The rental economy: ‘It’s not a trend, it’s a movement’
Tired of a throwaway culture based on cheap products, shoppers are increasingly opting to rent products, from fashion to furniture, in their search for sustainable solutions that suit modern attitudes to ownership.
Frequent traveller? No space to keep luggage in your micro apartment or shared flat? You may be the target customer for ‘Rent Your Kipling’, a new luggage rental service from the Belgian bag brand. Currently being trialled in London, the service from Kipling recognises there are some products which we need to use, but not own.
The brand, owned by VF Corp, is striving to be meaningful to its customers, explains Kipling vice president and general manager EMEA, Olivier Gay. The brand used research from design and consultancy group Ideo to find out more about its London consumers aged between 20 and 30.
It discovered this group values convenience, that it sees the sharing economy as a viable option and that members don’t have anywhere to keep their suitcases. More than two thirds (65%) found luggage storage to be an issue.
“People in London travel a lot. They want to have different bags according to the trip. You don’t want to use the same luggage when you go away for a weekend or for two or three weeks in Asia, but you have constraints in terms of money and you can’t have a whole store of luggage in your apartment,” says Gay.
“And there is this trend of property, do people want to own everything? Not always.”
Log in or subscribe to read the full article.
