Founded in 1984 as a small shop in the Northern Ireland village of Ballynure, Chain Reaction Cycles has grown to become the world’s largest online bike shop. With annual sales of £140 million and a team of 700 staff, the company now despatches as astonishing 80,000 items every week. Chain Reaction Cycles’ founders and early employees are all keen cyclists and the business aims to assist its customers with all of their cycling needs, no matter how big or small. Now the company’s Ecommerce Director, Michael Cowan joined Chain Reaction Cycles in 1999 as its first non-family employee. We caught up with him to learn more about the company’s transformation from start-up to cycling giant.
PayPal (PP): What have been your greatest successes?
Michael Cowan (MC): We’re really proud that despite Chain Reaction Cycle’s expansion and growth, we have always remained customer-centric. Cycling can get very technical, but we aim to stock and understand those products that people find hard to get elsewhere. If someone called from Sweden and said, ‘can you sell me this?’, we will always say yes first and then figure out how to get it there. Chain Reaction Cycles’ success has been built on a powerful blend of passion, integrity and expertise, all of which combines to make for a first-rate customer experience.
PP: When and how did you start selling abroad?
MC: Chain Reaction Cycles started selling through advertisements in cycling magazines, both domestically and abroad, so we’ve always had an attitude of ‘thinking global’, even in the days before online. We launched our first website in 1999, the same year as I joined the company. This was in the very early days of e-commerce and it was the platform’s 2004 re-launch is what really gave Chain Reaction Cycles a more specific focus on international sales. Our attitude was that we were open for business globally, and when the market came to us, we would be ready.
PP: What is the greatest challenge you faced in building up an international customer base and how did you overcome it?
MC: As Chain Reaction Cycles has grown, we’ve had to adapt the most important parts of our business model - a process which requires a lot of care and attention. A good example of this is delivery, which plays crucial role in great customer service. We have come a long way from our early approach of daily trips to the local post-office, laden with parcels. Today Chain Reaction Cycles works with a range of different carriers each of which has strengths (or strength of reputation) in particular countries.
PP: What advice would you give to other small businesses and those thinking of starting to sell abroad?
MC: Understanding the markets that you are selling into is vital if you want to do business abroad. We take every step to ensure that our international customers feel comfortable ordering from our website. As well as choosing different logistics companies to suit different markets, we also have a customer service team of native-speaking Japanese, Russian, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese individuals. As well as providing direct support to international customers, the team advises the rest of the company of cultural nuances that would impact marketing and sales activities, which has proved to be invaluable.
PP: When did you start using PayPal?
MC: Chain Reaction Cycles began using PayPal in 2007 and our relationship has grown significantly since then. PayPal provides regular suggestions on how to improve the user experience for payment-flow on our site and from this year PayPal has become joint headline sponsor of Chain Reaction Cycle’s own international Downhill Racing team; Team Chain Reaction Cycles PayPal!
PP: Has using PayPal helped you build an international business? How?
MC: Absolutely. We were initially sceptical, but very quickly saw that we were getting incremental growth. It’s asking a lot from people to buy from the other side of the world and PayPal gives new customers extra confidence. Confidence is key when you’re dealing in international business and Italy, Australia and Spain are among the countries where PayPal has proven particularly popular. Chain Reaction Cycles has seen a sizeable amount of new business, especially international business, coming through PayPal.