When Jochen Zeits stepped on the CEO role of Harley-Davidson last May, there was a lot of work to be done. In this period, the legendary company stepped out of its comfort zone with some fresh ideas, such as:
- the LiveWire – first electric motorcycle from Harley-Davidson
- the Pan-America – first ADV from Harley-Davidson
For 2021, Harley-Davidson announced that they would adopt a more conservative approach due to finance issues. They nicknamed the plan “Hardwire”, with a commence date being set for this February.
It seems that they are slowly starting with this new strategy, as Zeits stated that they don’t want to sell their branded apparel on Amazon. Actually, they want to ramp up on a digital e-commerce business with their certified dealers.
As of right now, the change still didn’t occur, as there are tons of Harley-Davidson branded apparel on Amazon, that you can find with a simple search.
Still, it is unclear how this decision may impact the Amazon sellers who sell the official HD merch. HD probably pays some fees to Amazon, making total sense for their desire to get rid of these fees.
In the end, HD has its own, well-established e-commerce presence, dealing with products from bike parts to shoes and coffee mugs, with free shipping in the US for orders over $50. Along with that, pickup shipping costs are always zero in the case when the shipment is coming to your local HD dealership.
It seems that Harley wants to tighten their grip on their e-commerce business with this move. After all, Amazon is a big competitor that asks for its share of profits. This move makes sense for Harley-Davidson in a way. Time will tell when the move will happen and how will it impact the financial results of Harley-Davidson.
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Source: Web Bike World
