We are Team 42
Hannes Kallioinen, Noora Lappalainen, Omar Eldaghar, Pia Vaquer, Sara Partanen, Tamara Borzova
We offer you Extendo
Zero effort to sell, buy, fix or recycle - based on the product data.
How did we get inspired
Convenience, time and effort are often considered as the underlying reasons why consumers throw unneeded or broken stuff away and don’t recycle. However, we identified trust and preconceptions/suspicions about owning second hand as even bigger challenges. Therefore, we wanted to create a platform, which combines the possibility to buy, sell or find spare parts easily as a traditional online platform, but at the same time offers a possibility to extend the life cycle of a product even further.
What we do
Extendo offers a platform where consumers can fix, buy, sell or recycle their products. The service collects product lifecycle data combining data from the producer and data from earlier users. Using Extendo is free, but the revenue flow for L&T is created by offering complementary services for the customers. These services are match-making the buyer and seller, transportation, warehousing and disinfection of used textiles such as furniture.
Extendo aims to overcome the trust issue by working as the link between the two parties by providing the platform and complementary support services. The information that Extendo requires, aims to give the best possible description of the history of the product with standardized data. This aims to build trust between buyer and seller when buyer knows the history of the product. Also, if the buyer wants, they can call upon L&T to disinfect their product besides logistics services with Helpponouto or Helppovarasto.
And that is also how Extendo is different from other online flea markets or platforms. The buyer can opt for L&T Helpponouto or Helppovarasto as part of the purchase to transport the product to them from the seller. This way, there is no need to worry about the logistics of the purchase, like in other platforms. The customers can measure their environmental impact and how much CO2 is saved when they recycle or buy a used product instead of buying a new one.
How we came up with the concept
Our starting point with the challenge was to identify the main pain points that prevent customers from engaging with circular economy services. For us this meant why people throw usable products away rather than fixing or giving them away. Based on market research by interviewing consumers and conducting competitor research, we identified the that there is a need for this kind of services.
Our user research included 8 face-to-face user interviews, 2 Facebook polls, 2 expert interview and 4 test interviews.Consumer research showed greater openness currently towards second-hand use and recycling than to sharing. Trust was clearly confirmed as the foremost pain point especially when buying online Competitor research verified the demand, since Facebook online markets have tens of thousands members and Tori.fi has are over one million announcements of products for sale.
Now the last and the most demanding challenge was to overcome the issue of trust and stigma of owning second hand. Our solution is to minimize the challenges by providing information about product history thus increases trust, offer disinfection service to make second has as good as new and recycle the product after the life cycle has come to an end.
We supported our findings about possible, current consumer groups and target groups based on the Consumer Profiles presented in the Fiksu Kuluttaminen Suomessa study by Sitra. The current customer base would be Fiilisvihreä suunnannäyttäjä and Neuvokas arkivihreä. They share the motive to prefer easy-to-use environmentally friendly solutions which improve the durability and lifespan of a product. Extendo also offers the joy to explore new things to Fiilisvihreä suunnannäyttäjä and the possibility to minimize consumption and waste for Neuvokas arkivihreä.
The new groups that we are also targeting are Seuraileva suunnanetsijä and Arjen selviytyjä and possibly Impulsiivinen heräteostaja. Extendo offers freemium service for Seuraileva suunnanetsijä a possibility to measure their impact with easily communicated statistics. In addition to freemium, easy-to-use service, we offer a possibility for repair services for Arjen selviytyjä. One potential act of smart consumption for Impulsiivinen heräteostaja is favoring second-hand products. They also want affordable services that make everyday life easier without extra effort.
Challenges we ran into
Multiple routes are possible for collecting product data and determining which to use in order to retrieve inputs as harmonised and complete as possible is not a closed discussion, however this leaves room for development also as databases improve.
As the platform has the potential for very wide service coverage, not all aspects can be demonstrated in equal detail in the current concept, which is an overview to some of the key features answering to the foremost customer pain points.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Benefits for Users, L&T and Environment
We were proud that we could identify the pain points why people do not engage in circular economy and create a solution that addresses those challenges. Existing platforms do not currently offer end-to-end solutions that enable the consumers to buy, sell, find information about technical information and product life cycles, as well as order transportation and disinfecting services. The platform will attract new customers who would not bother to use current solutions, as the listing process is too timetaking and brings low reward.
We consider that we were able to achieve a comprehensive, highly scalable, possibly global platform concept that is strongly oriented to solving predominant user problems with existing alternatives. The service platform has significant development potential for further add-on services by L&T and selected partner companies to create future revenue flow.
If we can make it easier for people to extend the product life span by giving it a new home or fixing it instead of disposal, we are one step closer to replacing throw-away mentality with circular economy mindset.
What we learned
The overall event was inspiring and the challenge provided new insights into the partner company’s areas of reflexion and a good comprehension of strategic priorities.
In the concept development process by the multidisciplinary international team, everyone was able to benefit from each other’s expertise, experience and ideas. Also exchanging with the other teams addressing the same challenge is rewarding, provides for useful feedback and opens eyes to how the same problem can be tackled in different, innovative ways.
What's next for Extendo
In the future, the aim is that Extendo collects data of the entire life cycle of a product and present this to the customers to visualise the impact of the purchase decision on the environment. The data would help consumers to make conscious decisions and in the best-case scenario modify the pre-purchase stage of customer behaviour.
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