What drives demand for paid access to a sharing box with underused items? A choice experiment with Swedish consumers

Abstract

Determinants of consumer demand for subscription to a sharing platform for underused tools and hobby items were investigated in a series of choice experiments. The stated-preference study with a census-representative sample of 702 Swedish adults, tested four types of offers (sharing boxes) containing: gardening and power tools, photo and video equipment, kitchen and household tools and outdoor/sport equipment. Respondents faced hypothetical buying scenarios: they were asked to choose a subscription to a maintained and insured sharing box located in a public space and containing premium-segment items from one of the above categories. Results show that a possible location for a sharing box depends on its content - for instance, the sharing box with garden tools was preferred by small garden owners. It was also tested, in a demand simulation scenario, how measures aimed at managing utilisation of shared items, such as booking in advance, booking limits or location of the sharing box would affect the preference for the offer. Findings suggest that respondents would be willing to accept these inconveniences of sharing, provided the subscription price was set accordingly (25% lower than the average used across all experiments). Moreover, respondents seem to be using familiar digital subscriptions as a benchmark to determine a fair price for the offers used in the study.