According to the American Rental Association, the typical rental property business has a service area of approximately 10 miles from its location.
While that can represent a sizable market, imagine how much bigger your market could be if you served customers from 100 or even 1,000 miles from your location.
Thanks to advances in “shipping tech” (companies who provide real-time postage calculation based on size/weight and shipping method), rental property business around the world are growing their addressable market by adding shipping as a fulfillment method to what was previously limited to pickup and delivery.
All types of previously “local only” products are being shipped across the country or around the world. Everything from perishable items like meal kits to DIY items like training devices (like CPR dummies) are being delivered to Customer doorsteps everywhere.
Until only recently, shipping was the domain of retailers only (in others, just a one-way shipment, from provider to Customer). Now, thanks to advances in technical integrations, businesses who offer items for rent can now offer two-way shipping to Customers not located in its traditional service area.
Shipping For Rental Business: A Case Study
An example is Rent Mason Bees, who uses RentMy.co to dropship Mason Bees and nesting material to gardeners around the US. Gardeners release native bees to pollinate and rent the nesting blocks that are then returned in the fall. Mason bees are docile bees that emerge from their cocoons in the spring when fruit trees and many of our native shrubs and herbs are in bloom. Visiting up to 2000 flowers each day, these highly efficient pollinators increase fruit production as well as improve the overall health of their ecosystems by aiding the health of native plants. As a solitary bee, they have no queen to protect therefore no reason to sting. They are fun to watch throughout the spring and are a important member of our ecosystem.
RentMy, through its integration with the USPS (among others), dynamically calculates the price of outbound and return shipping and adds the price to the order total.
When an order is placed, the Rent Mason Bees team receives full order information (including rental start/end dates, ship-to information and other special instructions.
At the time of fulfillment, the client can instantly update the order status, print shipping labels and even export the order information to another application.
Rent Mason Bees serves Gardners coast-to-coast, and thanks to it’s partnership with RentMy.co, they can seamlessly offer sustainable and the ultimate in eco-friendly pollinator services practically everywhere in the United States. From order placement to the return shipment, RentMy handles all of the steps along the way.
Whether you rent beehives or basketballs, drones or dresses, RentMy can help you manage and GROW your business with ease. Schedule your private demo today!
