In beauty, big businesses can co-exist with the sharing economy and benefit from the latter’s strengths. Do you agree or disagree?
So what is the sharing economy? It is a highly flexible economic network that allows people to exchange tangible and intangible goods with one another. These exchange relationships undercut traditional retail or employment arrangements by reducing transactional costs or cutting out the middleman. This enables people or organizations to be able to exchange resources on demand thereby increasing efficiency. Such a combined industry experience can actually create value out of underutilized assets. Think Airbnb, Uber, Lyft, Udemy, WeWork. So what does it have to do with the beauty and barbering industry?
Indian Management magazine asked our ShearShare cofounders to pen a cover story about the impact of the sharing economy and printed it here.
Who Benefits From the Sharing Economy?
The whole point of sharing economy is that it’s supposed to help everyone. It helps people with an asset (car, room) that’s not being used to make some money off of it. It helps the person in need by providing a good or service at a competitive rate for only as long as they need it, as soon as they need it. It helps the companies in the middle by receiving a cut for providing a medium for buyers and sellers to connect. It can even potentially benefit the planet by reducing the amount of goods consumed if much of it is being shared.
There is also a large social benefit to go along with it: Getting to meet new people and share things with them is a huge part of the appeal to many people. After all, who doesn’t love making new friends?
We agree! Our industry is one of the few marketplaces that literally touches everyone. And at ShearShare, our core values are based in #AccessOverOwnership and community over competition. As people around the globe start to embrace the idea behind a true sharing economy, we want to introduce the shearing economy to that movement. 😉
What are your thoughts? Do you agree that the sharing economy is here to stay? Leave us your comment below!
