Факторы успеха экономики общественного потребления в индустрии потребительских товаров

The sharing economy (also known as collaborative consumption) is one of the fastest growing business trends, that has become a rage and a phenomenon amongst the millennials. Peer-to-peer business model consists of sharing, acquiring and providing access to underused goods and services, that is usually supported by a community-based online platform. Sharing economy was stimulated by the development of technology, which led to a reduction in transaction costs and the provision of convenient for “users” and “owners” connection. A common example of sharing economy model is Airbnb platform, which is offering someone’s home as a place for a temporary stay. This company doesn’t own any real estate that is offered for rent. Airbnb allows owners to make money on their property and to share their home with those who are seeking for a stay.
Collaborative consumption has a large number of strengths and it solves not only personal issues, but also social and even environmental ones:
1) Financial savings: goods are getting accessible for consumers, because they don’t need to pay the full price for the object in order to use it only once;
2) Preservation of the environment by reducing the rate of depletion of natural resources;
3) Reduction of environmental pollution (that which could be thrown away will be used again);
4) Opportunity for owners to earn money with help of their underused assets without losing their sense of ownership;
5) Coopetition – the interaction of companies and people whose interests lie in one plane;
6) Finally, a significant increase in the efficiency of resource usage, which is the main aspect of the problem of economic theory.
Despite significant advantages of sharing economy, people are still more likely to buy things and keep them at home without usage, than to lend or rent these goods. This way the purchased goods may bring their value only a couple of times while the cost of the purchase is usually much higher than the money that could be spent for renting these goods for the necessary number of usages.
The success of the model depends on the size of the network (community of both: users and
owners). Currently there are several highly successful companies, so called “sharing-economy giants”
that use the co-consumption business model. Great examples here are Airbnb (online marketplace that
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connects people who want to rent out their homes with people who are looking for accommodations in that locale1), Uber (technology platform, that helps to solve the problem of people’s movement around the world, which includes peer-to-peer ridesharing, ride service hailing, food delivery, and a bicycle-sharing system)2. These companies, and some others that proceed in the Mobility industry, or Tourism, hotel industry, were able to gather a huge audience of users through the business model of the shared consumption economy, and now they are successfully growing and developing. But there are other companies that have tried to develop sharing economy in other industries, but have not reached desired success and popularity. An example of such an industry is Consumer goods. Most often a person doesn’t really need a drill: in fact, he needs a hole in the wall. However, in the majority of cases, the person buys the drill for the full price, uses it one or several times, and then leaves it gathering dust on the shelf without any usage. This means that the real value the purchased drill brings to its consumer is contained in a couple of usages and this value could have been reached through rent with lower costs.
Being that the rational buying behavior means that the buyer wisely spends his or her limited income to get the most satisfaction for each dollar spent (Lantos, 2011), such behavior could be even perceived as irrational and unfortunately it concerns not only repair tools, but also sports/leisure equipment, costumes/clothes, professional equipment (cameras, musical instruments), medical equipment (crutches, wheelchairs), videogames etc. All categories of goods mentioned are most likely not necessary in the everyday life, so they could have been used much more effectively. There are several companies, such as Rentomania, OneTwoRent etc. which are trying to develop consumer goods industry in sharing economy, but they are not yet in a high demand, comparing to the leading industries such as automotive and hospitality (Hwang, J., 2019).
It is interesting to identify the reasons why is the sharing economy market developing such unequally3: some economy-sharing industries are extremely popular, and some (which are quite promising, and able to solve social and environmental issues) cannot attract enough users to grow and develop. First of all, it is necessary to classify the types of sharing economy in order to reveal which class of companies using this business model includes consumer goods and is least demanded. Further it is necessary to study consumer behavior within the framework of the identified problem industry.
1 https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/032814/pros-and-cons-using-Airbnb.asp – Airbnb: Advantages and Disadvantages
2 https://www.uber.com/ – About the company
3 https://www.pwc.com/us/en/technology/publications/assets/pwc-consumer-intelligence-series-the-sharing- economy.pdf
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It is crucial to understand how people make decisions about what they want, use or buy and how they act towards a service or a company, because the way how consumers behave is what the success of the company and the industry as a whole depends on.
That is the reason why the aim of the given research is to determine and explore factors that influence consumer behavior in Consumer goods industry of sharing economy and to develop practical recommendations (marketing techniques, strategies, methods) for marketing departments of such sharing economy companies.
The subject of the given research is: “Factors influencing consumer behavior in consumer goods industry of sharing economy”.
The object of the given research is: “Consumers in consumer goods industry of sharing economy”.