Today we're coming to you with an exciting announcement from Paperclip HQ...
We are delighted to announce our new partnership with a one of the UK's leading student accommodation providers, and unveil our new circular economy service: Paperclip Rent!
Working together for students
The team at Paperclip are thrilled to be teaming up with one of the largest purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) providers in the UK and working on this exciting new project.
We began consulting our student users about improvements they'd like to see to our platform over the coming months. One request we saw time and time again was for a rental service. With the growth of the circular economy and a burning passion for sustainability among the demographic, it was no surprise that over a third of surveyed student users requested a rental service.
We were already working with our PBSA partner and they had been getting the same requests for a rental service from their student tenants. The perfect storm of opportunity, skills, resources and need meant that a partnership was a clear path forward and, well, the rest is history...
Soft launching Paperclip Rentals
During the spring with began discussions about our trial for bike and e-bike rentals one of their on-campus locations. After careful consideration, we agreed on a soft launch at the Oaks in Coventry, which is less than 10 minutes from The University of Warwick.
We worked closely with their on-site team and have set up our first rental station. After a few successful trial runs, a health and safety consultation and a briefing with the accommodation team, we now have five bikes ready to rent ready for new and returning students this September.
The Paperclip Rent website is now live and the bikes are all ready to go!
Our PBSA partner's pre-arrival awareness activity has resulted in significant interest from students before they have even arrived at the Oaks!
Our CCO Keith Parkman writes, "Paperclip Rent takes our buy and sell offering and gives it a whole new dimension, and students are the perfect group to launch our rental service with – their fixed budget, limited storage space and often an intermittent need, all contribute to a cohort who will really appreciate the affordability and flexibility that it offers.
The partnership will enable us to engage with over 25,000 students and quickly ramp up the rental offering across 23 UK cities. This will be the ideal platform to grow Paperclip Rent to all other demographic in these locations."
Here are some pics of the team on site preparing for our promotional photoshoot, setting up our bikes, and generally getting to know the place...
Once the trial has gained the intel on exactly what students want to rent and the service has been thoroughly tested throughout September, the roll out to Birmingham, Sheffield and Bath will take place in October.
Additional items such as VR headsets, games consoles, cameras and 3D printers are all items being considered as additions to the service in the coming months.
We'll keep you updated on the partnership as Paperclip Rent gathers steam; just stay tuned to the Paperclip Blog!
