Diarmuid
Member
Hi rad rider,
Mike and Ty from Rad Power Bikes here. We wanted to take a few minutes to talk to you about product availability and our business process. As many of you have seen, we are currently out of stock of all models of our electric bikes, and when they do come back in stock they are selling out in a matter of minutes (despite having hundreds available) due to demand. We started RPB because of our love for electric bikes and our dream to share them with the masses. The last thing on Earth we want is to be in the position where we can't offer you what you want and truly apologize if we have caused you frustration, heartache, and anything else besides pure joy.
We project our inventory needs and begin manufacturing months prior to ebikes arriving at our facility to ship because of the long lead time. This spring, because our customers are so amazing, sales exceeded our original projections resulting in out of stock inventory and rapid sellouts. To remedy this, we have exponentially scaled up both the number of ebikes being manufactured and the frequency in which they arrive.
As we follow along with the conversations online and with our Customer Experience teams, the number one thing we are seeing/hearing right now are people asking for the ability to pre-order (back-order) out of stock inventory. Because this is such a hot topic, we wanted to share some insight on our business and rationale for not offering pre-orders on out of stock inventory along with why we believe it leads to a better experience for you, our customer. Overall, we want everyone to have an equal chance of getting an ebike as soon as possible.
Early on in our business, we actually did offer pre-orders when items went out of stock and found that it led to a poor customer experience as customers were placing orders without an exact arrival date. Though we typically have an accurate arrival date, delays beyond our control can happen, and when they did it was extremely upsetting to customers. We believe that when you place an order it should be in stock and ready to ship. You may see that other ebike companies offer pre-orders. This is often done out of necessity. Many require pre-orders to fund their next order as they do not have the capital to place a large order prior to selling them first. What this leads to is placing an order and then waiting often months for enough orders to be placed and for the bikes to be manufactured and shipped. This is just not the way we like to do business.
Not offering pre-orders on out of stock inventory will lead to a higher likelihood that customers will get a bike and get riding faster. Had we offered pre-orders on out of stock items over the last few months, the bikes that are complete and ready to ship now would be used to fulfill orders that were placed months ago, while pre-orders placed now may not be fulfilled for months while inventory catches up with demand. By only selling in stock inventory (which for most models is replenished weekly) you have the opportunity to order right away and get it shipped within days of purchasing.
Now, as we mentioned earlier, when bikes do come back in stock they often go fast. We have sold hundreds per minute because of high demand. We want to let all of you know that we are committed and working tirelessly to ensure that we have enough inventory to fulfill the current demand and then some, all without increasing pricing. With 50+ employees ranging from supply chain to support, product to marketing, R&D to finance, we will not be happy until this is resolved, that is our promise. More ebikes will be available very soon, so please visit the bike's product pages to sign up for email notifications once items are back in stock, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for inventory updates.
Because we are so busy making sure we get inventory ready to ship ASAP, we are sorry to say that we will not be able to reply to responses to this message, but hope that we were able to shed some light on the current situation and let you know that everyone will be able to #RideRad before you know it!
Stay Rad,
Mike, Co-Founder / CEO
Ty, Co-Founder / CMO
This pretty much echos what we're seeing with other brands, namely Juiced.
Then they were out of stock. Only took a few minutes.
