Scooter Shop Numbers: The Season, the Bench and the Service Plan
By PlainSight — Insightful Actions · Updated October 2026 · ~7 min read
A shop that sells and fixes scooters runs two businesses under one roof. The floor sells new scooters and e-bikes, and it follows the weather: spring and summer carry the year. The bench fixes them, whoever sold them, and it keeps going when the floor is quiet. Meanwhile the floor itself is changing: U.S. scooter sales fell 29.4% in 2025 as city buyers chose e-bikes. The numbers below tell you how each half is doing, whether the bench is set up to carry the winter, and where your next buyers are already standing.
Where your numbers live
Your point-of-sale system (the one at the counter, or your online store's) can export its sales to CSV or Excel. You want one row per line sold, with the date, the category (new e-scooters, gas scooters, e-bikes, used, repair labor, parts, batteries, accessories, service plans) and the amount. Two more columns make most of this guide possible: power (electric or gas), and, on bench work, bought here: whether the scooter on the stand was one you sold.
The numbers that tell you the shop is set up for the whole year
1. Sales by month, against the same month last year
What good looks like: each month ahead of its own last year, not of the month before.
Scooter sales swing with the weather, so June against May tells you about the weather. Compare each month with the same month a year earlier. Then add up April through September: if those six months sell most of your year, plan the stock, the staff and the cash for it in the winter, not in May.
2. Units by type: e-scooters, gas scooters and mopeds, e-bikes
What good looks like: a floor that follows what your buyers are actually buying.
Count units by type each year. Nationally, the Motorcycle Industry Council counted 11,104 new scooters sold in 2025, down 29.4% from 15,720, as city buyers chose e-bikes instead. If your gas scooter count is falling and your e-bike count is rising, order like it.
3. The bench: its share of the year, and how steady it is
What good looks like: a bench whose quietest month is still more than half its busiest.
Add repair labor, parts and batteries, and divide by everything you sold. Then compare its quietest month with its busiest, and do the same for new units. The bench is usually the steadier of the two, which makes it the line that pays the rent in January. Labor has no inventory behind it.
4. Bench work on scooters you didn't sell
What good looks like: known, and treated as your next buyers.
On every repair ticket, note whether you sold the scooter. Then divide the tickets on scooters bought elsewhere by all tickets. A rider who came to you for brakes on a scooter bought somewhere else already trusts your bench; when that scooter is done, the shop that fixed it is the obvious place to buy the next one.
5. Service plans sold with a new scooter
What good looks like: offered at every sale, and the first tune-up booked before the buyer leaves.
Divide the plans sold by the new units sold. Every scooter you sell will need tires, brakes or a tune-up; a plan brings that work back to your bench instead of somewhere else, and much of it lands in the quiet months.
An example, to show the arithmetic (not a benchmark)
| New units a year | Plans sold | Plan price | If one buyer in four took it |
|---|
| 390 | 35 (about 1 in 11) | $149 | About 98 plans: 63 more, about $9,400 a year |
|---|
6. Gear at the counter
What good looks like: a helmet and a lock offered with every scooter.
Divide accessory sales made with a new scooter by the scooters sold. A rider leaves with what they were offered at the counter, and a helmet sold with the scooter is a safer first ride as well as a bigger ticket. CPSC tells riders to always wear one.
7. Batteries: replacements and chargers, certified only
What good looks like: every pack and charger you sell certified, and every dead one sent to a recycler.
Track replacement batteries and chargers as their own line. New York City has required certified e-bikes (UL 2849), e-scooters (UL 2272) and batteries (UL 2271) for anything sold, leased or rented since September 2023, and California requires certified new e-bikes and replacement batteries from January 1, 2026. CPSC warns never to use a pack reworked by unqualified people or built from used cells, and never to throw lithium batteries in the trash. A battery is the line where a cheap supplier costs the most.
8. Stock on the floor, by how long it has been there
What good looks like: summer stock sold in the summer.
From your inventory export, list every unit on the floor and the month it arrived. A scooter still waiting in November was paid for in May, and it will be last year's model by spring. Order for the season you can sell in, and price the old units to move before the new ones arrive.
Warning signs worth acting on
- A winter where the bench is quiet too — nothing is bringing riders back: no plans, no tune-up specials, no fleet work.
- Gas scooters on the floor that sold last year and aren't selling this year — the national numbers say buyers are moving to e-bikes.
- Service plans on fewer than one sale in ten — usually a plan nobody offers, not one nobody wants.
- An uncertified battery or charger anywhere in the shop — in New York City and California it can't be sold, and anywhere it's the fire risk.
- Stock from the spring still on the floor in the fall — cash that should be buying next season's units.
Make it a monthly rhythm
Export your sales once a month and read the floor and the bench separately, each against the same month last year. Then pick the one with the widest gap between where you are and where you could plausibly be. It is usually the service plan, or a bench that has room in the winter.
Let PlainSight read your sales
Upload a sales export and PlainSight breaks your year down by category, power and season, shows how much of it is the bench, finds the plans you aren't selling, and writes the specific next steps. Everything runs in your browser — your customers' data never leaves your device.
See it on a live example →
Starting or growing a scooter shop? Read the free handbook for running a scooter sales & repair shop — the market, the stages a shop moves through, how each line pays, and what to do first. No account needed.
Frequently asked questions
- What file does PlainSight need from a scooter shop?
- A sales export with a date, the category and the amount. A power column (electric or gas) and, on bench work, whether you sold the scooter add those cuts. No customer names or contact details are needed.
- Is my customers' data safe if I use PlainSight?
- Yes. Files are processed entirely in your browser and never uploaded. Optional AI features send only anonymized summary totals, never names or raw rows.
- How much history do I need?
- One month shows sales by category. Twelve months or more shows the season, and two years shows each month against its own last year.
- Is this legal advice?
- No. Scooter shops carry real rules that vary by city and state: battery and device certification, what counts as an e-bike or a moped, and what a buyer needs to ride one. Check with your city and state, and take advice from an attorney and your insurer.
Sources
- Common Tread (RevZilla), “U.S. motorcycle sales dropped 7.6% in 2025”, February 3, 2026, on the Motorcycle Industry Council's 2025 numbers.
- Powersports Business, “MIC reports 2025 motorcycle, ATV retail sales decline as buyers shift to smaller models”, February 5, 2026.
- U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, “E-Scooter, E-Bike and Hoverboard Injuries and Deaths Are on the Rise”, October 11, 2022.
- NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, “City Reminds Retailers and Consumers to Only Purchase Certified Lithium-Ion Batteries and Mobility Devices”, September 8, 2023.
- City of Moreno Valley, Electric Bicycles: California's SB 1271 and the 750 W line.
This guide is general information for scooter and e-bike shop owners, not financial or legal advice. Rules on batteries, e-bikes and mopeds change and vary by city and state — check your own before you act.