Case Aerts Action Bike

Impressive showroom

When you enter Aerts Action Bike, the impressive showroom stands out immediately. Everything is here: from children's bikes and leisure bikes to electric bikes and accessories. A large staircase in the middle leads to a floor where sports bikes and road bikes are on display. During the tour of the store, Yana explains that they have expanded considerably and dug out the ground floor in recent years. "We don't want the bikes packed closely together, so customers can really see and feel the collection. That is the big added value of a physical store in this digital age. We are a store with something for everyone," Yana explains. She continues: "Eight years ago we started with bike leasing, which brought considerable growth. That also created a need for a bigger workshop, which now has eight technicians."

Webshop

Online, a lot has changed too. "You can't imagine business without online these days. I see our webshop more as an online showroom, a real extension and support of the physical store. So for our store we really looked for a POS system that could grow with us, and keep growing with these online changes." The search for the best software package for their business began with a thorough analysis of the various options on the market. She wanted a system that not only suited the store's current needs, but was also future proof and could grow with developments in the bike industry. After comparing several POS programs, she chose Tilroy. "This package offers a modern omnichannel experience, in which the store, webshop and inventory form one whole."

Switching systems

Yana says Aerts Action Bike started with the new POS system on 19 March 2024. Although that was not long ago, they picked it up quickly.

Before the switch, the Aerts team received an extensive demonstration at the Tilroy office several times, and also got explanation and support on site. "Looking back, we have learned so much more about everything the system can do, but the basics went really well right away. The workshop could also get started with their work plans immediately. So it didn't give us any grey hairs," she jokes.

Workshop

At the back of the store is a large workshop. "Our workshop has become much more efficient thanks to Tilroy's POS system. We now use Tilroy's online workshop planning, which is linked to our system and takes available people and hours into account." Tilroy offers many features that contribute to customer satisfaction. Yana says her customers appreciate getting personalised reminder text messages and being able to create their own account, and also that the program provides automatic email invoices and purchase receipts with barcodes. This prevents lost paper receipts, makes returns easier and lets the software keep the history of a bike. "It's incredible how far the data goes," Yana says enthusiastically. "In every possible transaction direction you can look back where the product comes from and at what price it was bought, and for the workshop you can find when the bike was last repaired, what was wrong with it and what was agreed or noted."

Tilroy working group

Tilroy doesn't stand still and keeps improving its system. "Tilroy has a lot of experience in other retail sectors and you notice those sectors are already very advanced. The bike sector can still learn a lot from other industries. But the other way round too: the bike industry has things that other sectors don't use or need yet. We have to provide a lot of service, work with schedules, and carry out maintenance and repairs. That can be quite complex."

"Tilroy proposed setting up a working group with several bike shops to share our experiences. The program is of course written behind a desk, and in practice some things always work a little differently. It is super valuable that Tilroy wants to listen to that and improve," Yana continues. She gives an example of an improvement made thanks to the working group's findings. "Customers often used to pay a deposit when ordering a bike and the rest at pickup, which sometimes led to awkward situations at the checkout because of bank limits or transfers we hadn't seen yet. Thanks to payment links, customers can now easily pay online in different ways, and the amount is updated directly in our POS system. It's something small, but a huge added value for our staff and for the customer experience."