There are too few products repaired, and e.g. clothes therefore have a short lifespan and end up as waste before their time. Brands have a producer responsibility for the entire life cycle of the products they put on the market, and must contribute to the product's increased lifespan to avoid waste production. However, they do not have global scalable solutions for this, but have inefficient expensive and manual processes (difficult to communicate around) which make most employees avoid repairs, and would rather give a new product, or the money back. Whether they offer repair is challenging. There are no global solutions that collect repair data for learning and improving design. Consumers have, always!, 1 or more garments awaiting repair, but the service is not available in the correct format. Repairers have challenges in scaling, employing and growing their company into a modernized service offer and a more predictable and appealing "call to action".
The problem is common because we have developed habits influenced by "Planned obsolescence". The problem we solve are solved firstly for brands and retailers. Consumers are asking for products with a longer lifespan, and the European Commission is doing the same. Branded goods will in the future HAVE to repair complaints if it is not cheaper to give a new one. In practice, consumers will expect repairs from responsible parties. The brands are global and do not have a system for complaints and repair management, which is easy to communicate internally and externally. Secondly, consumers have broken products, but poor access to certified repairers outside the city centres, and too little information and management of expectations. Local services that brands back, and transport solutions increase accessibility and use and extend the customer relationship with brand. For the repairers, digitization offers opportunities for scaling, interaction with more people in a more efficient way, learning, as well as the capacity to use digital customized products and better purchasing conditions. We develop an API, a plug and play solution for the landing pages of manufacturers, brands and retailers. It is a "white labelled" fully integrated saas API, similar to how brands have integrations for payment and logistics. Then all stakeholders have a common point, for inquiries about damaged products, and the API supports the producer responsibility scheme/compliance. All product-level data will be collected here for feedback and improvements in design as well as sustainability reporting. Complaints are handled automatically through a decision tree linked to regulations. It makes customer service more efficient. Different transport solutions/delivery addresses with different costs will be offered. Local repairers will be certified and, with a simple interface, will receive more assignments from more customers. They will have a structure behind them that can help professionalize the operation as well as respond to the EU's requirements for documentation. Consumers will get fixed prices, predictability in the service and the possibility of personalisation.