bin-go! is a business that allows people to rent smart moving bins. Using a mobile app, they can find and track their belongings throughout the moving process. Additionally, the system allows moving companies to know more about their jobs before arriving at the door — vital for staying on a tight schedule at peak times.
The Challenge
The moving industry is worth an estimated $17 billion, but moving companies and their customers are unhappy with the status quo.
What exactly is it about moving that generates such dissatisfaction? After an extensive user research process, the following themes emerged:
The Idea (in short)
bin-go! allows users to:
1. Choose the best bid from multiple moving companies
2. Always find their items even when they're packed away.
3. Show the moving company where they want each box to go in the new space.
User Experience
Dave and Taylor are a young, upwardly mobile couple looking to move to a bigger place. Here is what their experience might look like a few years from now.
Dave and Taylor download the bin-go! app, which prompts them to take a scan of their home.
Using his phone, Dave scans the rooms of their apartment. The app uses spatial awareness in the camera, allowing for accurate furniture measurements and the creation of a digital floor plan.
Using information from the scan, bin-go! is able to predict the perfect amount of packing supplies for Dave and Taylor. They rent the supplies in advance.
2 weeks later, they receive a delivery consisting of bin-go! bin rentals with smart inserts and a plug-in 4G wireless router.
When plugged in, the router will create a bluetooth mesh network among the smart inserts. Dave and Taylor's phones will then recognize each bin individually over the 4G connection.
When packing, Taylor holds the button on the selected bin's smart insert. The embedded LED strip in the bin will glow to indicate that the bin is ready to be filled.
As Taylor puts Dave's running shoes in the bin, she says "Dave's running shoes!" The smart insert records her and adds the item to an inventory list of items in that specific bin.
Later, Dave scans the home he and Taylor are moving to, creating a new digital floor plan.
Now, they can have precise control of where Smartbins will be moved.
This isn't just great for Dave and Taylor. It's great for professional movers too.
Staying on schedule has never been easier.
With the advanced information provided by the bin-go! app, associated moving companies can confidently make flat-rate bids for Dave and Taylor to choose from.
With the bins successfully delivered, Dave can now ask the app where Taylor packed his running shoes. The correct bin will light up and make a sound to alert him.
The Business
Consumers get a far more advanced system for roughly the same price as a traditional move.
The app can be skinned with the brands of moving companies looking for a simple, cost effective way to increase their digital footprints.
Competition Map
bin-go! is the only packing system that lets people track their belongings and lets moving companies plan their work in advance.
Cardboard boxes combined with the mobile app sortly allow users to create inventories, but they cannot differentiate boxes remotely, nor can movers take advantage of bin-go!'s scanning services to help plan the move. Bungobox (and its many competitors) offer a similar bin rental system, but it does not offer smart item tracking or integration with professional moving services. Not mentioned here are competing services that allow users to select bids from competing moving companies (most notably unpakt). Here, bin-go! provides far better packing materials, and its room scanning technology significantly reduces the work the user must do before getting a moving estimate.
