Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Here it is, the big announcement:

As all you blog readers know, we're a small shop. We like being small, because we think it allows us to take better care of our customers. But small shops like us just can't afford to keep a huge inventory in the store at all times. You can't come in and browse fancy suspension forks, pro-team kit, or 13 varieties of carbon fiber widget.

For that reason, we know lots of folks do some of their shopping online. So we've decided, with the help of our biggest parts and accessories distributor, to add an online catalog, dubbed the SmartShop, to our website. The SmartShop is open 24/7, and is chock full of bicycle frames, parts, and accessories from brands like Surly, Salsa, Pedro's, Park, and just about anybody else you can think of.

The catalog has over 16,000 items in it, and is updated hourly so you'll never order something that's not in stock. Our prices will be competitive with other online retailers. You can pay securely online with your major credit card, and the best part: if you pick it up here in the shop, your shipping is free! (We will ship to your house if absolutely necessary, but it will take longer and cost more. We'd prefer for 90% or more of our online orders to be picked up in-store.)

Check out the SmartShop at shop.panthercitybicycles.com, and let me know what you think!

3 comments:

Tim Jackson said...

Awesome!

Another fine example of tailoring your offerings to suit your customers and not expecting them to bend and conform to what you think is best. Flexibility like this will be a wonderful hallmark of your business.

Congrats!

Anonymous said...

I'll gladly swap Shipping costs for sales tax.

Anonymous said...

Okay, I just ordered some stuff that I probably would have wound up getting at Performance or something, had y'all not done this. Good job, fellas.