Many rental businesses are born from the struggles faced by those starting them, and Babybarn is no exception. Maxim De Cock and his wife struggled to find high-quality and affordable baby gear during their first pregnancy. This gave him the idea to start a baby product rental business, and after a couple of years, he chose Booqable to help with inventory management and online bookings.
Babybarn
In 2020, Maxim and his wife were expecting their first child, and as the birth date crept up, they began preparing for his arrival. They started looking for baby products that were high-quality and affordable but quickly realized it would take a lot of time and effort. This observation became the seed for Babybarn, a one-stop online platform for everything you need to raise a baby.
Babybarn offers a complete range of baby gear for children aged 0-3, focusing on items with a projected usage of less than one year. They provide new parents with honest and in-depth information about what articles are needed in which stages of their baby’s development. This helps them to provide everything a baby may need for less than the cost of shopping second-hand.
Their customers are generally young soon-to-be and new parents looking for quality but are also conscious of costs and the environment. Everything from cots to bathtubs, strollers, toys, high chairs, and travel products are available to rent from Babybarn. This ensures that no matter what need a new parent may face, they can be assured that they can find a durable and affordable solution.
Nurturing growth
Starting a baby gear rental business took longer than Maxim and his wife initially thought. For the first year or so, learning to run and grow the business and raising their newborn son took a lot of time. However, they soon settled into a rhythm and began looking for software to solve some of their challenges. After trying many options, they decided that Booqable suited them best.
One of the things they found difficult was reliably tracking stock over time, with the possibility to return and re-use the same article. Booqable’s inventory management system allowed Babybarn to track stock and availability efficiently so they could monitor everything. This has enabled them to streamline operations and manage day-to-day tasks more quickly.
They also needed help finding a system where they could build an online rental website that looked professional and worked with the complexity of bookings. Booqable’s website builder allowed them to create their home rental website linked to their backend for low cost. Customers can browse and book online, and stock is automatically reserved.
Household name
Now that they have overcome obstacles limiting growth, they focus on growing the business. Babybarn aims to become a household name among young Belgian families over the next few years. They would also like to be one of the frontrunners in championing this new way to create a more sustainable market dynamic in which qualitative article re-use, maintenance, and repair become the new standard.
