Less risk for more opportunities
Renting rather than buying is about to become a new consumer reflex, with its share of risks that (e-)retailers must prepare to face.
The launch of a rental offer by a merchant involves, in essence, an element of risk. “It is an economic model different from sales since the merchant does not immediately receive all of his turnover. Its revenues are spread over time, and carry 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 which allows e-retailers to launch a rental offer directly on their website and thus to participate more widely in a process circular economy.
Thanks to Meelo, Sline provides an element of securing the rental income of merchants, while preserving 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's been a little over 6 months since we implemented the Meelo solution and we have already reduced our fraud by 3 or 4, which represented 15% of our transactions in the past. This really helped us to sustain our activity” , observes Romain Deffrenne, CEO of the Lille start-up.
A less discriminating selection
Concretely, Meelo can not only verify the identity of the customer and the conformity of the documents provided, but also calculate and assign in a few seconds a solvency score between 0 and 100. Depending on the score level previously defined by the merchant, the client's file is rejected or validated automatically. “Artificial intelligence allows us not to judge anyone based on their income or their employment, whether they are a permanent employee or a freelancer, but rather to analyze their financial behavior, which is- that is to say if the customer tends to be overdrawn for example” , explains Gaëtan Mellerin, Key Account Manager at Meelo.
A win-win system: it excludes people whose financial habits would jeopardize the proper payment of monthly payments while opening access to rental to others whose situation and income would on paper be too low but whose Budget management is impeccable.
Meelo thus extends access to a wider customer base by relying on independent data analyzes and rewarding virtuous financial behavior. This is the opportunity to offer a new way, simpler and safer, to individuals. 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 economic reality of the customer.
A tailor-made course
These arguments particularly appealed to Decathlon, which recently commissioned an audit of its bike rental offer from Meelo. 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 to which these "sport as a service" offers respond thanks to a partial payment (one-off or recurring) of the price. It's 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.
The brand relies on differentiated pathways, distinct experiences to access rentals based on 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 electrically assisted bicycle is more risky (theft, fraud, receiving stolen goods, breakage) than for a children's bicycle, for example.
It is also riskier when the reservation is made online rather than in store. There will therefore be more or fewer validation steps depending on the nature of the item or the transaction ,” explains Yann Carré. And in store, moreover, the benefit is twofold: “ This time saving thanks to AI also allows sales advisors to concentrate on customer relations rather than dwelling on administration ,” concludes. Gaëtan Mellerin.
About Meello
Launched in 2020, the northern fintech Meelo offers a SaaS solution to secure transactions, identify potential fraudsters and predict the risk of non-payment. It combines open data and AI to identify new customers and predict their behavior to adapt the shopping experience. plug and play solution reduces the cost of risk by 4 on average.
The company now has around twenty employees and around ten customers, mainly banks, insurance companies, retailers and e-merchants. Among them, major accounts such as Boulanger, BYmyCAR and Sofinco have already tested and approved the secure onboarding solution.
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Matthieu Deleneuville – matthieu.deleneuville@becoming-group.com – 06 18 38 08 19
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