Play It Again Sports Lynnwood is a new and used sports equipment retailer that also rents out winter sports equipment such as skis, snowboards, boots, and more. In order to be able to process rental customers in a timely manner, the company currently uses a third-party scheduling system, SimplyBook.me, that allows for two slots of up to three customers to get fitted in the store for any given half-our window.
Once the customer is in the store for their appointment, they will fill out a form with their contact information and other information needed to get them the appropriate equipment. Some customers that have already rented before and filled out this information.
Our website application would:
- Represent a simplified and improved version of SimplyBook.me’s appointment scheduling.
- Provide an option for customers to pull up previous rentals to see which equipment they’ve used before and select the equipment they would like to use based on what’s available in the database that already exists and the website has access to, with a "Reserve" button that would reserve the equipment or choose to have a standard in-person rental fitting.
- Have a user recommendation system for equipment based on their rider information.
There are third-party softwares that attempt to implement an efficient and accessible interface for renting skis based on what customers will deem most helpful. One example is rentrax.com, a service that provides rental software solutions to up and coming rental business owners.
In their article “Essential Features for a Good Ski Rental Management Software and Bike Rental Manager”, Rentrax lists some of the “most important features” for a rental service software. According to them, some of these features at the most basic level are:
- A user-friendly interface
- The ability to manage customers
- The ability to manage reservations, including the ability to cancel or change them at the last minute,
- Calculating ski DIN number automatically
The proposed application hopes to ease the transition, and harvest more data to better the customer experience from the Play it Again sports page, to the snowboard and ski rental booking page (hosted by SimplyBookMe). Currently the third party booking site does not provide Play it Again Sports with data about their customers fittings. Our users will include customers of Play it Again Sports, specifically those requesting ski and snowboard rental equipment. Skiing and snowboarding is a rapidly growing past-time but has a large barrier to entry thus renting equipment is the only way new-comers can access the sport. A growing population of minority ethnic groups are enjoying skiing and allowing them a door for entry is critical to allowing access to the mountain.
Some of the new interactive features we plan to implement include a user recommendation system, an efficient booking system, and a login system with the option of signing in as a guest. The user recommendation system will display to the user equipment that matches their sizes, experience, and other information that may be inquired when creating an account. For example, a user with less winter sports experience may be recommended cheaper, more beginner-friendly equipment. Our booking/scheduling system will be very accessible with a simple and user-friendly GUI, allowing users to easily book an appointment without any clutter or confusion. More modern scheduling applications have made use of a simple calendar with dates having different colors to show availability status. This is effective in displaying all needed information for making a booking onto just one page.
Current SimplyBook.me scheduling interface
The user will be prompted to login or continue as a guest. The account will store equipment information, what they have used in the past, payment information, and a history on their previous rentals. The user will be viewing and providing a variety of information. The first step in the process is selecting a time for the fitting. Next the user will select between a custom fitting (if they do not know what gear they should have, best for first-time), and choosing their own equipment (best for returning members). For those choosing their own equipment, they can enter height and weight and our matching algorithm will provide a recommended ski length or snowboard size for the user.
This application will allow Play It Again Sports greater insight into their customers needs, while simultaneously providing the renter with more customization of their fitting experience. Providing an easy and approachable interface for first time skiers and snowboarders is essential to seeing returning customers. By smoothing the transition between the current website and the booking interface we hope to make the site a friendlier experience for customers. Additionally, collecting ski and snowboard rental data allows Play it Again Sports to more efficiently buy equipment for the following ski season. Knowing what sold well this year will better inform us on how to accommodate our clients needs in subsequent years.
The data set is available at this GitHub repository from an Info 330 class, and a more detailed description of the business context can be found in Kevin Baron's introduction to the Info 340 class on this ed discussion thread.
