First of all, what does the term collaborative consumption mean? Collaborative consumption is basically the shared use of a good or service by a group. The concept of collaborative consumption is quite popular in the C2C and B2C space with technology companies such as Airbnb, Uber, Wardrobe Mechart, eBay, Craigslist, etc The key concept to this is sharing the unused resources between individuals.
The sharing economy between enterprises is also similar. Defined as “collaborative activities to lend unused goods and services, which are expected to be in excess if individual enterprises own them, owned by an enterprise to another enterprise, or to invest and use the goods and services jointly with another enterprise” with the pandemic, most SMEs are facing difficulties in securing labor force, capital, and technology they need to stay ahead and introducing the shared economy model between B2B is a way to prevent overlapping investments, open capabilities for smaller companies and create a new synergy in the ecosystem.
For the companies introducing the value, it is a new revenue stream born through idle resources and for the company utilizing the sharing economy it is cost-cutting and the economy of scale.
There are two ways SMEs can implement this model
- Lending — is a type of sharing economy in which the excessive goods and services owned by any enterprise are lent to the other enterprise
- Co-ownership — is another type of sharing economy in which an enterprise invests and uses, jointly with other enterprises, the goods or services that will be expected to be in excess if individual enterprises own them.
One of the things this pandemic has taught us is how to focus on the things that matter and it is as much true for personal life as it is for business. Whether your income was impacted or not just knowing that other small businesses are struggling is a signal to optimize your business and the thinking out a creative sharing model that can benefit you and other small businesses is a good idea.
These are a few cases of collaborative consumption:
- Bulk buying and distribution of goods and services
- Sharing manufacturing space
- Co-rental and operation.
For example, a ready to wear line looking to get a location on the island this period can consider sharing the space with other small businesses in complementary products whether it is footwear, jewelry or other fashion product to save cost and pull combined marketing effort where customers who come for the earrings get to see other stores.
Looking to implement this strategy, fill out this form indicating your interest in our post COVID-19 Rebuild Initiative.
