European Cycling Industries (ECI) has partnered with market research specialist Sporting Insights to launch State of Trade European Cycling (SoTEC), a data platform designed to improve market visibility and forecasting across Europe’s bicycle industry.

SoTEC collects sell-in data—shipments from brands to distributors and retailers—and provides quarterly updates covering monthly market developments in selected bicycle categories. The aggregated information will be presented through a dedicated dashboard.

Sell-in figures should not be interpreted as actual consumer purchases, or sell-through. They must still be assessed alongside retail inventory and end-market sales data.

Founding participants include Specialized, Trek, Pon.Bike, Giant Group and Decathlon. According to ECI, all submitted data will be aggregated and anonymised in compliance with EU competition law to protect commercially sensitive information. The platform’s market coverage and forecasting accuracy will become clearer once further reports are released.

For Taiwanese manufacturers and component suppliers, improved European market visibility could enable bicycle brands to adjust purchasing and inventory more quickly, potentially resulting in shorter order visibility and more flexible, phased procurement. At the same time, better data could reduce the risk of forecasting errors and excessive inventory.

Suppliers should therefore monitor not only order volumes, but also their customers’ sell-in performance, retail inventory, sell-through and replenishment cycles when planning production and materials.