Tire Trouble

Background

At MotoSport, there are two truths about tires:

• Search terms for tires are consistently the most searched on the site
• 10-12% of overall sales are tires

Unfortunately, while going through customer comments, emails, etc., a theme about buying tires online becomes apparent: when we expect customers to know the size of tire they want, they may only know the Make/Model/Year of their bike. When we expect the customer to know the Make/Model/Year, they may only know their tire size. In rare cases, they didn't know either. Clearly, our inconsistent approach is not getting traction with our customers (pun intended):

• "I hope you take this as constructive criticism and pass it on to some one who may be able to make a change. The tire selector setup is just horrible. I think that you tried to make it easy but it actually hurts anyone who knows what size tire they are looking for. I just want to see if a particular tire is available in a particular size without have to go through a "choose your bike" menu. It is frustrating to deal with when I know exactly what tire size I am looking for (with different rims and is not the size your "smart" menu tells me that I need!!) The tire/bike selector is great as an additional help, but what would it hurt to simply show the sizes a tire is available in right out front."
• "After specifying make, model & year in order to be assured that I am seeing parts for "my bike" I am offered up tires that only come for 17" rims when the bike has 18" rims. Duh!"
• "This now seems so difficult. Most of us know what size tires we need!! There has to be a sImpler way to bypass the "select a bike" feature. My bikes are Maicos vintage Huskys and Bultacos. It seems easier for vintage riders to go to the local bike shop, than to be frustrated by this inconvienient feature"
• "shits fucked, button dont work. cant buy tire"

Expert Interviews

To better understand an expert's perspective, we did in-person interviews with bike shop managers to find what questions a shop owner would ask a customer coming in for new tires. We gleaned them down to 5 primary questions:

• Do you want the same tire that you have now on the bike?
• What kind of bike do you have?
• Do you ride the stock tire size? If not, what size tires do you need?
• What kind of riding are you doing (weather/track/road conditions)?
• Do you have a certain brand or line in mind?

As an online tire shopper, I want to be able to find the right tire for my bike by either specifying my bike OR the tire size, because I may not have the info you expect me to have.

Additionally, we asked the dealers about what information they would provide (beyond the tire itself) to customers to help them keep track of the tire they bought:

• "Here's a printout of the brand, size, and other specs of your tire for next time."
• "I've emailed you a picture of the tire you chose, which shows the sidewall information."

End User Testing

In order to understand the expectations that motorcycle riders had when buying tires for their ride, we went to a local 'biker bar' and got permission to set up a user test at a corner table. With a little MotoSport swag as a reward, we set up a laptop and used a script to ask regulars to step through our tire buying prototypes.

We came to some important conclusions

• BOTH tire size and bike M/M/Y are important and both should be available at each point in the buying process
• We need to educate the customer at every step
• We need to confirm or refute assumptions at every step
• Don't leave any M/M/Y without OEM tire specs (indicate that these are OEM/Manufacturer/Original specs at each step)
• Price is NOT a top concern
• Alternate sources of reviews/references are VERY important, often bikers will first search on their favorite forums or their friends for recommendations before starting the process of buying

What's Next

1. Build the M/M/Y selector directly into the product page to allow for indication the bike's specs right at the point of selection. Important are the exact OEM specs, indication of the bike Make Model Year, and an indication of the 'in stock-iness' of the tire itself:

2. Rebuild the tire PDP to allow for 'combo' or 'single' tire sales. This would allow for consolidated SEO value and more flexible sales of tires in order to 'upsell' a combo when a customer may have initially begun shopping for single tires.

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3. Rebuild the recommendation strategies on the tire PDP to better recommend accessory items, such as:

• bead buddy
• pressure gauges
• tire stands
• tire irons
• rim strip
• changing stands
• tire sealant
• valve core removers
• tire repair kits