Rentle is a fit-for-purpose white-label commerce platform for circular economy and recommerce. Both small merchants and global retailers use Rentle to launch and scale subscriptions, rentals, and buyback-driven second-hand sales. These more profitable revenue streams are great for the bottom line and even better for the planet!
Hello Product Hunt Community! I'm Tuomo, co-founder of Rentle, a circular commerce platform that enables new and existing entrepreneurs to start- or expand to circular business models in minutes.
I think we can all agree that our current linear business models are unsustainable and contribute to the growing waste problem. We buy stuff, store it in our garages and eventually dump it into landfills.
At Rentle, we are determined to change this equation.
Our platform empowers merchants to offer subscriptions, rentals, buyback, refurbished, and second-hand sales with the same ease as traditional e-commerce platforms empower selling stuff. Rentle provides all the necessary tools and services for merchants to expand their offerings to circular business models.
As of now, we are a team of 30 passionate individuals located in the Nordics, building the infrastructure of sustainable commerce. We started our journey in 2018 by helping ski rental stores create better rental experiences. Now we are launching a fit-for-purpose commerce platform built specifically for circular commerce - no matter the industry.
If you are a brand or a retailer looking to start selling experiences and access, rather than ownership, through, for example, rentals or subscriptions, check us out. If you are someone interested in joining our team or up for partnering with us (agency & affiliate), ping us via email. And finally, if you are a consumer like most of us, we hope the next time you purchase from your favorite brand, we’ve been able to provide them with the tools they need to offer their goods to you in an even more convenient way.
Together, let's make a more convenient and sustainable world!
- Tuomo
Hi Founders! Congrats on the recent launch of Rentle on Product Hunt! 🎉
I really love projects that are carried about nature and the planet. For this my personal strong upvote 🔼.
This I pretty new business model and I think the market is growing.
Which barriers do you face with Rentle nowadays?
@denis_galka Hi Denis! Thank you for the vote!
The tailwinds are there for sure. We face, of course, all the traditional challenges and barriers an early-stage startup might face. A team of 30 and growing, expanding the global commerce infrastructure for the better.
🙌 But there are a lot of things to be excited about. Every consumer study shows that end-users want more sustainable consumption options, which also often are driven by convenience (win-win).
♻️ Also, especially in the EU & UK, regulation is targeting retailers in increasing amounts to take responsibility for the life cycle of the goods they push to the market. Cutting corners, one could say, "Everything you are selling out to the market as a retailer - is starting to flow back to you at the end of the cycle."
📈 And finally, based on every discussion with the CXOs of the large global retailers, the retailers really, really, REALLY want to expand to circularity. Climate change and material scarcity are the TOP 5 existential threats they face.
This gets us to the main barrier. As a tech community, we've for the past 20+ years optimized linear commerce and the underlying infrastructure to the maximum. In North America & Europe alone, this work powers roughly 4 trillion of durable goods sales annually. Now we face the challenge of how to build better infrastructure that also serves the use cases of circularity, where that 4 trillion would be more sustainable.
We have strong sense of urgency - since it is not only the start-up day-to-day that pushes us forward, but the simple fact that the world does not have tens of years to wait for consumption to become more circular ✌️
Congrats on your launch on Product Hunt! 🎉
I'm really interested in learning more about the use cases for Rentle and how it can help businesses expand to circular business models. Could you tell me a bit more about the types of products/services you see being offered through your platform? 👀
Looking forward to hearing more about Rentle and the amazing work you guys are doing! 🤩
@paolo_degiglio Hi Paolo! Thank you for the upvote!
One of the struggles we've seen merchants face when expanding from linear to circular is that their existing commerce infrastructure simply does not scale to the demands of the new circular revenue streams.
The reasons are pretty complex, but in short, it is a combination of needing more robust inventory management (as units are tracked on a unit level rather than aggregated under SKUs), being able to provide "a booking purchase experience" in all storefronts rather than simple "linear checkout" - as well as a lot of things relating, e.g. to payment processing.
One way to phrase it is to say, "Nike's value proposition is to empower you as an athlete, but their commerce infrastructure is reducing them to sell you more shoes - instead of turning you into a Nike subscriber." The latter relationship would allow Nike to optimize the sustainability of their material handling a lot more - and is in most cases a lot more profitable in the long term. A rare combination where capitalism and sustainability actually high-five each other. 🙏
Regarding the products/services being currently offered with Rentle, feel free to check out some of the customer stories from:
https://www.rentle.io/customers
Personally, I'm super excited about the 10,000+ SMBs/startup merchants we have. This base is currently growing with thousands of sign-ups monthly and we are seeing the most innovative merchants and business cases you can imagine! 🙌
Rentle
Sequoia
Rentle
Sequoia
Sequoia
Rentle
BloggerAI
Rentle