Buying new rental equipment? Don’t guess… TEST
We know that rental items that don’t rent frequently will affect your bottom line. If you're thinking about adding a new rental item, put it on your website as if you already own it, then measure and track the demand. If someone wants to rent the item you could simply tell them you don’t own it yet, or that it is unavailable. When you feel confident that you’ve got enough demand, THEN you buy the equipment. This will help you avoid flops, save some cash, and prevent wasted space in your warehouse.
Let’s imagine you are an event rental company thinking about adding chiavari chairs to your inventory. 100 new chiavari chairs could cost $5,000 so before you just pull the trigger and hope it works, why not test it out first.
add the item and photo to your website.
give it some time.
measure the demand from customers.
consider the alternative investments. This part is key. What else could you have purchased for $5,000? More white folding chairs? Another tent?
(if possible) buy the equipment once you have orders in hand for events a few weeks to months out so you can be confident the new chairs will be delivered in time. Its a nice feeling when your new purchase is already partially paid for.
For measurement you can keep track of how many people have asked for your new chiavari chairs the old fashioned way (just jotting it down somewhere) or for an even better assessment, you could check your website’s analytics. Don’t have analytics on your site? Then please get in touch today. Your business website data can teach you so much about your business. The Recipi team is happy to help implement website analytics.
