Today, the company posted an interesting infographic (below) that shows the growth of its service and the characteristics of the transactions it's facilitating. Per that infographic, more than 5m nights have been booked via Airbnb. Spaces are available in more than 19,000 cities in 192 countries.
The infographic reveals that much of Airbnb's current growth is being fueled by the company's international expansion. In 2011, the company grew a whopping 946% in Italy and 748% in the U.K. All told, 75% of bookings in 2011 involved both a guest and host outside of the United States.
To be sure, this is a company that appears to be thriving and on the surface, the future looks bright. Of course, Airbnb isn't quite ready to put the hotel business out of business. 5m nights booked is impressive, but that doesn't come close to the number of global nightly hotel bookings each year.
The big question, of course, is just how big Airbnb can get. The ugly incident last year called into question whether Airbnb's business model was viable. Not only was the incident ugly from a PR standpoint, it highlighted the fact that in most places, renting out your flat to strangers is typically a violation of the rental agreement and, in some locales, both apartment dwellers and homeowners are forbidden by law from renting out their homes for short periods (read: operating a hotel).
Ironically, one of the cities where it's illegal to do that is San Francisco, and part of the Airbnb's infographic shows that a huge swath of the city now has Airbnb listings. That's not only a testament to San Francisco's young tech-savvy populous, and the appeal of the ability to make some extra cash on the side in a city where monthly rents for even small flats in less desirable neighborhoods are sky-high, but to the desire of staying in a real home that Airbnb is successfully tapping into around the world.
The e-tailer was bought by Morrisons for £70m last year in a bid to extend the supermarket’s online presence, which has lagged behind its competitors.
Kiddicare has physical presence in Morrison’s stores with click-and-collect kiosks, but opening 10 'superstores' is a bold move.
Kiddicare COO Simon Harrow said that the e-tailer is in a strong position after its sales grew 30% year-on-year, with its existing flagship store in Peterborough achieving sales of £8m.
The Kiddicare model already shows that we can operate profitably with destination super stores alongside the online channels. The new stores will also provide great marketing support for Kiddicare’s online operations, and we believe that a multichannel offer for specialist baby goods works well in building brand loyalty.”
He said the existing Kiddicare store has become a destination shop, a bit like the IKEA of the baby world, so by having a network of destination stores across the country this offers parents the chance to physically explore the product ranges and talk to customer advisors.
£15m will be spent refurbing the new stores with a focus on the shopping experience - it will offer services such as free car seat fittings and VIB (very important baby) personal shopping service.
But by moving Kiddicare offline, Harrow admits there is the danger that the stores will eventually cannibalise online sales.
Because of the sheer size and number of the new stores he expects the physical retail revenue to outweigh the online revenue once they are all open.
This is about expanding Kiddicare’s baby equipment market share and multichannel offering – the difference is we’re doing it ‘backwards’ compared to many other companies. We already have a successful online business, which we’re now growing with additional physical space.”
Lovehoney e-commerce manager Matthew Curry said the move to take Kiddicare offline is a logical step as its brand recognition had neared saturation point online, so brick-and-mortar stores are the only way to allow further growth.
He believes that the brand is well placed to flourish offline as it is customer focused and data driven.
Like many of the new-breed pureplays reaching maturity, Kiddicare is a very data-driven, testing-focused and risk-neutral company. It's also built on a bedrock of customer service, so it will be looking at how to apply this company personality offline.”
The data-driven approach will also mean Kiddicare can attract new customers as it can analyse cross-channel behaviour to ensure the move is acquisition focused.
As we are so often told, the future is cross-channel, so of course they can expect some cannibalisation of their online sales. However the trick is to use cross-channel behaviour to strengthen customer service, and learn more about the customer, ultimately increasing retention rate.”
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