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E-commerce development for sport, cycling and outdoor retail

Selling a bike, a pair of skis or a climbing harness online means selling a measurement before you sell a product. The catalogue has to answer two questions the buyer asks before price: is this my size, and does it fit what I already own.

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Selling a measurement before a product

Frame size follows from rider height and inside leg length. A ski boot is chosen on foot length and volume, not on street shoe size. A harness is set on thigh circumference. As long as the selector on the page merely shows a conversion table instead of genuinely filtering the variants on offer, the customer orders two sizes and keeps one. Returns then become the largest cost line in the catalogue, ahead of acquisition.

The second question is compatibility between components. Bottom bracket standard, seatpost diameter, tyre width allowed by the rim, derailleur mount type, axle length: that is a many-to-many matrix between parts, not a category tree. It has to be queryable from the product page in both directions: does this component fit my bike, and which components fit this bike.

Where a sport site goes wrong

  • The size guide is an image: not filterable, not indexable, not linked to variants actually in stock.
  • Compatibility is written as free text in the description, so the internal search engine cannot use it.
  • A built bike ships at standard parcel rates because dimensions sit on the parent product, not the variant.
  • A lithium battery is offered for pickup-point delivery, when the carrier excludes it.
  • The regulatory characteristics of an electrically assisted bike are buried in a marketing paragraph.
  • At the end of a season hundreds of pages are deleted at once and their earned ranking goes with them.
  • A shooting item subject to a licence check can be dispatched like any accessory.

The e-bike is a product with a legal frame

To remain a cycle under French road rules, assistance must come from a motor with a continuous rated power of no more than 250 watts, cut out at 25 kilometres per hour and work only while pedalling. Beyond those limits the machine becomes a moped, with registration, insurance and a compulsory helmet. Those three characteristics therefore belong on the product page as attributes rather than prose: they determine what the buyer may legally do with the purchase.

The battery raises a second, logistical problem. Lithium cells fall under dangerous goods transport: some carriers refuse them and pickup-point delivery is usually ruled out. That constraint has to live in the shipping calculation, as an exclusion carried by the product, not in the head of whoever packs the parcel.

How I handle this kind of catalogue

  1. Model measurements as attributes

    Height, inside leg, foot length, volume and thigh circumference become numeric data attached to variants. The selector queries that data and only offers what is genuinely in stock in the right size.

  2. Build the compatibility matrix

    A relation table between parts, fed by import and queryable from the product page and from search. An incomplete but reliable matrix beats compatibility asserted in free text and disproved at assembly.

  3. Set shipping rules per variant

    Weight and dimensions at variant level, a dedicated carrier for oversized goods, specific packaging charged on, and delivery method exclusions on affected products. A built bike, a board, a kayak or a pair of skis will not go through standard parcel networks.

  4. Plan the seasonal changeover

    Before each collection change I decide page by page: keep the page with an unavailable status, redirect to the equivalent in the new range, or close it cleanly. A bulk delete loses accumulated authority and fills the error logs.

Related technical resources

Frequently asked questions

Is a size guide enough to cut returns?
Rarely, because it asks the customer to do the conversion. A selector that takes two measurements and then offers only the variants available in the matching size performs better, provided those measurements are stored as numeric values rather than as an image.
How do you handle part compatibility without multiplying categories?
With a relation table between references, independent of the category tree. One part may fit hundreds of models and one model accept hundreds of parts: that is a many-to-many relation, which a category cannot represent.
Can a built bike ship with an ordinary parcel carrier?
No, the dimensions exceed standard parcel limits. You need a dedicated carrier, specific packaging whose cost is passed on, and dimensions recorded at variant level so the right delivery method is offered automatically.
What should happen to end-of-line pages at each season change?
Three options depending on the case: keep the page with an unavailable status while it still draws visits, redirect to the equivalent in the new range where one exists, or close it cleanly. Outright deletion is the one option to avoid.
Must e-bike characteristics appear on the product page?
Yes, and legibly: continuous rated power, the speed at which assistance cuts out, and operation only while pedalling. Those values decide whether the machine stays a cycle or becomes a moped subject to registration, insurance and a helmet.

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