Location: towards a safer and fairer customer journey

Nearly 70% of French people are interested in the long-term rental of everyday equipment. And between the change in consumption habits from home to use and the explosion of interest rates on consumer loans, this trend is constantly accelerating. Most retailers, and especially the biggest ones like Decathlon, are taking it over. An opportunity for Meelo and its partners to offer a tailor-made purchasing process where each customer is analyzed according to their real budget management habits and not their theoretical situation (salary, gross fiscal income, nature of the employment contract, etc.).

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Fewer risks for more opportunities

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Renting rather than buying is becoming a new consumer reflex, with its share of risks that (e-) retailers must be prepared to face.

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The launch of a rental offer by a merchant involves, in essence, a certain amount of risk.

‍“It is an economic model different from selling since the merchant does not immediately receive all of his turnover. Its revenues are spread over time, and involve a certain risk linked to fraud or the solvency of the end customer.”, explains Amélie Combe, marketing director at Sline. This start-up, which has just raised 6 million euros, offers a turnkey technical solution that allows e-retailers to launch a rental offer directly on their website and thus to participate more widely in a circular economy approach.

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Thanks to Meelo, Sline provides an element of securing the rental income of merchants, while maintaining the customer experience. A vital question for services like Reyouzz, which offers to rent refurbished smartphones (and soon tablets, computers and other game consoles): “It has been a little over 6 months since we implemented the Meelo solution and we have already reduced by 3 or 4 our fraud, which represented 15% of our transactions in the past. It really helped us to keep our business going.”, observes Romain Deffrenne, CEO of the Lille start-up.

A less discriminating selection

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In concrete terms, Meelo can not only verify the identity of the customer and the conformity of the documents provided, but also calculate and assign a solvency score between 0 and 100 in a few seconds. Depending on the score level defined in advance by the merchant, the customer's file is automatically rejected or validated. “Artificial intelligence allows us not to judge anyone based on their income or employment, whether it is a permanent contract or a freelancer, but rather to analyze their financial behavior, i.e. if the customer tends to be in the open for example”, explains Gaëtan Mellerin, Key Account Manager at Meelo.

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A win-win system: it rules out people whose financial habits would put at risk the proper payment of monthly payments while opening up access to rentals to others whose situation and income would be too low on paper but whose budget management is flawless.

Meelo thus extends access to a wider customer base by relying on data analyses carried out independently and by rewarding virtuous financial behavior. This is an opportunity to offer a new, simpler and safer way for individuals. To simplify and streamline the customer journey while better qualifying requests, no longer based on theoretical criteria (salary, gross tax income, employment contract, etc.) but on the customer's economic reality.

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A tailor-made course

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These arguments particularly appealed to Decathlon, which recently commissioned Meelo to audit its bike rental offer. The French sports equipment giant wants to make circular economy activities, including rental, a double-digit share of its turnover by 2026: “The tension on purchasing power is a reality that these “sport as a service” offers respond to thanks to a partial payment (single or recurring) of the price. It is a new form of accessibility to quality products and services only during the period when the user needs them.”, says Yann Carré, rental leader at Decathlon.

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The brand focuses on differentiated paths, distinct experiences to access rental according to the products rented and the associated level of risk as well as customer profiles with segmentation based on the knowledge or recognition of the latter. “A request for an electric bike is riskier (theft, fraud, concealment, breakage) than for a child bike, for example.

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It is also riskier when the reservation is made online rather than in store. There will therefore be more or less validation steps depending on the nature of the item or transaction.”, explains Yann Carré. And in stores, by the way, the benefit is twofold:”This time saving thanks to AI also allows sales consultants to focus on customer relationships rather than focusing on administrative matters.”, concludes Gaëtan Mellerin.

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