Local Bike Shop Day 2020 celebrated by record number of shoppers across the nation
Posted on in Business News, Cycles News
Local Bike Shop Day's postponed 
date of 5th September was the perfect time to celebrate the recent upturn in cycling and draw attention to all that local bike shops have done for us throughout the pandemic.
The revised date (moved from the earlier date of May 2nd) fell at an ideal time to celebrate two key themes; encouraging children to start cycling when they return to school and to encourage the nation to continue cycling after the seasonal good weather comes to an end.
Record number of reach
Local Bike Shop Day would like to say a huge thank you for the support received by the cycling community, together we achieved the highest consumer reach to date.
During the day, the hashtag #supportyourlocalbikeshop had a reach of 360,025, an increase of 380% in comparison to the reach achieved last year, as well as having over 400,000 impressions. The Local Bike Shop Day website had over 5,000 unique visitors with the most popular page being the find a local bike shop search facility indicating consumers actively looking for their local participating shop.
The day was supported by a record number of cycling organisations and partners including All Party Parliamentary Group for Cycling and Walking (APPGCW), BikeBiz, British Cycling, Cycle To Work Day, Cyclescheme, Cycling UK, Cytech, Freewheel, Insync, London Bike Show, Love to Ride, Raleigh UK, Sustrans, The Cycle Show, Transport for London.
In addition to cycling organisations, the day was promoted by a variety of MPs and non-cycling organisations including Small Business Saturday and Indie Retail. A few well-known faces also got on board such as Jeremy Vine, Gail Porter and Sharron Davies.
Thanks to supporters helping to raise awareness of Local Bike Shop Day across a variety of platforms, the day reached over 800,000 impressions, most of which were on consumer-facing channels.
However, those which add the most value to the day are the local bike shops themselves, and this year more shops got involved than ever before! The number of bike shops registered on the Local Bike Shop Day website rose by 77%. As a special thank you to those shops engaging the most on social media, Cyclescheme gifted 6 lucky shops £150 worth of vouchers to treat themselves and their staff to a night out.
Owner of one of the winning bike shops, Heather from Saddles and Paddles, said of her involvement in the day "I always try to support initiatives like Local Bike Shop Day as they help small businesses like mine reach out to customers, both new and old, while being part of a bigger movement. There's never been a more important time to support local, independent shops and so I was keen to use Local Bike Shop Day to remind people of all the benefits of shopping with us, rather than chains or online stores."
Paul Corcoran at Pennine Cycles experienced increased footfall on the day in comparison to the usual Saturday trade, stating that "It's always great to get involved with Local Bike Shop Day and be part of the U.K. wide community and raise our profile and let customers see we are part of a bigger community."
Local Bike Shop Day was also well celebrated among consumers, who used the day as a reason to either visit their favourite local bike shop or explore one they would not have visited otherwise!
On the day, Cyclescheme also gave four lucky customers, who visited a participating shop and requested or redeemed a Cyclescheme certificate, the chance to win a £250 cycling gift card.
Jane Atkin, Giant, Liverpool customer competition winner said "I had one of the best experiences in the Giant store in Liverpool. The team were so passionate and enthusiastic about cycling and the brand and making the time to make sure the bike was right for me. I travelled up from Sheffield to Liverpool to get the bike I wanted and am looking forward to returning in a few weeks for a free service and now to use my vouchers!"
To read the full list of Local Bike Shop Day prize winning customers and bike shops read the story here.
Get ready for Local Bike Shop Day 2021
With Local Bike Shop Day 2020 being the most successful year to date, the event organisers, the Association of Cycle Traders (ACT), will now be aiming for LBSD 2021 to grow further still.
Keep your eyes peeled for the new date for Local Bike Shop Day 2021.
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