Beleco - Furniture rentals between private individuals
| Reference number | |
| Coordinator | REFURNISH THE WORLD AB |
| Funding from Vinnova | SEK 300 000 |
| Project duration | August 2017 - February 2018 |
| Status | Completed |
| Venture | Social innovation - development and testing |
| Call | Social innovation - phase 1 |
Important results from the project
The aim of the project was to investigate the customer need of renting out furniture to other private individuals with the goal of reducing the number of functional furniture items being thrown away. The test was done in a smaller scale in Stockholm-Mälardalen to reduce the logistical challenge and since the concept is made for larger cities
Expected long term effects
Our hope was that our customers would reduce the amount of furniture they would throw away, from 63% throwing away at least one item per year, to less than 50%. We also wanted to start discussions with at least one industry actor with the aim of reducing the resource waste as a consequence of them having taken notice of this project. Regarding the reduce amount of furniture we allowed for all our customer to take care of all their furniture, regardless of condition of the item. We also were able to attract interest from no less than three relevant actors: Svenssons i Lammhult, Vinden and Folksam.
Approach and implementation
As a result of customer feedback, we decided to early on in the process change the set-up since we notice that it was too much to ask from the customers to let them handle the entire process themselves, i.e. take photos, write descriptions of the furniture items, price them and coordinate the transport. Because of this we ensure to handle all customers manually and do these parts ourselves. Since the service was completely new, the customers felt that the risk of them having to do all this work in vain was too big for them to want to do it themselves.