The breakeven price for our customers is always longer than the total price of the rental. Wonder if we should be explicitly stating this on our site?
https://rentfeather.com/collections/bedroom/products/dunham-...
https://www.wayfair.com/Zipcode%E2%84%A2-Design-Colby-Uphols...
Feather 3 month rental price: $207
Wayfair purchase price (including shipping): $201
I think the larger point (I'm now realizing) is that rental shops focus on monthly prices when it often doesn't make sense. Usually only already-furnished apartments can be had for a month or three. Unfurnished usually requires a full year lease, with only a fraction available for six months, say in downtown or a university town.
So, I might try lower monthly prices for a 6 and 12 month commitments. I think that would get me "over the hump" as a potential customer.
The problem with every rental place I've seen is how expensive they are. You could just buy the furniture outright for the cost of three months rental. Doesn't exactly match the year lease does it? :-/
There is a used market for IKEA furniture, and they're swapped regularly on Craigslist for half price assembled. Sometimes you can even rent for "free" by buying used and selling later. New items can be sold at half price as well. So I haven't had as much difficulty with that, though I wish they had more "modular" i.e. snap together furniture.
So there are some challenges to this endeavor, good luck.