Pepperfry aims to increase revenues by offering furniture for rentals

Pepperfry, the home furnishing marketplace, is looking to offer furniture for rent as it looks to strengthen volumes and increase its customer base. Also, the firm aims to improve its revenue by this strategic move. Ambareesh Murty, CEO of Pepperfry, explained that “We expect to rent a lot of beds, wardrobes, book cases, etc. These are more functional requirements. Pepperfry customers typically range between the age group of 28 years and 60 years. This move (to launch rentals) will help us increase relevance in the age group of 2228 years who we can then convert to customers on an on-going basis”.

The homeware and furniture online retail market is expected to cross $1.1 billion in revenues in 2017 from $900 million in 2016. However, the rental market forms only a small pie and experts believe that a sizeable rentals market in India will take time to build out. Satish Meena, Senior Analyst in the industry, commented that “Furniture rentals is not a big market but it helps create volume. This is a channel for customer acquisition and enables conversion over a period of time. Companies are still figuring out how to optimize the (rentals) space. While it is good to have more players, it will take some more time before the pie can really increase”.