Rent-A-Center Inc., the Plano-based rent-to-own company, is introducing an innovative strategy as part of its 50th-anniversary celebration. A 50-day campaign called “50 Days, 50 Drops,” aims to expand its brand by offering luxury products for rent from brands never-before-seen at RAC.
This move is a departure from RAC’s traditional offerings.
The pioneering company is known for its tech-driven and flexible leasing solutions for household goods and electronics. The introduction of luxury items to its portfolio could attract new customers and engage existing ones, while setting a new standard in the rent-to-own industry.
Starting today, RAC says, hot items and offers will drop every day throughout the campaign.
RAC’s EVP of Operations, Anthony Blasquez, says the 50/50 campaign is “a great way to introduce the brand to customers who may have never considered the flexibility of rent-to-own before.”
Parent rebrand
Earlier this year, Rent-A-Center announced it had adopted a new parent entity name called Upbound Group Inc., which got a new stock ticker. The move came two years after nearly doubling the size of its business with its acquisition of Acima Holdings.
The Rent-A-Center and Acima businesses continue to operate under their existing names.
Offering a pathway of renting to own
The company trades under the ticker NASDAQ: UPBD, and currently operates over 2,400 Rent-A-Center retail units across the U.S., Mexico, and Puerto Rico, as well as Acima’s third-party, virtual lease-to-own solutions and RAC’s Acceptance Now flexible leasing unit.
Rent-A-Center said the rent-to-own industry was created in the early 1960s by a small-town retailer named Ernie Talley, who had a large number of potential customers denied credit to get the products they needed for their homes and families.
The company said Talley believed everyone deserved an opportunity to receive products, no matter their credit, so he created an agreement that provided these customers with the opportunity to get new, quality products by making small weekly or monthly payments on the items, with the flexibility to eventually own those products.
The Rent-A-Center brand was founded in 1973 in Kansas City, Missouri, when Thomas Devlin, one of Ernie Talley’s former employees, established a storefront that solely focused on renting brand-name products.
Now, RAC said the industry serves millions of customers and continues to grow in size and revenue.
To participate in the campaign, RAC said that customers must text “DROPS” to 94210 to get on the list. Everyone on the list will receive a text message every day of the campaign with a link to the dropped item that is guaranteed to sell out quickly, or an exclusive deal.
Customers shopping in Rent-A-Center stores also will be able to scan a QR code to see prior drops and work with store co-workers to see the full catalog of rent-to-own items.
“It’s encouraging and exciting to see how far we’ve come as an industry in just 50 years,” Blasquez said in a statement.
“We look forward to seeing what the next 50 years has in store as we continue to innovate on our value proposition.”
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