FEATURE “


There’s been something like 10 years of digital transformation in the two years of the pandemic. That’s going to put a lot of pressure on more traditional retailers.


people to click and collect. How do I deal with that?” How do shops build relationships with their customers


when they’re at distance? How do they find an extended audience if they can’t get their products online fast enough, or can’t keep stock? “During the pandemic, we got to a point where bike shops that had hire services had to sell those bikes just to keep the lights on,” continued Steel. “That’s how desperate times became.” One of the main challenges over the last couple of years has of course been supply chain, which now is normalising. But it seems we’ve come out of one problem and straight into another. Steel added: “The consumer’s pocket is not as free with cash as it once was. “So all of those customers that were gathered, how do


you retain them?” Independents will always put customer service on top,


said Steel, and having that footfall into the store is what creates that relationship. “Ultimately, for me, the independent bike dealers build


the brands. They teach us about new gear, they keep the enthusiasm for the sport or the pastime alive. “You build a little tribe there, and when it’s all of a


sudden gone, you don’t have the means in which to stay in touch, I think that presents difficulties. And when the technology that you’ve selected doesn’t play nicely together, that’s a problem as well. “There’s been something like 10 years of digital


transformation in the two years of the pandemic. That’s going to put a lot of pressure on more traditional retailers.”


Foresight for change But how much did Covid actually accelerate this change? “No one could have predicted what was going to happen,” said Steel.


“Citrus-Lime customers, whatever their motivation for change was initially, a component of that was definitely a


Photo by Viktor Bystrov on Unsplash


foresight for change. They just didn’t necessarily appreciate that this event would happen and the speed with which it would ramp it up. “What you’ll see in a lot of our marketing is what


we provide – simple tools and clear strategies for busy retailers.”


Citrus-Lime, which was established by Neil McQuillan in 1999, is now one of the UK’s leading suppliers of Cloud- based Point of Sale (POS) systems. Its Cloud POS forms the foundation of the end-to-


end cloud retail technology, designed specifically to help retailers reduce discounting, control cost and inspire loyalty. “Really what we’re offering is the ability to change, from


where you are now to where you want to be in the future,” continued Steel. “What’s your current state, and what’s your future state?


If we’re doing our job well, then when we need somebody who’s not yet part of the Cloud POS community, we’ll look to understand if we’re a good fit for one another. “What I saw from the customers that we have is that they


were able to pivot quickly from being a good split between in store and online but a lot of footfall to the store, to that being removed as a possibility for them to do business – but to be able to transition quickly into selling online and still meet their customer’s expectations. And that end-to-end system enabled them to pivot fast. “S uccess wasn’t found in the pandemic, but was enjoyed


by Citrus-Lime customers because they were already doing the things that made them a little more protected from the impact of that event.” Online booking for workshop servicing is also inbound for Citrus-Lime, and Steel said this should be a powerful motivator for pushing people to visit a store. “They get that chance to build relationships with even


more people, retain that attention, build that tribe, and keep that business alive.” ■


www.bikebiz.com


June 2022 | 53


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