Fall 2019 - Inside Outdoor Magazine

Inside Outdoor | FALL 2019 32 store, driving sales and helping boost a store’s reputation as an epicenter for local commerce. “[Retail today] is about driving more than just purchases,” said Richmond. “It’s about the community element and creating a thriving ecosystem where something like a small bike shop really becomes a pillar in a town. So if you’re a biker and you’re going through that town, you’ll recognize a bike shop as a community point. When you build a community, people will keep coming back into the store, and when they’re ready to buy, they’ll do just that.” TripOutside TripOutside is similar to Arrive in that its offers an online gear rental portal for shoppers to browse equip- ment. When customers rent gear through TripOutside, though, they have to go to a brick-and-mortar loca- tion to pick it up, which guarantees foot traffic for their retail partners. The company has a wide network of partners across the U.S. “The idea really came about from our own frustration of spending a ton of our vacation time standing in line and trying to rent gear or calling around and trying to figure out what’s available,” said founder Julie Singh. “We wanted to create a website that would let people do it all in advance online, so that the gear would be ready when they get to their destination.” Singh spoke about the value that the company offers for its retail partners. “We’re sending them incremental bookings from customers who are find- ing inspiration on our site,” Singh said. “Some retailers already have options for booking online, but we’re able to work with them regardless. We inte- grate with seven or eight leading ven- dors, and we can send them bookings right into their software.” And if a retailer is not software- enabled, “we just send them an email booking request and they’re able to approve it or decline it if they don’t have the inventory,” Singh continued. “We make it very easy for retailers to be able to integrate with whatever system they have. We use an API [ap- plication programming interface] and track affiliate programs.” TripOutside also helps customers discover new destinations and even offers a handy rental price comparison tool on its website. Gearo Gearo is another company that’s fo- cusing on simplifying the gear discovery and booking process. Similar to TripOut- side, the company places a strong em- phasis on serving retailers. Today, Gearo is working with more than 100 retailers. “We’re aggregating all of these retailers into a single place, with automated booking capabilities,” explained CEO and founder Justine Barone. “We’re also pairing them with tools they need to manage their business, like inventory and customer management, and the ability to sell all their rentals on their website. We help with all that and give them the capability to serve their in-store cus- tomers instead of running around try- ing to fulfill rentals.” In short, Gearo takes the heavy lift- ing out of the rental process, allowing retailers to profit with minimal stress. “We have so many retailers that either want to improve their existing rental operations or want get into the space to boost their revenue,” Bar- one explained. “It’s a great market right now. The rental industry in the TripOutside founder Julie Singh