faster.

“Spryker also has a strong cultural impact, as we are able to develop things independently day by day and drive them forward. Here technology aligns very well with our mindset ‘Test, Learn, Build Bigger'”, says Sebastian Bomm. “Spryker brings with it the ingredients for many functions that we can use flexibly and also expand through our own development.” Rose Bikes alone faces complex challenges on the product side. The company not only sells different brands, but also self-made bicycles. The e-commerce system is linked to the middleware from Roqqio, to always keep an eye on stock levels.

Tool diversity for concentration on essentials

“As described, we use Spryker as a core base. Around that, there are still a variety of tools that help to improve the customer experience,” says Bomm. “In many areas there are tools on the market that have proven themselves and that we like to use in order to stay more closely with our strengths.” The software from Zoovu provides a digital advisor that asks users about their bicycle requirements (“Bike-Finder”). “The first bike advisor was implemented within a few days and made available to our users,” says Bomm. “We are currently implementing our learnings in a new version and are rolling out more consultants in the retail sector.”

Another tool in terms of customer experience is moin.AI. “That's our hub for automated communication via chatbot,” says the Rose Bikes man. “Simple and frequently recurring requests can be automated and answered more quickly in future. If there is further need for clarification, users can be redirected to our service team.” Paqato is also in use for better customer contact. The tool supplies customers with shipping information after the order. “Users can always see the precise status of package shipping in their account on our page and receive triggered mails with relevant updates,” explains Sebastian Bomm. “Paqato aggregates detailed information from the respective carrier and provides it bundled.”

For an individual experience in the shop, Rose Bikes also uses the tool from Epoq. Based on machine learning, the software provides recommendations for individual users based on their click and buying behavior - in the shop and also in mails. Last but not least, Trbo is used in terms of user experience at Rose Bikes. The tool also provides personalization - unlike Epoq but not in terms of recommendations, but in the look and design of the online shop. “Location, channel or even weather related, we can play out individually relevant information and content in the online shop for our users and quickly and easily start A/B tests,” says Sara Volkmer, Director E-Business at Rose Bikes.

Marketing with the big ones

Sara Volkmer, Director E-Business at Rose Bikes

For the various marketing channels, Rose Bikes often relies on the solutions of the big platforms. The team places Facebook ads in the ad manager, display campaigns run on Google's Display Network and creatives are built with Adobe Creative Cloud. However, tools from smaller providers are used occasionally in the marketing area. With Falcon.io the marketing team does content planning, analytics and management on the social channels. With Channable Rose Bikes keeps an eye on product information that also lands on price comparison sites - but the tool also helps with structuring search ads. And in the SEO area Searchmetrics helps to keep an eye on search engine rankings and optimize content.

Very important for Rose Bikes' business, however, are data access and understanding. The business intelligence solution from Minubo helps. “Minubo also offers users who are not deeply involved the opportunity to start every day with an individually tailored and understandable view of data and to highlight significant changes,” explains Sebastian Bomm. “This helps us enormously in the development towards a data-driven company and the realization of our KPI and action point-driven approach.”

Several tools are used in e-mail marketing. There Inxmail is used as the basic platform. For optimal mail campaigns, however, the team uses additional technologies: “Here we combine the possibility to integrate individual product suggestions from Epoq, and present information as closely tailored to customers as possible using Minubo,” explains Sara Volkmer. “The aim here is also to dissolve data silos for the best possible experience at Rose Bikes and to capture customers as comprehensively as possible.”

These Tools Rose Bikes uses

Here a list of all tools that are used at Rose Bikes:

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