As electric bicycles explode in popularity, the category is poised for shakeups as e-bike brands and retailers volley for relevancy and vie for consumer trust amid a crowded and fast-changing landscape.
Seattle-based e-bike brand Rad Power Bikes and refurbished bike sales platform Upway are working to build on the recent excitement around e-bikes while establishing themselves as trusted brands within the category as it grows. To do that, they’re using a combination of traditional marketing and basic awareness to get their messages to e-curious shoppers.
Nearly half (48%) of Americans are interested in buying an e-bike in the next five years, according to new data from an Adweek-Morning Consult survey. And there’s some white space following the recent bankruptcy of trendy, buzzy Dutch manufacturer VanMoof.
“Two years ago, when I started at Rad, we were tracking maybe a dozen competitors,” Nicole Fisch, vp of marketing at Rad Power Bikes, told Adweek. “Now there’s over 200 in the same space.”
Selling fun
Rad Power Bikes, which was founded in 2007 by Mike Radenbaugh, is one of the largest e-bike companies in the U.S., with over 650,000 riders—though it remains a very fragmented industry. To differentiate, Rad Power focuses more on the simple joy of the ride over the specs.
“We really tried to focus this year more on building an emotional connection with customers,” Fisch said. “Every person that takes a test ride gets this huge grin on their face like they’re a little kid. We really believe that’s a big part of what why the whole e-bike industry is going to be successful. Because they are not only sustainable, not only efficient, they’re super fun.”
Primarily a direct-to-consumer business, Rad Power Bikes has 10 retail locations across North America (nine in the U.S. and one in Vancouver, B.C.). In addition to a digital strategy that includes search, social and streaming, Rad Power also runs out-of-home ads in its retail markets. The company wouldn’t share data related to sales or profit.
Building reliable resale
Both veterans of Uber, Toussaint Wattinne and his Upway co-founder Stéphane Ficaja launched their platform for “pre-loved and professional refurbished” e-bikes in 2021 in France. It now operates in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands in Europe, and launched in the U.S. in March. Since then, its U.S. business has been growing by over 20% month over month and has processed over 2,000 bikes to date.
