Automating and designing rental inventory platform

Payrentz is a successful rental business based out of Chennai. Over the years, they’ve garnered a community of superfans. Evident from great reviews online.

“I've used Payrentz over long periods of time. The service remains consistent, top quality, and ethical. It is very easy to book a product, log complaints, and end a service. Each interaction with the owner or his employees has left me impressed with their thoughtfulness and solution driven customer focus.”

They got in touch with us to automate and modernize the existing process. We kickstarted the project with our flagship Design Sprint.

A team (product manager, designer, marketer) worked together with the Payrentz team and built out a prototype in three weeks.

Here’s how we went about it:

Rental inventories are quite different from the usual store or business inventories because they work in a cycle. In a regular store, once an item is sold, it's gone for good. But with rentals, items like furniture and appliances are used by a customer for a while and then come back to be rented out again. This means the business has to keep track of not just how many items it has, but also where they are, if they're in good shape, and when they'll be available again. Each item can make money many times, but it also needs to be looked after and fixed when needed, which is a big part of managing rental items. This ongoing cycle of sending out, getting back, and taking care of the items makes managing rental inventories a special challenge.

With this in mind, we spent two days understanding the workflow, customers and the business to identify more specific challenges.

Granular identification of challenges:

• Inventory Complexity: Juggling items from large appliances to small furniture, each with unique usage, maintenance, and life cycles. Monitoring condition and usability over time is essential.
• Availability Management: Matching inventory with fluctuating demand, ensuring items aren't under or overbooked, and adjusting for seasonal shifts.
• Maintenance & Logistics: Streamlining maintenance to reduce downtime, and optimizing delivery and pickup logistics for cost-efficiency.
• Financial Tracking: Keeping precise records of costs, maintenance expenses, and income per item to determine profitability and manage depreciation.
• Customer Service: Handling rental agreement specifics and promptly addressing availability inquiries, service requests, and complaints.
• Tech Integration: Moving away from disjointed management tools (spreadsheets, Zoho, WhatsApp) towards integrated systems that improve tracking and management.
• Revenue Optimization: Ensuring high utilization of inventory and smart pricing to maximize revenue, with detailed tracking to assess item/category profitability.

In developing feature sets for Payrentz, our decision-making was driven by three key principles,

• Customer-Centric Innovation: Prioritized features that enhance the customer experience, believing that a superior, hassle-free rental process leads to increased customer loyalty, repeat business, and positive word-of-mouth, all of which are crucial for revenue growth.
• Operational Efficiency and Cost Reduction: Focused on streamlining internal processes and reducing costs, understanding that efficiencies in inventory management, logistics, and customer support directly impact the bottom line by lowering operational expenses and enabling competitive pricing.
• Revenue Optimization and Profitability: Sought to implement features that directly contribute to revenue generation and profitability, such as dynamic pricing models for peak demand periods, efficient inventory rotation to maximize rental opportunities, and analytics-driven recommendations for purchasing and retiring assets.

Here’s the feature set:

1. QR Code-Based Inventory Tracking

QR Code-Based Inventory Tracking is designed to tackle the challenges of tracking utilization rates and understanding the financial performance of each product. By attaching a unique QR code to every item, Payrentz can instantly access detailed information such as price, buying details, renting history, and total revenue generated.

This system not only enhances inventory management accuracy but also provides a solid foundation for financial analysis, ensuring that each item's profitability is clearly understood and managed, all while keeping sensitive data secure through admin-level access.

2. Dynamic Rental Inventory Rotation Workflow

The Dynamic Rental Inventory Rotation Workflow automates the process of determining which items to rent out based on various factors such as demand, condition, and profitability. This feature streamlines the management of inventory, ensuring optimal utilization and rotation of items. It effectively addresses the challenge of maintaining high-quality standards and maximizing profitability by ensuring that items are rented out in their prime condition and rested or maintained as needed.

3. Padding Time Management

Padding Time Management is a critical feature that automatically calculates and incorporates necessary buffer periods between rentals for maintenance and quality assurance. This feature is vital for extending the lifespan of items and maintaining the high service quality that Payrentz's customers have come to expect. By systematically managing padding time, Payrentz can reduce wear and tear on its inventory, ensuring that each item remains in top condition for as long as possible.

4. Multi-Warehouse/City Management

The Multi-Warehouse/City Management system is aimed at enhancing logistical efficiency across Payrentz's operations. By providing a unified view and management capabilities for inventory spread across multiple locations, this system ensures that items are strategically allocated based on demand and availability. This not only cuts down on transportation costs but also improves response times to customer requests, making the rental process smoother and more efficient.

5. Enhanced Security and KYC Module

To safeguard against fraud and ensure the security of transactions, the Enhanced Security and KYC Module integrates advanced verification processes, including document collection and live photo capture. This module significantly reduces the risk of fraudulent activities, builds customer trust, and protects Payrentz's assets by verifying the identity of customers in a robust and reliable manner.

6. Product Code Generation

Product Code Generation simplifies the management and tracking of Payrentz's extensive inventory by automatically generating a unique product code for each item. This feature supports the QR code tracking system and aids in the efficient management of the inventory, allowing for easy identification, tracking, and analysis of each item's performance. It's a foundational component that supports all other features by ensuring that each piece of inventory is uniquely identifiable and trackable throughout its lifecycle.