Business context
Stride Bikes is a fictional Australian bicycle company founded in 2020. Currently operating in six countries, the company is aiming to expand both regionally and through new product offerings. To support this growth, an interactive sales dashboard was developed to provide clear insights into sales performance across markets and product lines, helping stakeholders make informed decisions based on real-time data.
Tools used: Microsoft PowerBI
Key insights
- The sales started of slowly in 2020 and 2021, but rose in the years after. In these years, there can be distinguished 2 important peaks: the spring/summer peak and the december peak. The spring and summer peak is likely caused due to weather influences; during these seasons people want to go out and take (and thus buy) a bike. The december peak might be explainable by the holiday season, but also by new years resolutions.
- While making up 52% of the total orders, the accessories only contribute to 28% of the total profit. Bikes represent only 23% of all the orders, but provide 65% of the profit. For most countries, the distribution between bikes, accessories and clothing is resulting in a similar pattern in terms of profit and revenue. However in Canada the accessories take up a larger share in the total orders. Due to this the profit margins are lower in Canada.
- In the US, there is a big difference between states, with California (57%), Washington (29%) and Oregon (13%) as big contributors. In Canada, almost all sales comes from British Columbia. In Australia, New South Wales makes up almost half (43%) of the sales. In the European countries the distribution is far more evenly. Most people want to physically try a bike before they order it so it’s likely that the company has most physical stores in the locations which highly contribute to sales.
- The customers for Stride bikes are mainly adults between 25 and 64, quite evenly distributed between male and females (some regional differences are present, but nothing noteworthy). Roadbikes are most popular among them followed by mountain bikes. The company does not sell e-bikes, which might explain why seniors are not represented in the customer base.
Recommendations
- To diminish the seasonal trends, but also to attract more customers, do more promotional activities during winter season. Give a good discount or try to attract people with some free gear if they already order a bike before spring starts. Another recommendation is to expand the product range with indoor trainers.
- Promotional activities should be mostly targeted on selling bikes. Selling clothing and accessories is a good contributor to brand recognition, but will not have a huge impact on profit. As physical presence is important, open up pop-up stores or test ride events. Specifically target new regions that are biker friendly (for example the Netherlands or Denmark), but also expand the physical stores in regions with potential.
- To increase the market share of bikes in Canada, think of ways to make biking more winterfriendly. This can be done by making more cold weather gear such as heated cloves, but also by designing bikes with a wider tire or e-bikes.
- Seniors are people with a lot more freetime than (working) adults. Therefore, it might be worth to expand the product range with e-bikes, as these are getting a larger and larger marketshare among seniors.