Your E-Bike Customer Is Not a Cyclist
The biggest shift happening in independent bike retail right now has nothing to do with inventory or pricing. It has to do with who is walking through the door (or showing up on your website) to buy an e-bike, and how different that person is from the customer your shop was probably built to serve. According to data across the Workstand platform, e-bikes now account for nearly half of all internal site searches at over 1,300 IBD retail sites. That number alone should prompt a hard look at whether your online presence is built for the customer doing those searches.
The Data Paints a Clear Picture
E-bikes reached 30% of overall US bicycle market share by revenue in 2024, a figure that would have seemed implausible five years ago. According to Circana, e-bikes were responsible for 63% of the growth in dollar sales of all bicycles between 2019 and 2023. The channel is not emerging anymore. It has emerged.
The customer choosing a bike shop over Amazon or a DTC brand is already self-selecting for quality and expertise. |
The average selling price of an e-bike through the IBD specialty channel is $3,055, compared to $669 in mass market channels. The customer choosing a bike shop over Amazon or a DTC brand is already self-selecting for quality and expertise. That has margin implications that are worth sitting with.
And the growth in IBD e-bike e-commerce specifically is striking. Year-over-year online unit sales growth for e-bikes through the Workstand platform was 60% in April and May 2024 relative to 2023, with the annual growth rate of IBD e-bike e-commerce running at 45% in Q1 of that year. E-bike buyers are comfortable buying online, which means your website is doing active selling work in this category whether you've optimized it for that or not.
The Buyer You're Actually Dealing
With The dominant e-bike buyer in the US looks considerably different from the customer most of the industry was built around. The leading age groups for US e-bike buyers are 45-54, 55-64, and 65-plus — predominantly Baby Boomers. Many are buying a bike for the first time in decades, or for the first time ever. They are not coming in with prior brand loyalty or deep category knowledge. They are coming in with questions.
In 2023, 19.4% of Americans who rode a bike at least once reported using an e-bike, up from 7.8% in 2021. This means the e-bike is actively recruiting people into cycling who weren't there before. Those new riders are your customer, and they need something different from your website than the person researching their N+1 gravel bike.
They need to understand how the technology works. They need to see class differences and motor comparisons explained in plain language. They need to understand what service looks like over time and why buying from a dealer matters. They are doing more research before they walk in, and they are arriving with more questions “the internet” told them to think about.
What This Means in Practice
You know your customer best. If you are a destination shop for adventure rides, a homepage featuring older adults riding e-bikes on the riverwalk probably isn’t the best choice. However, if your bread is buttered by being the neighborhood bike shop, you are doing yourself a disservice by not offering an easy way to ebikes.
Consider dedicated e-bike landing pages that speak to the experience of riding, not just the specs. Content that explains type and class differences without jargon. Staff expertise that comes through clearly before the customer ever walks in. These are not nice-to-haves in 2026. They are table stakes for competing in the fastest-growing segment of your business. The customer is there.
The search volume is there. The revenue opportunity is there. The question is whether your online presence meets them where they are.