Furlenco as a company started out as a purely rental company, focussing primarily on furniture. As the company and its user base grew, they have expanded not only its product line but also entered the lifestyle and furniture segment through the acquisition of Furbicle (now rechristened as Store) and the start of its premium furniture line called Prava.

One of the key goals for Furlenco is to move its existing users through the value chain by having them start using Furlenco and eventually using Prava to buy premium furniture. Let’s have a look at the different product lines Furlenco has:

• Furlenco: This is their core offering which gets them around 75% of their current revenue and is what the company started with. This category allows users to rent single or multiple pieces of furniture, appliances, etc. The AOV is usually Rs 2,500 a month for this. While Furlenco gets 95% of its revenue from furniture and appliances, they also have other product categories like Electronics, Fitness, Storage, Kid's Room, Dining Room, and Two Wheelers.
• UNLMTD: This is a product category that Furlenco has started that allows users to furnish their entire room/home for a fixed price and choose a fixed number of products from up to 170 items. They currently have 4 different plans:
  • Basic: For Rs 3,599 a month, users can choose any 6 products.
  • Lite: For Rs 4,499 a month, users can choose any 9 products
  • Premium: For Rs 5399 a month, users can choose any 12 products
  • Luxury: For Rs 6,299 a month, users can choose any 15 products
• Store (previously Furbicle): A new segment that Furlenco entered through the acquisition of Furbicle, this allows the users to buy new and refurbished furniture. The refurbished furniture is the same ones that Furlenco rents out, which allows them to get the maximum value out of its inventory. They also guarantee a sell-back of up to 40% of the product value for credits, which makes it stand out in the space. The average AOV for this category is around Rs 15,000 and it’s a high-margin business.
• Prava: This is Furlenco’s premium offering, allowing customers to buy designer-made and luxurious furniture. There is very little competition online and it’s a budding space. Just like Store, Prava assures sell back of its products for credits, which can be used to buy other furniture. The average AOV is Rs 35,000 and it’s a very high-margin business.

Now that we know the business, what’s the master strategy that Furlenco has? Well, their plan is to build a community that allows users to stay with Furlenco all throughout their life for their furniture needs.

Let’s take an example of what the ideal user journey that Furlenco would want would look like. Let’s take the ICP Rahul, who is in the final year of his college. He is from Lucknow but is currently in Delhi doing engineering. He wants to enjoy the final year of his college life but is tired of the restrictions imposed on him by his hostel, so he decides to move to a rented apartment with his friends. The one small problem is that the apartment doesn’t have a bed and Rahul definitely doesn’t want to sleep on the floor. So he searches for rented furniture online and the first website that he finds is Furlenco. For just Rs 572 a month, he gets a good-looking queen-size bed and a mattress for a year and he decides to take it. After he gets the items in less than 72 hours, he is super happy with the quality and the speed with which he got the service.

After a year, Rahul moves out of Delhi and returns the furniture, and heads to Bangalore for his first job. After staying in a company accommodation for a month, Rahul finds a semi-furnished 3BHK that he decides to rent along with 2 other bachelors. He definitely needs to furnish his room and he remembers the great experience he had with Furlenco during his college days. So this time, he goes straight into Furlenco’s website. This time though, he wants slightly better quality and finds that there is a king-size bed with a premium 6” mattress and a bedside table for just Rs 1350. He also realizes that with WFH being the norm, he needs a study table and a chair or two. So he gets those from Furlenco as well. Now since their home doesn’t have any appliances, Rahul and the two other bachelors need to rent those as well. They find that For Rs 1,250 a month Furlenco lets them rent a fridge and a washing machine, so he decides to add that to his cart as well. From Rs 570 a month in college, the total amount Rahul spends each month on renting has gone up to Rs 3,500 a month.

After renting for a year and a half, Rahul moves to a new job at Amazon as SDE. He has to move to a new home since his office is too far from his apartment. But this time, he moves to a more premium 3BHK apartment in a gated community. He sees that Furlenco gives him the option of free relocation and also gets him a new set of replacements for his products, so he is happy to continue the services. However, with the new promotion and more expendable income, Rahul decides to explore things in their living room as well. He finds a collection that allows him to not only keep his current package but also add on a 5-seater sofa and a TV for just 600 more a month. He decides to upgrade to the package and his rental spend has gone up to Rs 4,100 a month.

Rahul does this for a couple of years and during this time, he makes the most of Furlenco’s complimentary services like deep cleaning once a year, and free relocation after he had to move from Bangalore to Hyderabad and in general, he has been very happy with Furlenco. He has even referred a few of his friends to try the services. But now comes something that will really test Rahul’s relationship with Furlenco. He decides to take the plunge and is now going to be living with his wife.

Once Rahul gets married, he moves in with his wife inside a 2BHK. A little about Rahul’s wife; She has lived in Delhi almost all her life where she worked as a teacher. Now that she is moving to Hyderabad, she is going to start looking for a job in a private school. Coming back to Rahul, he is now 27 and is in a mid-senior position. However, he is not sure if he wants to continue here or switch to another company right now. Amidst the confusion about his professional life, Rahul and his wife collectively decide that they won’t be lavish and will save to buy a new home, which is when they’ll buy new furniture. So for now, they will continue renting their home but they want to buy some core furniture for the master bedroom as well. While browsing online, they learn that Furlenco has a store where they can purchase high-quality yet affordable furniture! Not only that, Furlenco offers up to 40% in sell back, which is perfect for the young couple as they can just sell off everything they bought once they move into their new homes.

So Rahul and his wife decide to use Furlenco’s UNLMTD to rent 12 different items for the house and they also buy a Bed, a bedside table, and a workstation from the Furlenco store. Their monthly rental from UNLMTD is now Rs 5,399 and their total purchase from the Furlenco store set them back around Rs 25,000. A couple of years later, they have their first kid and they move to the Luxury plan of UNLMTD, which allows them to rent 15 pieces of furniture, including a crib.

It’s now been 5 years since Rahul has been married and he and his wife have finally saved enough to buy their dream home. So they end their UNLMTD subscription and sell back the items that they bought from the store. It’s the end of their relationship with Furlenco. Or is it? For selling back the furniture, Furlenco offers Rahul credits for purchasing again through the store. However, this is Rahul’s dream home that he has been saving for and Rahul wants the highest quality furniture while he loved the products from Furlenco’s store, he wants better.

During a call with the after-sales team of Furlenco where Rahul tells them the reason for not continuing with Furlenco after 10 years of being a customer, the after-sales team introduces him to Prava. Rahul is intrigued and he has a big Aha moment when the after-sales team tells him that they will transfer his credits on Furlenco to Prava so that he can buy the best quality furniture for his dream home. He uses those credits and ends up buying worth Rs 1,00,000.

The 22-year-old Rahul who didn’t want to sleep on the floor and decided to rent a bed has come a long, long way.