The furniture rental market has been breaking ice
foreign media News, Chicago furniture rental platform “Inhabitr” recently announced that it has received $4 million Series A financing, this round of financing by Great North Labs led the game.
“Inhabitr” was established in 2016 and hopes to reduce the costs associated with relocating furniture by providing users with a price that is more affordable than the purchase of furniture, allowing users to rent furniture on the platform.
“Inhabitr” works directly with manufacturers to purchase furniture, and works with local furniture stores and their employees to complete furniture delivery and installation. Rental methods include suites and individual furniture. For example, the price of living room packages planned by interior designers in Inhabitr ranges from US$70/month to US$130/month, and individual furniture such as sofas are around US$30/month. Furniture will reach $150/month. In the replacement of furniture, “Inhabitr” charges a $99 exchange fee to help trade-in.
At present, “Inhabitr” has served 11 cities in the United States, serving over 2,000 families. Its co-founder, Ankur Agrawal, believes that one of the company’s biggest challenges is to expand operations in the context of a heavy supply chain and to improve the training manual for retail-oriented customers.
Inhabitr official website
A similar domestic furniture rental platform has also been reported, such as easy living, which received pre-A round financing this year. Easy to provide one-stop furniture rental services for corporate and individual customers, B-side customers are mainly long-term rental apartments and government public rental housing. Easily move from heavy assets to heavy operations, and cooperate with electrical brands and ODM factory resources to provide independent warehousing and supply chain logistics in core cities. And similar rental platforms have Shake Home, Packages, Enjoy rent, etc.
Besides the home rental market, there are also platforms that are cut from office furniture, such as micro-lease rentals for office furniture rental services for real estate developers. >. Considering the high loss rate and functionality of office furniture, the furniture provided by Weiyi Rent is mainly mahogany furniture. Its main customers are operators in the CBD and provide a complete service flow from measurement, customization to on-site installation.
The furniture rental platform is not only satisfied with the leasing business. As mentioned above, it also supports the furniture and home appliance suppliers to provide supply chain financial services, as well as the light public welfare platform to serve the renovation of second-hand furniture and home appliances.
In addition, under the online, there is also IKEA to transform from heavy assets. In the past, IKEA was accustomed to self-built shopping malls, slowing down the pace of expansion, and the input costs were also very large, and IKEA plans to open 30 small stores in major cities by 2021, which can attract a wider range of customers by constructing offline shopping scenes. At the same time, IKEA has also begun to engage in furniture rental services. In contrast, Aaron’s in the United States uses two types of furniture sales models: rentable, buy-and-sell.
The demand for furniture rental is also increasing under the trillion-dollar housing rental market. In this context, the question that the pile of furniture leasing companies may have to think about is how to let more consumers accept this new consumption model, and what kind of furniture positioning and pricing can be favored by consumers, and the industry itself needs Think about how to deal with long payback cycles, supply chain management, and low rental frequency.