Danish IKEA shoppers now have a new option for bringing their large, bulky purchases home: a pool of Velorbis bikes with trailers that are available for loan at virtually no charge.
IKEA of Denmark is now starting a new program at their Danish stores. They did a market research and found that about 20% of their customers rode their bikes to the stores - even though most of them are located outside the cities in large commercial centers - some call them Big Box Districts - which are located pretty far from the city center.
Freetrailer started as a service for Danes to loan car trailers for free but has now included bike trailers at one IKEA in the Copenhagen region, with plans for more. To borrow a bike and trailer bike users must make a deposit of about US $100 and then can choose to pay for a seven dollar insurance policy for each loan or be liable for the larger amount in costs if the bike is damaged or stolen. Bicycle and trailer may be kept overnight and returned the next day. A bike with trailer can be loaned for more than one day to give you time to return it. Although trailer might possibly be too small to move your new Ektorp sofa, but you could get quite a few flatpacks onto it.
With this simple move IKEA shows that they cares about their customers and also about the environment. Recognizing — and celebrating — the preferences of eco-minded consumers makes good sense for IKEA, which is bound to share in the eco-iconic glory.
[via www.freetrailer.dk]
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