Retailers in the U.K. have seen bicycle sales increase by 60 percent since March, while e-bike sales have more than doubled. These and other figures are featured in The Impact of COVID-19 on the UK Cycling Market in 2020, an 89-page account of cycling industry sales and growth during the pandemic period to date. The report is based on data from the Bicycle Association (BA) of Great Britain, the trade association for the U.K. cycle industry, as well as wider data sets from other sources (National Transport Survey and others). BA’s core data were drawn from the association’s Market Data Service, a massive monthly collation of sales figures direct from retailers across the U.K. that covers around two thirds of the U.K. market.
The data from the different sources were aggregated and combined for the purposes of the report by Sports Marketing Surveys, BA’s data partner. Between April and September 2020, bicycle sales volumes increased by 27 percent while average prices grew by 26 percent as compared to the same period in 2019. E-bike sales saw a 92 percent increase in volume and a 118 percent increase in value between April and September 2020, reinforcing a booming trend that had already manifested over the past few years. Cycling during the coronavirus-related lockdown reached its high point between mid-April and mid-June, when it regularly exceeded 250 percent of normal pre-pandemic levels. According to the report’s projections, the U.K. cycling market will be worth £2.2 billion (€2.4bn-$2.9bn) by the end of 2020.
