Identification of consumer trends in the sharing of things

Abstract

Relevance. The development of digital technology has given a strong impetus to the development of consumer goods sharing and the emergence of numerous online platforms that provide goods for temporary use. Research objective. This paper aims to establishing user preferences and identifying consumer trends in the sharing market in Russia, in the USA and in the UK. The study also examines the scientific literature regarding the development of the market for sharing things. Data and methods. The material for the study were the statistical data of the Google Trends service on search queries originating from the territory of Russia, the USA and the UK over the past 10 years and data on the date of creation and visiting the most popular online platforms for sharing things in these countries. Analysis of their variance was used to study the relationship between the indicators. Results. Consumer interest in sharing things in Russia, the US and the UK is increasing. There are similar trends in the market for rented items in all three countries, in particular a rapid increase in the popularity of tool and equipment rentals. The popularity of demand for rented goods in all selected countries has a pronounced annual seasonality. The leaders in the Russian sharing economy are young companies, in contrast to the USA and the UK. Website traffic of Russian sites on sharing things is low, and it lags far behind that of retailers and is much lower than in the US and the UK. In all three countries there are not only rentals according to the classic scheme, but other formats: services, the business model of which is based on the P2P principle, rent of things provided by large trading and manufacturing companies, the Try & Buy format, through which consumers can try products before buying them. Conclusions. Consumers in Russia, in the US, and in the UK are gradually moving away from owning things towards using them. The rent of things markets in Russia, the US and the UK show similar trends. At the same time, in the US and the UK, the sharing economy is more developed than in Russia, especially rent of things under the classic scheme. In all three countries, new formats for rent of things are developing.