SCOTT Sports globally is a 60-year-old company, a Swiss producer of bicycles, winter equipment, motorsports gear, running gear, and sportswear. It is a performance-driven brand focused on innovation, technology, and design. 

The products of the brand are used by top athletes who’ve won world championships and several other races for years. SCOTT Sports India began its journey as a subsidiary of SCOTT Sports SA in 2011. It is the first international cycling brand with a direct presence in India and is a market leader. 

Later Scott Sports SA acquired a German bike brand and the brand was re-introduced and re-launched in India in 2017, making the cycling portfolio stronger. Bergamont is a lifestyle-driven brand focusing on sustainable mobility and getting more people on the saddle. Scott Sports India added a third brand to its portfolio, Avanti Bikes, based out of New Zealand. Avanti Bikes caters to a wide range of demographics with its high-quality bikes. The goal is to add more kids, teenagers, and commuters to the cycling community in India.

“We have set up our sales and distribution offices in India and we believe in the India growth story and want to be an active participant in it,” stated Jaymin Shah, Managing Director, Scott Sports India.
 
SCOTT and Bergamont Bikes already have a vast network of 110 dealers across India. With Avanti Bikes being launched this year, it plans to add another 150 outlets in the next 12 months.

“All stores are multi-branded, but STC is a concept store designed per global standards, keeping in mind the needs of the Indian market. The store format is more experiential for riders, designed to offer a personalized experience. STC provides various services like SCOTT Bike Fit Services by Radlabor, Tailor-made Custom Builds Bike, Test Saddle Program, Certified Bike Specialist, Test Bikes Program, and Huge range of SCOTT and Syncros products,” he asserted.

 SCOTT Technology Center is in Bangalore, Mumbai, Imphal, Nashik, Nagpur, Coimbatore, and Hyderabad. Pro shop Retailers are multi-branded stores with excellent local market presence and good technical support. 

“Bergamont stores have a similar bifurcation as SCOTT. The concept store for Bergamont is known as ‘Bergamont I ride store’. The store has a vibrant design and aims to be a regional cultural cycling hub. The store offers various bicycles across the road, mountain, and hybrid, including the gravel and e-bikes from the Bergamont product range. It emphasizes the importance of testing a bike before purchase and will give away the bike for free if the customer isn’t offered the opportunity to test one. The Bergamont i-Ride store has a wide range of bikes from Bergamont to test. It also provides a complete after-sales experience with a fully trained staff and well-equipped service area. The store plans to host a number of engagement activities, including the Bergamont i-Ride Challenge, an endurance cycling challenge,” he explained.

Omnichannel Strategy
 
In 2019, SCOTT started its e-commerce channel, Sportnetwork.in. And organically, it has grown 10x from where it began and foresees huge potential. The e-commerce platform helps it reach out to the customer directly, engage with them and understand their needs better. 

“We do not sell bikes directly to our consumers. These bikes are sold through a retailer in different cities. These retailers are listed as sellers on the platform. In this manner, we bridge the gap between discomfort and wrong product sale. For example – the wrong size sold, the wrong category of product sold, diverting the customer to buy another brand, after-sales service, and others. In this manner, we are aiding sales to the store through the online e-commerce platform,” Shah said.
  
It’s not just about the busy metros, smaller cities are more enthusiastic and have shown tremendous scope for the growth of cycling. Its bikes will be seen in many remote cities like Imphal, Guhwati, Leh, and Kashmir in North East to other outskirt cities like Washim in Maharashtra. With the launch of Avanti in 2022, it aims to penetrate additional new and remote cities/areas.

Technology: The Game Changer

Technology is the backbone for the success of SCOTT BIKES. The brand has incorporated technology in each and every function to offer a better consumer experience.

“We have a helpline service, where a customer can call the brand directly and discuss all related queries like the product, pricing, availability, dealer location, technical as well as design-related queries. We’re looking at growing these services, as well as value-added services. We also have an e-mail ticketing system for ticket raising,” he stated.

Apart from this, the brand has a bike fit machine and service available at all technology centers. It is also known for offering seamless online digital ordering for retailers via B2B platforms.

Future Plans

Going ahead, the brand is planning to increase its focus on high-end urban e-bikes, and expand high-end bicycling accessories from in-house accessory brand Syncros which focuses on bicycle components, and offer a huge range for cyclists to choose from SCOTT head to toe range.

“We are looking forward to establishing the Avanti brand of bicycles in the country. We target to have Avanti sold through 200 stores by end of the year. In addition to this we are looking at expanding our network of experience centers through the SCOTT Technology Centers and Bergamont I Ride stores. We aim to open another 5 stores by end of this calendar year adding to our network of 13 stores,” he concluded..