TABLE OF CONTENT

No. Title Page

1. Introduction: Background of USJ Cycles 1

2. Online Consumer Variables of USJ Cycles 2

3. Impact of Macro Environment towards USJ Cycles 3–4

4. Social Media Platform that USJ Cycles uses: Facebook 5

5. Conclusion 5

6. Reference 6
1. INTRODUCTION

I have decided to choose USJ Cycles as my go to online seller for this case study. USJ
Cycles was established in 2003 with more than 16 years of experience in the bicycle retailing
business. Their shop is strategically located in USJ 9 Subang Jaya, Selangor[ CITATION
USJ10 \l 17417 ]. They are managed by an experienced team that is led by Mr Jeff Siow, a
passionate cycler and businessman. Due to their well-established rapport, the shop is well
known by the Subang community, both cyclists and non-cyclists alike.

USJ cycles features a wide range of high quality & affordable bicycles ranging from
Mountain, Folding, and Hybrid bikes. They are also renowned as an authorised dealer of
leading global brands like Giant, Fuji, and Raleigh. Nonetheless, USJ Cycles also provides
bicycle accessories compromising brands such as Endura, Castelli, and Thule. USJ cycles are
an SME company that is very committed to continuously improve their after-sales service to
support their customers. Additionally, they also offer repairs, maintenance & bike fitting
services for any bicycles regardless of brands or where it was bought.

Based on USJ CYCLES experience with their customers over the years, they can now
respond to changes and find new opportunities and threats by developing a plan based on
‘strategic agility’. Strategic agility is the ability to innovate and gain competitive advantage
within a marketplace by monitoring changes within their market, and evaluating strategies
while implementing appropriate changes. For example, the Subang Jaya Municipal Council
(MPSJ) conducts cycling activity every Sunday morning that provides an opportunity for
cyclists to ride their bike on the street of USJ and Subang areas. This activity will be patrolled
by MPSJ and Police officers whereby there is proper road block and traffic guidance during
the day, so participants can fully enjoy their cycling.[ CITATION Maj \l 17417 ]

The aim of this event is to promote a healthy lifestyle to all the residents in the Subang area.
Before most residents are only able to cycle in the community areas or the place surrounding
their houses. Thus, this is a golden opportunity for USJ Cycles to embrace their strategic
agility and broaden their horizon in promoting their business to more cyclists.

1 | USJ Cycles
2. THE ONLINE CONSUMER VARIABLES FOR USJ CYCLES

There are two areas which can prove beneficial when aiming to identify online consumer
variables. The first is demographic variables which are any personal attributes that remain
static throughout a person’s lifetime. Elements of a consumer demographic profile that
influence online behaviour include variables such as income, race, age and gender[ CITATION
Cha19 \l 17417 ].

In order to tackle this, USJ Cycles targets bicycle enthusiasts and health-conscious personnel
to sell their products. For USJ Cycles, their consumers are usually those that have money to
spend and are focused on long-term fitness goals. Their consumers can also range from
beginners to veteran cyclists. Beginners and casual cyclists will usually spend on low-end
bikes to suit their needs, while veteran’s will spend more on expensive high-end bikes as well
as cycling accessories. Other than that, race competitors spend differently to their other
counterparts. They will usually focus on purchasing training equipment such as an indoor
smart trainer to prepare themselves for future triathlons. Thus, USJ Cycles created an
established plan to cater each consumer demographic.

Next, is the psychographic and behavioural variables which involve any aspect of
consumer’s perceptions and attitudes that influence online behaviour. Behavioural
characteristics such as knowledge and attitude can have a huge effect on a consumer’s
intention to shop[ CITATION Cha19 \l 17417 ].

One of the realities that USJ Cycles are facing these days is that customers are choosing to
buy bicycle parts online rather than in shops. Bicycle enthusiasts usually spend thousands a
year on cycling products. They are very knowledgeable and do a lot of research online. This
means that they do not need the shops because they can buy products online which is cheaper
and more convenient than what shops offer.

Unfortunately for USJ Cycles, this leads to decreased foot traffic and revenue. In order to
overcome this, USJ Cycles always practices good communication with both online and
offline customers. USJ Cycles maintains positive attitudes on the sales floor, especially when
they deal with people who comment on how prices are compared to what is online. By
staying positive it helps them to better manage the ever-changing consumer behaviour
variables.

2 | USJ Cycles
3. THE IMPACT OF MACRO ENVIRONMENT TOWARDS USJ CYCLES

Macro Environment consists of external forces which can greatly affect a company's success.
Thus, it can be separated into many forces includes technology, economy, political, legal and
social[ CITATION Cha19 \l 17417 ].

Technology:

USJ Cycles have fully embraced digital style marketing with many advertisements and
promotions in Facebook helping them reach many customers establishing themselves as the
top 2 sporting retail company in Facebook Malaysia with more than 150,000
followers[ CITATION Fac20 \l 17417 ].

By using Facebook as their go-to social media, USJ CYCLES implemented relationship
marketing, a form of marketing where they need to set their mindset from “selling” to
“building relationships” as nowadays customers are more engaged than ever. According to a
study on digital marketing, younger generations are more likely to use internet-based
innovations than older generations [ CITATION Mis17 \l 17417 ]. When younger customers can
provide feedback, they feel more engaged. This feedback can occur in the form of criticism,
compliments or suggestions, that give customers a sense of belonging.

Economic:

Subang Jaya is moving towards being an eco-friendly town, with many parks & recreational
areas for people to cycle and a growing number of young populations that want a close to
home bicycle store that can cater to their needs. But under the current economic conditions, it
would be difficult for USJ Cycles to entice bicycle enthusiasts who are more knowledgeable
when it comes to online spending. In other words, USJ Cycles need to depend less on high-
end bicycle enthusiasts and appeal more towards beginner and casual markets.

Thus, they need to develop programs that are more inclusive. For example, offering bicycle
ride programs for casual cyclists and kids. This is to entice them to come out and help them
get started. Which in turn will help USJ Cycles target a wider market of new cyclists that is
beneficial in the long-run.

3 | USJ Cycles
Political:

The Subang Jaya Municipal Council’s (MPSJ), has a policy regarding gas emission and
pollution control, where they expect Subang Jaya to be an eco-friendly city in the future. This
is a good opportunity for communities to increase their understanding on the importance of
cycling, which is an effective tool to experience and become immersed in nature. Therefore,
MPSJ found it as an important development tool to foster the way of future planning to
enhance the sustainable growth of environment, social and economic needs.

Thus, this in turn helps USJ Cycles to pioneer a sustainable tourism development that will
direct tourists to practice cycling and greatly boost their image of being a go-to bicycle
shopping destination[ CITATION Han20 \l 17417 ].

Legal:

USJ Cycles encourage good ethical practice when dealing with their customers both online
and offline purchases. The customers can freely give suggestions and comments regarding
anything related in their website or Facebook page. This helps USJ Cycles in dealing with
unnecessary legal issues that may appear with their products. They are also a member of the
SME Associations which takes care of SMEs in relation to dispute and legal rights.

Social:

The culture nowadays among millennials of virtual activities, contributes towards USJ Cycles
ability to introduce more unique products that cater towards millennials. This eventually
broaden the horizon of services and products that they can introduce in the foreseeable future

Because of the increase in virtual communication among today’s millennials, USJ Cycles are
focusing their attention on selling the idea of cycling to them. USJ Cycles often communicate
about great places to ride in the community, organize events and do things that support the
use of bicycles with posts from their website and Facebook page.

This will ensure product sales and customer loyalty to naturally follow. Furthermore, USJ
Cycles' approach to new customers are always catered to the customers wants and needs. For
example, some customers only took cycling as a hobby while others see cycling as interesting
and want to learn and educate themselves more.

4 | USJ Cycles
4. SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM THAT USJ CYCLES USES: FACEBOOK

USJ Cycles has an established Facebook page since November 2010 in order to extend their
reach to more online consumers. Based on studies conducted, Facebook is the most dominant
social media platform and receives the most attention regarding digital marketing in SMEs
[ CITATION Kra19 \l 17417 ].

For SMEs such as USJ Cycles, their challenge is to regularly publish online content. One way
to overcome this hurdle is by creating a content schedule. Having a clearly defined content
schedule encourages employees to engage in conversations regarding marketing regularly.
This can help ensure that they have content to discuss when they encounter potential
customers on Facebook.

In order to establish customer engagement in Facebook, USJ Cycles must be actively

engaged with customers. The most common and effective way of engaging with customers is
by organizing contests with free giveaways, which most SMEs did. Since most people on
Facebook do not like to read long texts, USJ Cycles keep them as short and uncomplicated as
possible. Another stylistic element that is currently employed is the use of smileys and emoji.
Most SMEs highlighted that emoji are important to differentiate and appear young. In
particular, the use of emojis helps to get attention for the SMEs’ posts.

CONCLUSION

In Conclusion, USJ Cycles is the epitome of companies that can withstand the test of time
and change. Since their opening in 2003, many changes have occurred around them, from
technological advancement to rapid changing of consumer demographic and behaviour.
Despite all of this, USJ Cycles learned and innovated themselves in order to maintain
relevance in today’s market. From digital marketing to product innovation, from only having
a Facebook page to having a full-fledged website, USJ Cycles has done it all. This shows that
digital marketing is really important in this day and age as technology is continuously
evolving at a rapid pace thus, addressing the need of having a good marketing strategy for
any company is vital in order to succeed in the long-run.

5 | USJ Cycles
REFERENCES
1. Han, H., Lho, L. H., Al-Ansi, A., & Yu, J. (2020). Cycling tourism: a perspective
article. Tourism Review, 75(1), 162–164. doi: 10.1108/tr-06-2019-0268

2. Kraus, S., Gast, J., Schleich, M., Jones, P., & Ritter, M. (2019). Content is King: How
SMEs Create Content for Social Media Marketing Under Limited Resources. Journal of
Macromarketing, 39(4), 415–430. doi: 10.1177/0276146719882746

3. Mishra, O., & Ayatham, P. (2017). Online retailers connecting to the youth segment
through Facebook (A study on the influence of gender and personality type). Journal of Asia
Business Studies, 11(4), 387–412. doi: 10.1108/jabs-08-2015-0129

4. Chaffey, D., & Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2019). Digital marketing: strategy, implementation and
practice. Harlow, England: Pearson.

5. Facebook page of USJ Cycles: https://www.facebook.com/usjcycles/

6. Website of USJ Cycles: www.usjcycles.com

7. Website of the Subang Jaya Municipal Council’s (MPSJ): https://portal.mpsj.gov.my/ms

8. Facebook stats in Malaysia - Sporting Goods Retailers, 2020 :

https://www.socialbakers.com/statistics/facebook/pages/total/malaysia/brands/retail/sporting-
goods-retailers

6 | USJ Cycles