Bike Hub 2023: Year in Review

As 2023 draws to a close, let’s rewind the past 12 months on Bike Hub.

This year, events continued their comeback: a welcome return to some semblance of normalcy. However, the supply chain challenges of 2020-2022 transformed into a global oversupply issue, impacting numerous brands. This shift prompted major players to implement significant price reductions in a bid to clear excess stock.

Against this backdrop we delve into our numbers to see how the market dynamics played out on Bike Hub in 2023.

Headline Statistics

Classifieds Activity

We saw a whopping R237 million in sales proactively confirmed by users. Thats nearly R20 million a month. Made all the more impressive by the fact that the actual number is very likely to be significantly higher.

Over 66 thousand adverts were viewed over 25 million times, leading to 153 thousand unique leads. An average of 2.32 leads per advert.

In short despite the broader economic slowdown, and drop (or plateau) in demand in the cycling industry, the second hand market remains robust.

Ads created by category

Avg. value by category

Category trends

• Ads created
  • Dual suspension mountain bikes continue as the most popular category
  • Road bikes follow closely, with hardtail mountain bikes in third
    
• Pricing dynamics
  • Unsurprisingly, E-bikes take the top spots on average price.
  • Interestingly, dual suspension mountain bikes and gravel bikes show similar average listing prices. The hypothesis: Gravel bikes are newer and popular at the higher end of the market. We’d expect to see gravel bike pricing to align more closely with road bikes over time as participation grows.

Classifieds Searches by Brand

Classifieds searches are a great indicator of a demand, as well as perceived second-hand value. In 2023 we saw each of the top five brands gain some share of search in something of a consolidation. Perhaps buyers are less willing to risk a purchase from a niche brand in times of stress. Pure speculation, but you can see the data for yourself below:

• Specialized have consolidated their long run at the top of the podium with an increase from 22.7% to 24.6% of searches from 2022 to 2023.
• Trek have continues to gain ground, with an increase from 9.7% to 14.6% of searches since 2021.
• Scott has bounced back from a dip at 9.9% in 2022 to 11.4%.
• Cannondale has reclaimed 4th place from Giant which has held pretty much steady at 8.5%. While Cannondale has gained share from 8.0% to 9.1%.
   

Trend spotting

The following stood out as our top trends for 2023:

• Bike price inflation is slowing:
  Overall average prices on Bike Hub rose 4.3% (compared to a 16% jump from 2021-2022). However our two most popular categories tell more of a story: Dual suspension mountain bike prices down 0.7% and hardtail mountain bikes down 5.5%.
  
  
• Sales on Bike Hub were steady, despite a slowdown in demand and price pressure
  Almost exactly matching 2022 with R237 million in confirmed sales. This despite seeing a fall in interest/demand as shown by leads decreasing by 17.9%.
  
  
• E-bikes continued their rise in popularity
  While still a small percentage of overall listings, 50% more E-bikes were listed on Bike Hub in 2023.
  
  
• Brand interest is consolidating among the top 5 players
  Again we saw Trek being the biggest mover in 2023 gaining another 1% of searches this year.
  Each of top 5 brands saw an improvement on 2022 numbers and they collectively account for 68.4% of searches on Bike Hub.
  

Here’s to many smiles on two wheels in 2024!
 

All stats for the period 12 December 2022 – 11 December 2023.