On November 30 Lapierre will be launching Lapierre+ which will see them selling bikes direct for the first time.
For now it’s only going to be on the continent but we have been told that more countries will be added in the near future – with the UK hopefully being in the third phase (potentially sometime in 2017).
It looks like they aren’t going full Commencal though. The slogan “la meilleure en ligne, le service magasin in” translates to: “The best of online, in store service”… roughly.
They will be following Giant and Trek’s model instead. You order your bike online and then Lapierre will deliver it to your local dealer from their warehouse. Your local shop will put it together for you and deal with any problems.
With Trek’s model the dealer gets a bit less money but they can carry less stock, so there’s less risk involved.