OLIO – a startup aiming to reduce waste by enabling people to share instead of throw things away – has just removed all pricing from their app.
When OLIO launched it was for food sharing only. “We figured if adding a price encouraged people to share food rather than let it go to waste, then we were all for it” co-founders Tessa and Saasha said in an email to OLIO users this week.
Over the last year, OLIO have found that over 95% of food shared on the app was listed for free. That’s 135,000 food items that have been given away on OLIO to date.
In July 2016, OLIO opened up a ‘non-food’ section on the app, because, as they said on their blog, “who doesn’t have toiletries, cleaning products, kitchen equipment, and other unwanted household items that would be better off shared?”
While most people were happy to give away food, a lot of people began listing non-food items at high prices. “As a result, these listings have made OLIO lose a little bit of its special community feel” says Tessa and Saasha, “and OLIOers have been very vocal in letting us know they are disappointed with this part of the user experience.”
OLIO is built on the principle that communities can pitch together to reduce waste which has devastating environmental and social consequences.
With that in mind, everything on OLIO will now be available either for free, or in return for a donation to charity.
Get the OLIO app on the App Store here or Google Play here.
If you want to discuss your startup or product, get in touch with Simpleweb today.
If you’d like to discuss your startup or project, get in touch with Simpleweb today.
