Power tool stores: Now is the time to rent!

To boost in-store sales, motorized gardening professionals are focusing on developing innovative services such as rentals.

Since the coronavirus crisis, there has been a fundamental trend in the motorized gardening sector: the rental of gardening and motorized gardening equipment is becoming increasingly popular.

But you still need to build an attractive rental offer... 

1. Develop an innovative rental offering 🔄

For Xavier Chesneau, CEO of Equip'Jardin, the conclusion is simple, and his advice is as follows:

• Offer innovative products for rent

Offering new products for rent allows your customers to try them out before buying. It's an opportunity to learn more about your suppliers' new products before offering them for sale.

Equip'Jardin offers a range of cordless equipment for rent at affordable prices, including robot lawn mowers, brush cutters, and more. Customers are increasingly attracted to new battery-powered equipment that requires no refueling, causes no clogging, and is quiet and odorless!

• Offer attractive rental packages: ‍

Don't overcharge your customers; the goal is to attract as wide an audience as possible. 

At Equip'Jardin, you can rent cordless robot lawnmowers for €39 including tax, which is a great deal!

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"I've never seen so many people. Business doubled in May and June 2020. I've never worked so hard. And I've rediscovered my own garden." Xavier Chesneau, CEO of Equip'Jardin

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2. Your colleagues, your best friends 🤝

Remember, the goal is to attract locals to your store through your rental offer. 

This is the advice we gave at the end of lockdown, but it applies perfectly to the coming season.

Develop an offer and communicate it to your local community to attract new, regular, and loyal customers.

💡- Lokki's tips for connecting with locals

- Create an engaged Facebook community around your store.
- Reach out to local government offices in your area.
- Send a newsletter to your customers to let them know you're back in business.

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The benefit is twofold: taking advantage of this exceptional situation will enable you to build a strong community. Remember, satisfied customers are loyal customers.

Now is THE TIME to boost your Facebook page and get new customers to follow you👩🏻

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3. The importance of digitalization ⏳

An innovative offering, yes? But with innovative internal tools that are in tune with the times. Don't miss out on the digital revolution— go digital!

The Deloitte report entitled Digital Economy: Digital, an opportunity for French SMEs, reports that "SMEs that make extensive use of digitalization show a higher rate of growth (on average +26%) and profitability (+21%) than SMEs that don't."

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Nevertheless, a recurring brake on digital transformation is the cost of investment, which is the case for 49% of VSEs.

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There are two areas for you to develop:

1) External communication: Modernize your website and develop your presence on social networks such as Facebook, Google and Instagram.

2) Your internal tools: Yes! We tend to forget this, but it's one of the key factors in the success of your projects. Using simple, intuitive tools boosts your staff's performance and satisfaction. 

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Among Lokki users, the findings are clear: 26% growth for digitized garden equipment rental companies.

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‍💡- Lokki's advice

Adapt to the situation! Renting is just one idea among many: special post-lockdown promotional offers, rentals to businesses, home delivery, repair workshops, product testing, etc.

In short, it's time to try new things and reinvent yourself! 😎

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Have you considered online booking for your online activity? 

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As you know, and we know as well as you do, online booking is becoming essential. The current situation caused by Covid is accelerating this process.

The hotel industry has understood this well. According to Médiamétrie, 78% of French people book their hotel rooms online.

And yet, 80% of equipment rental companies are still paper-based. 📝

In today's fast-changing rental world, not matching customer expectations can be fatal.

Here are three reasons why you should switch to online booking for good. AND, at the end of this section, we'll help you choose your booking tool. 😉

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1. Make money, lots of money 🤑

By adding an online booking tool, you'll generate more sales, and for a simple reason: you can get bookings at any time of day. Even when you're asleep! 😴

You can quickly view the progress of your bookings and the growth of your business, allowing you to focus on your core business.

📊- The number Lokki

48% of reservations are made when you are closed.

At Lokki, we noticed that half of online reservations were made when stores were closed. Our statistics show this with the distribution of reservation times among our rental companies:

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+27% growth for our rental companies equipped with online booking

Integrating online booking facilitates the customer's experience, and your management. Our customers are noticing great growth with this tool.

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2. Save time, lots of time ⌛️

Booking in-store or by phone depends on your opening hours. A customer wishing to reserve in the morning or in the evening will find himself blocked and certainly frustrated.

Beyond the ability to book at any time, you no longer waste time.

❗️ No more hours spent processing your software.

❗️ No more paper, with the risk of losing information.

Imagine having all your customer's information, without having taken a note. 😄

The idea is to combine different reservation methods. From the store, to the telephone, to your website.

Don't force your customers to choose—let them decide. Let them book 24/7.

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3. Build customer loyalty 🤝

When booking, a customer will enter all their contact details. This is an excellent way to advertise your company. Give them an e-mail address, a telephone number and keep in touch with them.

Keep in touch with your customers. Keeping a customer costs 5 to 10 times less than getting a new one.

💡- Online payment secures your reservations. No more customers who don't show up on the day of the rental. They'll have paid before they come 💰

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If they're satisfied with the service, they'll rent again. If you communicate with them, they'll remember you. BINGO, the winning combo for a loyal customer!

💡- Lokki's advice

Creating your own booking management tool is a long and tedious process. Today, there are many tools available that allow you to manage your rental bookings quickly and easily.

How to choose your online booking tool? 😄

The ultimate checklist and questions to ask yourself

✅ The commission

✅ Customization to your image

✅ Connecting to your stock

✅ Automatic generation of rental contracts

✅ Online payment

✅ Acceptance of general rental conditions

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As you can see, online booking is becoming crucial to your business. It facilitates the customer experience. By offering an additional, faster option for accessing your rentals.

But above all, it makes it easier for you to manage AND develop your business. It's a win-win situation—what more could you ask for?

Aaaah Google, love it or hate it! But your customers are looking for you on Google, and yes! I hope I'm not teaching you anything! Here are our tips for being the mega boss of the game on Google.

Before getting started with the practical aspects, it's always important to lay the groundwork, so we've broken down the topic for you:

‍1. Local referencing

What is local SEO?

Local referencing is a Google tool that enables local businesses to improve their visibility in their catchment area.

To answer this question and best illustrate our point, we will respond to this question by presenting a concrete example.

Let's imagine a family from Nantes wanting to plow a plot of land to create a vegetable garden. As this is a one-off need, they decide to rent the equipment. They search for "rototiller rental" on Google using their smartphone. The world's most popular search engine will then geolocate their position and display the rototiller and gardening equipment rental companies closest to them.

That's where you come in! Your goal? To be among the "local pack" or the "pack 3" - you know, that business block that appears under the map.

In the photo above, it shows the location of rental companies for motorized gardening equipment and gardening tools in Nantes and the surrounding area. See how you can gain an advantage over your competitors.

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Is local SEO really that important?

Take advantage of the boom in mobile searches:

💡 "Did you know?"

• 72% of Internet users with a local query have visited a store less than 9 km away
• 30% of mobile queries are location-related
• 28% of searches for a nearby object result in a purchase
• Local searches lead 50% of mobile visitors to visit stores during the day
• 78% of mobile searches lead to offline purchases (to a physical store)

Source: Hubspot

Smartphone searches represent high-quality traffic, as they are made by people who are looking for physical stores near their location and can meet an immediate need.

In other words, local searches, such as "motor cultivator rental Nantes," come from highly interested customers who are expressing very specific queries and often seeking an immediate solution.

That can be a lot of information in a short space of time, but don't panic! We'll explain it all just below👇

It's not rocket science to be the boss of local SEO! But how do you... How do you go about it?

2. Google My Business

I am a beginner

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Google My Business is a Google solution that's simple, effective and free!

This solution allows you to improve your natural search engine optimization during a geographically targeted search. In short, it is the ideal tool for local businesses, such as yours, which rents out motorized gardening equipment.

A Google My Business listing will also significantly increase your visibility: once your listing has been created and validated, you'll appear on Google Maps, on the first page of search results.

Now that we've seen all the advantages of this solution, we'll take you through the next steps to help you create the best possible page for your company.

To know ☝️

Before creating your Google My Business page, you need to be in possession of :

📫 - A complete physical address, it must be as precise as possible.

🌐 - A Google account to which you'll connect your listing, i.e. a Google email address, by the way, if we can give you a little advice, prefer an email address containing the name of your establishment, it always looks more professional.

☎️ - A valid telephone number, and don't forget to add a personalized messaging service for your business.

Got everything? Let's continue ...😊 :

• Type in the google search bar: name of your establishment + city (where your establishment is located). If your establishment appears, i.e. a listing already exists, you can claim ownership of an establishment profile. How do I do this? Click on the link below:

I claim my establishment: click here

• If your business isn't listed, you'll need to create a profile on Google My Business. We've put all the links for you just below: ‍

Create my Google My Business page: click here

I need help creating my page: click here

Why use Google My Business: click here

⚠️ Don't take the creation of your listing lightly: Google places a great deal of importance on the quality of listings. We recommend :

• Add a redirect link to your website or online booking platform(Lokki for example 😉 ).
• To add photos of your establishment, take the time to take quality photos.
• Regularly update your information whenever the slightest change occurs. Whether it concerns your telephone numbers, opening hours or anything else.
• It's important to fill in the details correctly. It's essential to indicate the correct address of your business.

🎉 You've just created your Google My Business listing!

Don't panic if you don't see your Google listing directly on Google after it's been created - IT'S NORMAL! Google will send you a letter to the address you entered on your Google My Business listing, as a way of verifying your contact details. For your information, this takes about 14 days.

❌ Meanwhile:

• Do not change the name, address or category of your establishment.
• Do not ask for a new code.

✅ As soon as you receive this letter, here's how to proceed: click here

🎉 Your Google My Business listing is online! 🎉.

It's a good start, the Google My Business listing will enable you to significantly increase your online presence. Now let's move on to part 2👇

I'm an expert

If you're an expert, i.e. if you've already had a Google My Business listing for a while, we'll explain the latest and most useful features for your business.

3. Google post

Google Post is one of the latest GMB (Google My Business) features, enabling businesses using this functionality to increase their visibility and local referencing, all free of charge.

You'll be able to personalize and publish directly on your GTM page.

The procedure ⚙️

From any device, connect to your Google My Business dashboard, then click on "Articles" on the left of the screen.

There are 4 types of Google My Business posts:

• The "News" post: This post is generally used to communicate general information about your company. It may concern a new product, service or news item.

• The "Event" post: This post enables your company to promote an event, such as an open day, a company breakfast or a day of sharing.
• The "Offer" post: Here, you can propose your discount or promotional offers on your products. This post can be very useful for sales or holiday periods (e.g. 50% off for 48 hours).
• The "Product" post: This post allows you to highlight one of your company's products, such as a new product, or a star product.
• The "Info Covid-19" post: Thanks to this post, you can alert your customers to your opening hours, your delivery possibilities (if you're a restaurateur) or inform them of the security measures in place at your establishment.

To know ☝️

• The duration of a post is 7 days after publication, but you will receive an e-mail the day before it expires.
• The correct image format for Google my Business posts is 720 x 720 px. However, to improve the visibility of your ad Google automatically crops the image to a square.
• The ad title is limited to 58 characters.
• The description is limited to 1500 characters, but only the first 100 words are directly visible to Internet users. It's a good idea to work hard on the description, as the aim is to encourage visitors to click on your article.

‍Inthe photo above, call-to-action buttons installed by the company Lokki:

The last step is the integration of a call-to-action (CTA) button, here you can choose between several proposals:

• "Find out more ,
• Click on " Reserve ",
• "Order online ",
• Click on " Register ",
• "Take advantage of the Offer,
• "Call,
• "Buy .

From this button, you can associate the URL of the destination page of your choice. For example, to your Facebook page from " Learn more ", or to your website from "Buy" .

In our image, the "Call" button has been chosen.

‍Thingsto remember 🧠

• Google My Business is free, efficient and easy to use
• Google My Business boosts your local listing
• GMB sets you apart from the competition
• Google Posts increase your visibility with a minimal investment of time

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▶︎ Want to shine on Google and social networks? Discover the Renter 2.0 toolbox

▶︎ Develop marketing strategies: Measure traffic on your website

Don't forget, your sector is promising 😉

According to Statista (2019), revenues in the equipment rental market have risen from $31.4 billion to $39.6 billion, posting a growth rate of +26% since 2013. Projections to 2024 show an annual growth rate of around 5%.

Despite the negative impact of the economic and health crisis on the tourism and leisure sector, it would appear that the motorized gardening equipment rental market has been less affected than others!

According to INSEE, the entire equipment rental market (garden equipment, rototillers, etc.) has been growing for more than 20 years. In 2019, it was worth more than €40 billion and continuing to grow.

There are three closely related reasons for this:

• ‍Adecline in purchasing power: the lack of cash to buy equipment in cash on the part of households.
• Uncertainty: the desire not to make costly investments in order to preserve cash flow in the face of economic insecurity (particularly for BtoB rentals), and the desire to adjust production capacity.
• The trend toward environmentalism: the shift in attitudes toward more environmentally responsible consumption. 

The current situation does not make it easy to organize agricultural equipment stores. But it challenges your adaptability. 💪

The conditions of your profession are changing. At Lokki, we are convinced that these changes will be driven by digital technology.

And at the same time, the rise of digital technology gives you a great opportunity to overcome this crisis and get ahead of your competitors 😇