Between frequent job and apartment changes and a fast-paced lifestyle, more people are turning to renting essential items instead of purchasing them, writes SOORAJ RAJMOHAN
A move to Bengaluru is something a lot of young Indians aspire towards.
But in a city with so many opportunities, where vocations and locations are ever changing, settling down and making solid investments becomes a challenge.
Having a mode of transportation, splurging on clothing, deciding whether to buy furniture for the long run or get something less swanky and easily disposable, these are the issues everyone grapples with.
An increasing number of businesses are looking to address these problems with a simple concept. Why buy when you can rent?
Atanu Kundu was looking to start up an electronics rental portal when his friend Monika Singh told him about the difficulty of maintaining a wardrobe for occasions like parties and weddings. This led them to pivot and start Hidden Closet, which rents out premium clothing for occasions.
“This is a market estimated to be worth almost two billion dollars, and occasion wear is what we focus on most. Wedding and party dresses are an existing market, and renting clothes for such occasions has been a trend in North India. We want to make sure the demand increases and hope to move to everyday wear soon. It is important to open the market and then develop.”
With home rental being notoriously expensive in the city, procuring the right furniture can be a nightmare for cash-strapped young executives who make up a bulk of the city's population.
Geetansh Bamania and Ajay Nain, who shared an apartment, had difficulty equipping their house to suit their needs every time they moved.
This constant upheaval led them to realise that the idea of ownership may be overrated.
“For ages, we've been fixated on the idea of owning stuff and after a while when it's out of fashion or doesn’t suit our lifestyle we simply sell it for peanuts. This is when we did some market research and realised that there is a huge demand for a solution to furnish houses without having to block savings on expensive furniture and white goods. This demand had not been explored to its full potential.” The result of this idea was Rentomojo, a portal specialising in renting out furniture.
For both Rentomojo and Hidden Closet, the average age of their customers falls between 21 and 34, with Geetansh elaborating that their audience is more interested in accessing living essentials than owning them.
And despite the fact that Hidden Closet has a much larger collection for women, Atanu says the number of orders from men is higher. “For men, we deal mostly in suits and sherwanis, which are required often for business meetings and similar occasions, and fit is simpler than it is for women. So we get about three times as many orders from men with about half the inventory compared to women.”
The other issue that youngsters in the city face is transport. With the high cost of owning a vehicle and registration hurdles in bringing their own, many turn to services like Wicked Ride for help. “For utility purposes, we have vehicles like Activas, Scootys and Avengers that can be used for long terms at manageable costs,” says Abhinav Sagar Srinivas, assistant general manager at Wicked Ride, which rents out two wheelers from scooters to premium machines, like Harley-Davidsons. “For those who just require a powerful motorcycle for occasional trips outside the city, we provide long-term membership options that entitle riders to around 20 rides for 18 months on a vehicle of their choice, ranging from a Royal Enfield to something more premium.”
Wicked Ride is now starting feeder services from Metro stations where customers can rent a vehicle from a station and drop it back before taking a train home.
While the response to this concept has been spectacular, with Atanu saying month-on-month growth exceeds 100 per cent, the main challenge is to get the sentimental Indian customer to embrace the idea of renting daily essentials.
“Changing Indian mindsets is not an easy task, but it is slowly happening,” he says, adding that only 40 per cent of their demand comes from Tier 1 cities. The presence of Wicked Ride in Mysuru, Belgaum, Jaipur, Udaipur and more is an example of how the rental trend is not necessarily isolated to big urban cities.
Resource: http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/the-rental-revolution/article8630251.ece
