According to Lauren and other participants, the mindset over the sharing economy is changing-
- At first, people considered collaborative consumption as a cool new thing to do – something more efficient and more social than ownership
- Opening up new groups of people interested in sharing through tech has brought the behaviour to a mainstream level
- What people discovered is that collaborative consumption is not just fun & efficient, but also strengthens community and can be sustainable too.
- Cool tech was important to shift ‘sharing’ away from some of its more negative connotations.
- Trend towards access over ownership is definitely going global with collaborative consumption activity from US, EU, Middle East, Asia, Africa, Pacific
Roadblocks include:
- This is a hard situation for regulators and govts as collaborative consumption is largely operating in a legal grey area – no precedents.
- Biggest hurdle is overcoming trust issues and also aspirational ownership. Need to demonstrate sharing can be more beneficial
There is a great potential for new business models centered on collaborative consumption and the following points were highlighted during the chat.
- How can company tap into idling capacity of its assets? Borrow/rent rather than buy? Build strong community w critical mass?
- It isn’t about losing revenue, but instead creating additional revenue streams through rental, resale or brokering.
- Transparency also critical as p2p marketplaces shift relationship away from biz-2-consumer – now consumers are at the core!
- Businesses need to adopt “onward logistics” in supply chain as well as reverse logistics to incorporate cradle-to-cradle principles.
- There are opportunities at every layer – from startup to industry to government – in 5 yrs should be integrated like sustainability.
- While it’s not a silver bullet, we see collaborative consumption as an integral part of solution to a better greener happier way of life
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