FYI - Wiggle / c r c buyer beware -Store Closing

[AUbicycles]

Summary, parent company has financial issues and the online retailers are no longer paying their suppliers or receiving deliveries.

The wiggle / c r c online shops are still operating (checked at the time of posting) and show no obvious information that services are impacted. However the situation now creates a ‘buyer beware’ risk and for consumers it is worth being informed.

There is a topic on this already here for discussion (hence this is locked).


viewtopic.php?f=86&t=106480

[AUbicycles]

Update : Wiggle and Chain Reaction Cycles stores to be switched off.

They are still looking for a buyer of the business.

For online shoppers, despite their sales, if you pay for something and don’t get it, you will be last in line to get your money back and will not have a retailer for warranty / guarantee or product order issues.

[AUbicycles]

Unlocked if there is interest in discussion.
For reference, for industry and trade talk, there is an existing discussion here that tracked the original news from June 2023 on c r c / Wiggle and Signa holding company financial troubles.

[kilroy]

I haven't bought anything from either of these stores for years. I'm impatient these days, and they have both been pretty slow to ship things to me in the past. I am surprised though, their turnover must be pretty high as they are the go to for many people.

Just read one of the linked threads. Hard to believe with sales of $288 million they still lose $60 million.

[AUbicycles]

The cost per acquisition is high and for bike gear, it is hard to retain customers (who may price focussed and not 'loyal').

In Australia, the 2018 import law changes on the GST threshold did work in favour of local business by making it harder for overseas business to compete on price. The funny thing is that the bricks and mortar bike shops pushing heaving to the law changes didn't necessarily directly benefit as these customers turned to local onliners like Bikebug and Pushys.


For Wiggle and c r c and Evans and Slane, Australia was (previously) a very lucrative market but also not a major market. With Brexit they really boxed themselves in with no trade deals and the promised lucrative trade deals never came. With Australia, the pro-brexit camp claimed they would get a great deal with Australia... but in practice they have very little bargaining power and not much to offer so Australia is the strong party and they had to take another hit.

They remained strong in the UK but in Europe, they were not an option after Brexit as shipping times were a disaster and added customs fees meaning they lost and price advantage.


From a customer perspective, choice is always good and these retailers paved the way for many others.

[AndrewCowley]

The Shimano geoblocking is also part of the story. Did they do this in other countries too?

[MichaelB]

The Shimano geoblocking is also part of the story. Did they do this in other countries too?

Yep, and SRAM, Mavic and quite a few other brands.

[MichaelB]

Guy at work noted that the Aus site if c r c/Wiggle is still showing stock.

afaik, there is no way of checking whether it's leftover stock in Aus or whether some of it may come from OS ?

[cancan64]

I placed an order the other day... the first in a while. Just a torque wrench that was on clearance but half the price. Issue is they dont deliver to NZ so hopefully it gets to Canberra before my partner who is there for work comes back. Maybe my first order in years from Wiggle but very limited here and prices are higher than oz and less stock. I needed a chain ring for a Scram wide crankset... not stocked in NZ and works out cheaper to but a new crankset than just 1 chain ring from OS with freight. lucky in Australia for work a lot, and Bikeinn is cheap and deliver. It is becoming an unaffordable sport