There was substantial discussion at the Bicycle Leadership Conference about the women's market potential for the specialty bicycle retail channel of trade.  There was general agreement that selling more bikes to women is vital to the future growth of our business, and that just putting a women's department in stores is not working.

Why all this interest in attracting and selling more to women?  Because, according to Mary Lou Quinlan, author of Just Ask a Woman, "... women buy or influence the purchase of eighty-five percent of all products and services sold nationwide."  Women are the most important shoppers and dominant consumers in the U.S. market today.