Customer Success Story: BIKE24

How BIKE24 Simplifies Customs and Shipping to Switzerland with Seven Senders

BIKE24 is a Dresden-based e-commerce platform offering the widest range of cycling products to customers across Europe and beyond. This includes components, bikes, accessories, and apparel. With more than one third of revenue generated internationally, cross-border sales are a key growth driver.

Delivering efficiently to complex international markets like Switzerland required a more scalable solution, leading BIKE24 to partner with Seven Senders. ”International shipping is a core part of our model and it continues to grow faster than our domestic business.” (René Nicolai, Area Manager Transportation/Packaging at BIKE24).

The Challenge: Scaling Switzerland without Complexity

Despite its attractiveness, Switzerland brings operational complexity. Before working with Seven Senders, BIKE24 faced challenges on this lane, particularly due to limited flexibility in logistics operations and the manual handling of customs data.

Fixed pickup capacities of the previous shipping provider regarding cargo trucks made it difficult to manage growing volumes and seasonal peaks, causing delays before parcels left the warehouse. This forced some pallets to remain in the warehouse, leading to delays before orders even left the facility.

At the same time, the manual preparation of customs documents – often requiring staff to physically attach paperwork to individual parcels – created a massive administrative bottleneck that drained operational efficiency. “It happened regularly that Swiss orders stayed in our warehouse for one or even two days, because pickup capacity was not sufficient,” René explains.

The Solution: Flexible Logistics and Simplified Customs

As volumes to Switzerland grew, BIKE24 needed a scalable solution that could handle peak demand without delays or manual effort. Key requirements included a lean IT setup using their existing CSV export, reliable delivery via Swiss Post, highly flexible pickups that can be adjusted on the same day based on parcel forecasts, strong support in customs handling, and transparent pricing.

Seven Senders met these requirements by adapting to BIKE24’s existing processes and combining operational flexibility with customs expertise. Integration was seamless, requiring only minimal changes.

A key element of the solution is the automated and fully digital customs handling. Based on BIKE24’s product master data, Seven Senders generates compliant declarations, reducing manual work and improving reliability.

“Seven Senders takes our product master data and turns it into clean, compliant customs declarations. That has made the whole process much easier for our team,” says René.

Also, Seven Senders makes return feel really local. Swiss BIKE24 customers can easily send back the return domestically. Enjoying the same convenience as if they have ordered from a Swiss online shop. The return parcels are consolidated in a Seven Senders managed warehouse. Content of the parcels is checked and all articles are being scanned – So that BIKE24 can reimburse their consumers quickly. Also: This scan data is used by Seven Senders to reclaim paid duties when exporting the parcel back to the EU.

Proof in Numbers

Average delivery time: Reduced to 2.2 days

Fewer customs delays: Resolved previous customs delays where poor data handling caused clearance issues on 25% of all pickup days per month

Operational efficiency: Strong decrease in manual workload, saving the four-person customs team roughly one hour of work per day.

Order2Delivery leadtime: Improved by 30%

The Result: Faster Operations and Better Customer Experience

With Seven Senders, BIKE24 achieved faster, more reliable, and more scalable operations. Customs processes are now simplified, with documents processed efficiently and minimal manual follow-up required. Flexible pickups from the carrier’s truck ensure parcels leave the warehouse without delay, even during peak periods, while returns handling has become more structured and predictable.

For customers, this results in faster deliveries and a smooth cross-border experience. For BIKE24, this allows it to scale its Switzerland business without increasing complexity and creates a strong foundation for future expansion.

“Through the cooperation with Seven Senders, BIKE24 is able to rely on an adjustable and reliable shipping solution with streamlined IT, strong customs support, and competitive pricing.”

About

BIKE24
BIKE24 is a leading European e-commerce platform for cycling products and was founded in 2002 in Dresden, Germany. With its online shop, BIKE24 offers a wide range of bicycle components, complete bikes, accessories, and apparel from well known brands as well as its own private labels. The company serves customers across Europe and international markets, with a strong focus on cross-border e-commerce. A significant share of revenue is generated outside Germany, supported by localized shops in several European countries. BIKE24 employs 500+ people and operates from its central logistics hub in Germany, enabling fast and reliable delivery to cyclists worldwide.

Seven Senders
Seven Senders is the leading delivery platform for parcel shipping. The company connects shippers with its carrier network of over 100 parcel delivery companies in Europe, enabling them to use excellent, local shipping as a competitive advantage. With additional shipping services such as claim.me, parcel protection, returns portal and labels, Seven Senders makes international shipping easy. Automated shipping notifications and tracking and monitoring solutions ensure a transparent shipping process. Monthly reports and analyses enable data-based optimization of international shipping performance. Shippers receive everything from a single source, and reduce complexity.

Our other articles

Customer Success Story: BIKE24

How BIKE24 Simplifies Customs and Shipping to Switzerland with Seven Senders

The Challenge: Scaling Switzerland without Complexity

The Solution: Flexible Logistics and Simplified Customs

The Result: Faster Operations and Better Customer Experience

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