The Q2 2026 benchmarking report for UK bike retailers has just been published. Learn how the top 12 UK bike retailers perform across the digital space.
The latest Q2 2026 benchmarking report for bike retailers has just been published. It covers the largest 12 bike retailers, including Evans Cycles, Wiggle, Chain Reaction, Tredz Bikes, Merlin Cycles, SIGMA Sports United, Leisure Lakes Bikes, Tweeks Cycles, 99 Bikes, Winstanleys Bikes, Wheelbase Shop, and Specialized.
The research gives an inside track on who is winning the biggest share of voice online and quantifies the gaps, risks, and missed opportunities for other bike retailers to expand brand awareness and enhance their website navigation, speed, and more to increase traffic and conversions. This report also highlights quick wins that will improve enquiries from your online strategy and identifies the barriers that may be reducing your site’s ability to optimise digital performance.
To see a preview and contents page of the Q2 report, click here. To get a copy of the full report and the key take-aways, please complete the enquiry form or schedule a call.
Q2 2026 Winners LEaderboard
For a glance into just 6 of the metrics we evaluated these top 12 bike retailers on, check out our quick-look table below;
To understand what the *CTM Digital Performance Index™ is click here.
Continue reading for further detail on this quarter's top and poorest-performing online learning providers, or request a copy of the report for the full review.
What The Industry Research Report Covers
The 70+ pages of research benchmarks each brand based on 50+ metrics and indicators of successful digital strategy, including organic visibility, domain authority, paid media ads, conversion performance, technical performance, site speed, universal search, content, social ads, accessibility, and mobile performance.
Driving Optimal ROAS from Paid Media Channels
Some of the leading players in the space are high spenders on paid media channels such as Google, Bing & Facebook - but have a poor or sub-optimal conversion improvement strategy. Without an optimised, sophisticated conversion strategy that maximises the conversion rate, the return on investment is unsustainable or will under-perform. Scaling spend on paid media is not achievable unless the conversion rate delivers optimal performance in the sector. Some in the space have paid media spend levels from 30k+ per month but dedicate minimal resources and budgets to conversion testing. Given the cost per clicks on ad networks will continue to rise, we recommend spending at least 10% of your paid media budget on ongoing conversion optimisation testing schedules to ensure your paid media ROI maintains long term viability, competitive advantage, and sustainability.
Pay-Per-Click Marketing
Pay-Per-Click marketing is constantly evolving, with more and more advertisers being forced to hand over a lot of control to Google's algorithms as the push for automation grows ever stronger. There are still key elements of control that we have though, the main one of these being budget which is ultimately something the algorithms can't take from you. That's why being smart with your budget and ad coverage is essential to achieving strong results and bettering what your competitors have to offer.
For Q2 2026, the average monthly budget wastage across these UK bike retailers was £5,075 with some of the top players in the market spending a considerable amount on areas and audiences unlikely to deliver a return. We can see this in more detail when looking at the average monthly cost per cost-per-click (CPC) amongst advertisers, with the average of this metric being £2. This highlights how competitive the market is and how important it is to control your budgets effectively.
There are varying monthly ad budgets across the competitors in the report. While this gap highlights the competitive advantage that larger budgets can provide, it's not just about spending more; it’s about spending smarter. By focusing on driving efficiency in campaign management, targeting, and budget allocation, businesses with smaller budgets can still effectively compete with larger players. Investing in data-driven strategies and refining ad performance can help close the gap and maximise the return on every pound spent, enabling growth even in a competitive landscape. Relative to their spend, both Merlin Cycles and Wheelbase Shop reported the lowest monthly cost-per-click (CPC) at £0, and Tweeks Cycles reported the highest at £7.
The report highlights the importance of budget efficiency by comparing monthly ad spend with estimated CPC in relation to your competitors, see who has the highest and lowest CPC. To maximise the effectiveness of your budget, it’s essential to focus on driving CPC down while maintaining or improving campaign performance. In this report, Merlin Cycles has the lowest estimate monthly ad spend at £31, and Evans Cycles has the highest at £220,000.
By optimising targeting, refining ad copy, and leveraging data to identify high-converting opportunities, you can ensure every click delivers maximum value. This approach not only stretches your budget further but also boosts your return on ad spend (ROAS), enabling you to achieve stronger results without simply increasing expenditure.
Technical Website Compliance
Savvy digital marketers know that having a technically sound website is an essential component of a successful fully integrated digital strategy - plus a site capable of maximising conversion performance. Bike retailers should monitor website errors to deliver a quality user experience, which includes fixing broken links to help with SEO, organic search traffic, crawability, and more.
This quarter, Evans Cycles reported the most 404 errors (17). 404 errors can create accessibility issues for some users, particularly those relying on assistive technologies or clear navigation structures. Unexpected dead ends may make it harder for people to understand where they are within the website or how to continue. This can make the browsing experience unnecessarily stressful and confusing.
Site Speed & Conversion Rate Performance
When 62% of consumers are less likely to convert if they have a negative mobile site experience, ensuring that your site is quick and easy to load makes a significant improvement on your overall conversion rates. Page speed makes a big difference as to whether a consumer will remain on the website or potentially visit it again. All bike retailers should undergo methods to increase site speed, such as using a mobile-friendly theme and including lazy loading.
In our previous audit, Leisure Lakes Bikes reported the slowest mobile site speed (12). This quarter, Leisure Lakes Bikes has moved to the top of the leaderboard, dramatically increasing their score to 74. Currently, the bike retailer with the slowest mobile site speed is SIGMA Sports United (16). Implementing lazy loading is another effective step. By only loading images and content as users scroll, websites can reduce initial load times and create a smoother browsing experience.
Building Competitive Advantage with Domain Authority
Domain authority is an essential metric for measuring the effectiveness of SEO performance, and helps create a reliable overall gauge of how effective your site is at achieving organic traffic, ie. ‘free’ traffic that isn’t gained through sponsored ads. Page speed makes a big difference as to whether a consumer will remain on the website or potentially visit it again. All bike retailers should undergo methods to increase site speed, such as using a mobile-friendly theme and including lazy loading.
A ‘good’ DA really comes down to how your competitors are performing, however it is generally considered average between 40 and 50, good between 50 and 60, and excellent above 60. Previously, Tweeks Cycles reported the lowest DA score (34). This quarter, Tweeks Cycles remains at the bottom of the leaderboard, and they’ve since slightly decreased their DA score to 33. A high domain authority score can make outreach and partnership opportunities easier for businesses. Other brands may be more willing to collaborate, publish guest content, or share links with websites that already have a respected online presence. This can open doors to wider marketing opportunities.
Organic Performance – Mobile & Desktop
A strong organic performance is strategically important as it ensures your site ranks above competitors for key, transactional keywords. When 93% of your customers won’t go past the first page of Google, your absence or lack of targeting for essential keywords will cost you conversions. During the cost-of-living crisis, we can expect to see a fluctuation in organic traffic on both devices, given that consumers are being more cautious of spending their money. However, bike retailers can see follow a strategy to increase their organic traffic, such as creating high-quality content and following a keyword strategy.
Two brands reported a decrease in organic traffic on desktop, with Wiggle, seeing the biggest loss (-59%) — the same as previously. On mobile, five brands reported a decrease in organic traffic, with Wiggle seeing the biggest loss (-59%). Some website features work more effectively on desktop than mobile. Complex navigation systems, large comparison tables, or interactive tools may be difficult to use on smaller screens. This can discourage mobile visitors and reduce organic traffic from phones.
Universal Search Opportunity
Google Universal Search Results is an evolving opportunity to make your pages visible on a SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Universal results often appear before traditional listings and are eye-catching for users. Universal search results refer to rankings on a SERP that are not the traditional ‘blue line’ Google link, and a brand can appear for universal search results without being strong in standard rankings. To help increase rankings in SERPs, bike retailers should focus on ‘images’ and ‘reviews’, which requires optimising visuals and encouraging past customers to leave an online review.
Evans Cycles continues to secure the most Universal Search appearances (7,252) — a decrease from 9,703 previously. The majority of their appearances came from ‘images’ (5,700).
The Longtail Keyword Opportunity
Longtail keywords are often considered high intent and potentially more likely to convert as a searcher is being more specific. Optimising for longtail keywords also puts your content strategy in a strong position to rank for brand new search terms as they enter Google’s index. Bike retailers should have a longtail keyword strategy to help increase their organic traffic and searchability online. Phrases they could use may increase ‘sports hybrid bikes’, ‘full suspension mountain bike’, and more.
Evans Cycles continues to secure the most longtail keyword appearances for position 3 (4,827) — an increase from 4,615 previously. Tredz Bikes also continues to secure the most appearances for positions 4–10 (9,069) — an increase from 8,545 previously. Search engine algorithms increasingly prioritise relevance and user intent rather than keyword repetition alone. Longtail keywords help websites create content that feels more natural and genuinely useful. This aligns well with modern SEO practices focused on user experience.
Facebook Adverts
With the number of Facebook users in the United Kingdom (UK) hitting over 44 million users in 2023, it is not surprising that companies have jumped at the opportunity to advertise on the social media platform. Facebook’s UK digital advertising revenue has been estimated to have breached 2.6b GB pounds in 2019.
We’ve included screenshots of Wheelbase Shop’s sponsored Facebook posts. Carousel posts are particularly effective for mobile users, as swiping through images feels quick and natural on smartphones. Since a large proportion of Facebook users browse on mobile devices, carousels can create a smoother and more engaging experience for audiences.
Top Social Shares & Content
When it comes to social media and on-site content strategies, it is important to release content that has a longer shelf life. An article is considered 'evergreen' if it has maintained its relevancy to an audience for a long period of time. It's great for your engagement, but great for Google too, who will recognise content which achieves traffic over a long period of time. Bike Retailers can create shareable social content that details new stock, the latest industry news, and information that’s relevant to their target audience.
Specialized secured the most Facebook Likes (2.1m) — the same as our last report — and the most Instagram followers (1.8m) — also the same as previously. Facebook was the most popular social media platforms of all brands. Specialized received the highest total engagement rate (14,883), and SIGMA Sports United received the highest average engagement (56).
Website Readability & Accessibility
20% of people in the UK have a disability – 2 million of which are people living with sight loss. In addition, 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women have some degree of colour vision deficiency. When websites aren’t designed to meet these needs, brands lose customer interest as they turn elsewhere. Websites that aren’t accessible can frustrate consumers, resulting in them losing trust in your brand. Bike retailers should regularly assess their contrast errors, accessibility alerts, and errors to avoid negatively impacting readability for those with a colour vision deficiency or those using a screen reader.
In our previous report, 99 Bikes received the most accessibility alerts (135). This quarter, 99 Bikes remains the theme park to watch, and they’ve since increased their total to 151. Screen reader users benefit from websites that prioritise meaningful content over repetitive alerts. If alerts are constantly announced, important headings, buttons and navigation links can become harder to identify.
Get the full 70-page Q2 2026 Report
To get a copy of the full report, please complete the enquiry form. If you want to talk to us about accelerating your digital performance, please call us on 01543 410014 or schedule a call with Rory Tarplee.