BringBee is a swiss crowd-sourced deliveries marketplace. Customers can order their shopping and get it purchased and delivered by a BringBee member nearby, who is going to the store anyway. In this interview, Swiss curator Stella Viktoria Schieffer tells us how BringBee began, the company’s strategy to scale and how the business fits into the collaborative economy scene in Switzerland. Marta Mainieri, our Italy curator got the lowdown.
How did BringBee begin?
I had the idea together with my co-founder Philipp, while we were still at university, studying transportation planning. We were unhappy to see, that about 70% of all transport capacities are unused today and wondered why no one had tried to bring the idea of carpooling to deliveries and logistics so far. We initiated a first pilot project, the Potatoe Taxi, where we recruited commuters to distribute regional bioproducts in the canton of Zurich. It showed that people were willing to participate and were excited to be provided reliable deliveries.
How does BringBee work?
With BringBee we make the idea of crowd-sourced deliveries scalable. Customers can order their shopping and get it purchased and delivered by a BringBee nearby, who is going to the store anyway. Customers pay the purchase price plus a reward for the BringBee and a fee to the marketplace. We monitor the entire transaction, provide secure online payments, guarantee to repay and reward the BringBee and offer free transport insurances. After a first pilot with IKEA Switzerland in 2013 we are now adding and recruiting more partners and retailers. 
How have consumers responded to the business?
Especially for remote stores or large, heavy or bulky orders, BringBee definitely provides a clear benefit to the customer. The customer saves the time and the trip to the store and can schedule a delivery where and when he wants it. Besides that people really enjoy the community aspect of it and truly believe they are doing something good for their CO2 footprint. The people who have used it, are very pleased with the system. The difficulty of course remains to reach a large number of people. People might need to hear four or five times about your business through different channels, before they will remember to actually use it in real life.
How many people are using the platform?
We currently have about 1500 BringBees in Switzerland.
What is your favourite Bringbee member story so far?
I love the interaction with my BringBees and seeing that they love the idea and actively want to spread it in their communities. One of my favorite BringBees is Jakob. He was one of our first BringBees and fan since the very beginning. He sent us a picture of his family and himself and asked to be featured on our webpage and newsletter. He also really enjoys talking to people about BringBee. He even initiated meetings with local retailers to kickoff new BringBee cooperations.
What are Bringbee’s strategies to reach critical mass?
BringBee is working on building up as many communication channels as possible. Retail partners, shopping centers, family centers or BringBee ambassadors and of course an active communication and dialogue via our own networks and social media.
What is unique about the collaborative economy businesses in Switzerland?
The bad news: Swiss are generally very wealthy. There is little need to save money or reason to not just buy or own something yourself. The good news: Swiss are very honest and trustworthy, which is obviously a great start when creating a community marketplace. Second, sustainability and a healthy lifestyle is very important to Swiss people. The idea of sharing is appealing because you can support the community, live better, greener and increase the efficiency of idle resources. The mixture of social, green and financial incentives is a great package!
