“There are decades when nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”
How is this quote from over 100 years ago, now relevant to e-commerce technology in the rental industry?
This theme has been playing out in e-commerce trends right before our eyes for the past few decades. E-commerce first started making meaningful headway in 2000, when Amazon and other upstart companies, started making inroads with 1% of retail sales happening over the internet.
Source: Bank of America U.S. Department of Commerce, ShawSpring Research, 2020
Since then, e-commerce sales grew linearly with 16% of retail transactions occurring digitally at the start of 2020. Then the pandemic happened. In just 8 weeks between March – April 2020, that number almost doubled to 27%. That’s a decade of e-commerce growth in just eight weeks. And we aren’t going back.
Consumer habits are fundamentally different and renters are expecting the same from their rental companies. Once the barrier of setting up the online account, getting used to the functionality, etc. is met, new habits are formed. Consumers now expect to rent equipment online the same way they expect to order food from DoorDash, order a cab from Uber, and book plane tickets from delta.com. The Covid pandemic will ultimately accelerate history rather than re-shape it. Is your rental company ready for the surge in e-commerce rental transactions?
