It's already been several decades since the Japanese got into the habit of travel light. Their solution: entrust their luggage to transporters who will take it to its destination at a reasonable price. In the mid-1970s, Yamato built its reputation in this way, around the Takkyubin concept. Namely parcel delivery across the country, made possible by vast networks of shops open at all hours, notably 7-Eleven.
Widely deployed in Japan, baggage delivery and storage began to spread to Europe and the rest of the world in the middle of the last decade. The rise of Airbnb is not one of them. moreover not totally foreign. " This new way of travelling has created new needs" Matthieu Ballester, founder of Nannybag, a start-up specialising in luggage storage, points out. Among other things, you need to find an easily accessible place to store your suitcases before you get to your flat or after you leave, while you wait for your flight home.
But the benefits of this type of service are not confined to short-stay tourists, as Nannybag explains. between 15 and 20% of business customers. Through its partnerships with retail chains such as Carrefour, Casino and Franprix, and with brands in the Accor and Louvre Hotels groups, the start-up has gradually built up a network of "Nannies". In other words, they are all places that lend their services via the Nannybag app or website to check in suitcases - secured by a numbered seal - for €6 per 24 hours per item of luggage.
For business travellers, this solution is useful in a number of different situations: dropping off baggage near the departure station to no need to return to the hotel at the end of the day, store your suitcase and business equipment between two meetings or, in bleisure mode, have your hands free to enjoy a few hours of sightseeing before your flight home.
Like Nannybag, other start-ups such as Eelway in France, Bagbnb in Rome (now Radical Storage), LuggageHero in Denmark and Stasher in the UK have begun to flourish. in 2016-2017 by building on this idea. By January 2020, Luggage Hero was offering its services in more than 35 major European and North American cities. For its part, Nannybag had experienced " very strong growth until the end of 2019, both in European capitals and in North America" according to the company's founder.
In February 2020, the start-up announced that it had raised €2 million from two investors, Fa Dièse and Exon Capital, and several business angels. Unfortunately, the pandemic turned all expansion plans on their head. No passengers, so no luggage to carry or check. Not all of them - apart from Eelway - died, but all were affected. During the crisis, Stasher put its business on hold to concentrate on developing another of its offerings, Treepoints.green, which focuses on carbon offsetting. In France, after taking over Eelway's activities, Pick Up, a subsidiary of the La Poste group, acquired 49% of Nannybag's capital.
With a network of 13,000 relay points in France and a total of 70,000 worldwide, Pick Up now supports the start-up's expansion. " For them, the idea is to develop new services around their relay points, to build customer loyalty." explains Matthieu Ballester. However, registering all these relay points as baggage drop-off points is not automatic. " Negotiations must be conducted on a country-by-country basis, depending on the way the country operates.continues the founder of Nannybag. The main lever for acquiring "nannies" is organised around students who are paid every time they register a new business or hotel." .
To achieve this and accelerate its growth, Nannybag has just announced the recruitment of 50 business developers, in parallel with its expansion into 20 new countries. " After a better year in 2022 than we had in 2019, we are strongly resuming our expansion strategy in 2023, in the major European cities, but also in the United States and on the American continent, or even in Bangkok, in Oceania..." says Matthieu Ballester.
But Nannybag is also looking further afield. With La Poste Group now including logistics firm DPD, the start-up will be drawing on potential synergies to launch a new service at the beginning of the summer: sending luggage in the same country or abroad. " If you are travelling from Paris to New York, you can leave your suitcase with a Nanny in Paris and collect it from another Nanny or from your hotel on arrival." says the start-up's founder. The underlying idea is to compete with the prices offered by airlines, particularly low-cost airlines, for luggage transport. Or how to travel light at limited cost.
