With the boost of electric power, the scooter, once reserved for children’s playground fun, has now become a common sight in cities across the world. Seen as an environmentally friendly way to avoid traffic jams, the e-scooter has become the go-to option for many inner-city commuters, but is it the best solution?
Reviewing the growth of the e-scooter market, we explore how e-bikes offer a better alternative for commuters and recreational travel and share how to use sales promotions to encourage customers to upgrade from an e-scooter to an e-bike.
The e-scooter market in 2020
The interest in e-scooters was growing pre-pandemic with sales up annually by nearly 100 per cent at the start of the year.1 The reasons behind this rise could be attributed to increasing environmental awareness or improvements in technology that made travel by e-scooter more viable. The health concerns and social distancing restrictions imposed as a result of COVID-19 only accelerated this growth. Halfords has reported an increase in sales of e-mobility products, including e-scooters and e-bikes, of more than 230% since April 2 while the Bicycle Association estimates current UK ownership of e-scooters at 200,000.3
Weighing up the best e-product option
Could there be a dose of novelty factor when purchasing an e-scooter? One that leads to a point where a more suitable alternative is then considered? Richard Thorpe, the founder of Gocycle, sees this as an opportunity for e-bike sales:
“I think the e-scooter market is a really interesting one because I think it’s an amazing natural feeder for new customers that are going to want to upgrade to e-bikes after they’ve gone through their initial phase of fun and exhilaration of commuting on an e-scooter, and then realised that it’s quite a stressful commute to do that daily.” 4
Affordability is also likely to be a key factor when choosing an e-product, with most e-scooters costing less than the average e-bike. However, in terms of value and overall practicality, the e-bike stretches ahead with its advantages.
Long term, the e-bike is better for the wallet and the environment. Its battery lifespan lasts for an average 3-5 years5, compared to the 1-3 years of an e-scooter.6 When factoring in comfort and convenience, the benefits of an e-bike makes it clearly the better option. Its sitting position and storage compartments for laptops and bags allow for much more comfortable travel. And, with the added benefit of being able to pedal should it be desired or required, an e-bike offers increased flexibility for longer trips.
Promoting the upgrade
The practical advantages of an e-bike may be apparent to your customers. Still, when making their choice, certain purchase barriers may remain, particularly if they are venturing into purchasing an e-product for the first time. The question then remains, how do you encourage upgrades from e-scooters to e-bikes?
Removing purchase barriers can be achieved using creative, tactical sales promotions. These strategies will boost confidence in the product, offer reassurance in the purchase decision and make the price-point more appealing to customers looking to upgrade.
Here are our favourite sales promotion tactics that are proven in incentivising customers to upgrade their products:
Trade-ins
Design a creative campaign around a time-limited trade-in promotion and customers will be motivated to upgrade their current e-scooter to an e-bike alternative. By adding in a reward, either with cashback or a relevant gift, alongside the prospect of a new e-bike for trading in a current e-scooter, you can use this promotional mechanism to shorten refresh cycles and motivate product upgrades.
Cashbacks
Cashback promotions are an effective strategy for removing price purchase barriers. This innovative alternative to costly traditional discounting offers customers savings on their purchase, in this case of an e-bike, driving a sales uplift while still protecting a brand’s bottom line.
Buy and try
For new or unfamiliar, higher-value products, such as e-bikes, giving customers the option to ‘buy and try‘ offers reassurance in their purchase decision. With a no-obligation trial period, where customers can return their product if desired and receive a full refund, risk considerations are removed, and product sales are uplifted.
Opia makes running these sales campaigns easy, with our end-to-end promotion management service. From campaign design and platform set-up to claim handling, collections and recycling, we focus on making the process easy and hassle-free for you and your customers.
There are definite advantages to purchasing an e-bike over an e-scooter. However, for some customers, reservations remain. Using smart sales promotions, such as the strategies suggested, alongside imaginative marketing campaigns, will help to persuade customers to make this upgrade from an e-scooter to an e-bike.
To find out how we can help you motivate customer upgrades on your product lines, please get in contact with our team.
2 https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/oct/07/the-e-scooter-road-menace-or-saviour-of-the-commute
3 https://www.bicycleassociation.org.uk/e-bikes-vs-e-scooters/
4 https://electricbikeaction.com/the-go-behind-gocycle/
5 https://www.bicycling.com/bikes-gear/g20045132/your-ebike-questions-answered/#