DreamCycles: Sustaining Growth

by Rashi Glazer, Hans Grande, Phil Guindi, Joe Karp, Phil Robinson


DreamCycles is an online retail store specializing in high-end road and mountain bikes. After nearly three years of continually growing sales, however, it was not clear whether this sales growth would be sustainable. The company was founded to address a perceived customization void in the bicycle industry. The online store allowed users to instantly configure bikes online, ensuring complete interoperability of all parts, a cost and selection advantages over competitors. As the first mover into this area, DreamCycles also hoped to create a sustainable position that would allow the company to be a long-term player in the market. Despite the early success of DreamCycles, there were major changes happening in the bicycle retailing industry.

Learning Objectives


This case should be used to aid students in understanding value proposition of an online retailer and determine if it is scalable, identifying customer segments and recognizing how to target underserved niches within those segments, and debate if a firm can create barriers to entry early in the product life cycle via product knowledge and expertise.

Details

Pub Date: May 31, 2007

Discipline: Strategy

Subjects: Startup, Market analysis, Market positioning, Competition, Corporate strategy, Internet, Start-ups, Growth strategy

Product #: B5702-PDF-ENG

Industry: Sporting goods & equipment,Bicycles

Geography: United States

Length: 15 page(s)


Berkeley Haas Case Series
Berkeley Haas Case Series The Berkeley Haas Case Series is a collection of business case studies written by faculty members at the Haas School of Business. Cases are conceived, developed, written, and published throughout the year, on subjects ranging from entrepreneurship and strategy to finance and marketing. Each case includes a teaching note for use in the classroom.

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Berkeley Haas Case Series

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The aim of the Berkeley Haas Case Series is to incite business innovation by clarifying disruptive trends and questioning the status quo.

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