Scandinavian Outdoor's story started in 1970 in Turku, Finland. The business started small with a group of scouts selling scout badges, but by today, Scandinavian Outdoor has evolved into a well-known outdoor equipment department store.
Currently, with six brick-and-mortar locations in Finland and an international online store, Scandinavian Outdoor aims to offer experienced and amateur hikers everything they need to enjoy the outdoors.
We talked to Scandinavian Outdoor's head of marketing, Kuutti Haapanen, about their initial experiences with rentals and their growth plans.
For Scandinavian Outdoors, expanding its portfolio and establishing a rental service was an obvious choice they had been planning on making for a while now.
Because their typical customer is someone who is still getting started with camping or hiking, they don't necessarily own all the equipment they need for a weekend hiking trip, for example. This makes renting an ideal way to introduce their customers to the outdoors and provide them with all the necessary equipment.
At the end of the day, we wanted to start offering rental services because we want to make it easier for people to experience the outdoors. It’s much easier to rent a tent and sleeping bag once a year rather than having to invest in all of the needed equipment at once.
When asked how they think renting will affect their sales revenue, Haapanen was convinced that it only has a positive effect. Because Scandinavian Outdoors has a wide selection of products, Haapanen sees renting as a business opportunity and a way to increase sales rather than negatively affect them.
Even if a customer would choose to rent a tent over buying it, they most likely will need to buy other equipment like clothes or smaller tools that they might need either way. Either way, we’re able to provide our customers with whatever they need - whether it’s through direct sales or renting.
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Scandinavian Outdoor started rentals in July of 2021 in three locations, offering customers everything from tents and backpacks to camping stoves. They plan to gradually expand their rental offering based on feedback and customer demand.
Rental services have been something we wanted to implement for a while now, but we never came across any other service providers or platforms that could provide the same level of ease-of-use as TWICE does.
When asked how the implementation went, Haapanen pointed out that they were impressed with the process of introducing the new model into the existing retail operations and integrating their online rental store into their website. All in all, it took Scandinavian Outdoor two weeks to be fully operational in three of its locations, with staff training included.
Between the three locations, it only took us one or two remote training sessions with the staff to get them started. After that, they’ve been running the rental operations without any issues.
Scandinavian Outdoor's main priority was providing the easiest possible rental experience and process for their customers and employees. Haapanen mentioned that they especially liked how TWICE makes renting frictionless and smooth for their customers.
Although the concept of renting outdoor equipment has been around for a long time, the process itself has always been complicated. What’s been lacking in the industry is the possibility to rent out equipment quickly and easily, without any complications - and TWICE makes that happen.
Scandinavian Outdoor believes that the trend of preferring access over ownership will continue to grow and evolve, and more retailers will hop on the renting bandwagon. Meanwhile, they will continue expanding their rental services and offering a more comprehensive range of outdoor products for winter activities.
Visit Scandinavian Outdoor's website and online rental store.
Photo credits: Scandinavian Outdoor.