We’re moving (ware)house

The last 2 years since we started have been really exciting here at Whirli as we have been growing our range of toys, and more and more families have been subscribing to Whirli. However, much like having children, we have now run out of space at our ‘starter home’.

That means it’s time for us to move to a bigger warehouse!

Brief Delivery Changes

Unfortunately we won’t be able to hit our normal high standards of deliveries whilst we are moving, but rest assured we will be back to normal in a few short weeks! Things you will notice between 12th – 26th July:

We won’t be offering express delivery or nominated day deliveries
Our standard deliveries will take 1 – 2 days longer

New returns labels

We will soon be sending out returns labels with a new address in Rainham.

Don’t worry if you use an old ‘Tent Street’ label, we’ll still receive your parcel. However, you may experience a slight delay in processing your return.

Great customer benefits

By having more space and being in a better location, customers will soon get to benefit from:

A growing range of toys
Heaps of stock availability
A slicker operation to turbo boost swaps and make sure you continue to get the same speedy service.

A note from our Head of Operations

Hello! I joined Whirli in May of this year, and I’ve been amazed to see how many families are already enjoying swapping toys, and the amount of toys that we are preventing going into landfill! It gives me so much joy to see families sharing their experience on social media and the inventive ways they play with their toys.

My sustainability mission

When it comes to being sustainable, I’m passionate about us walking the walk. We are already reducing the amount of toys that end up in landfill, with around 50,000 toys circulating within our community. But there’s always more we can do. This year I’ll be ensuring we use the most sustainable, reusable and recyclable packing currently available.

I’m also continuing to look at how we reduce our carbon footprint. One way we’ve done this is by moving our warehouse closer to our couriers depots which in turn means there’s less distance to drive. In the not so distant future, I also have my eye on electric vehicles and how they can help Whirli take a giant step towards emission reduction.

A new warehouse also gives us the chance design and create energy efficiencies in our warehouse. Here, it’s the little things that make a big difference. Such as making sure that we are using renewable energy to power the warehouse, and we install motion sensor LED lightbulbs.

Always improving

As well as moving our warehouse, 2021 is going to be an important year for us in upgrading our operations. We are developing technology that will allow our warehouse team to process orders accurately and at speed. Plus we can expand our toy range to include some exciting additions later this year (I’m not going to let the cat out of the bag just yet as to what they are!).

Treating people fairly

I am also hugely passionate about treating our team fairly. To create a comfortable, supportive working environment and develop opportunities for good people to progress. Not just within Whirli, but looking at our supply chain and ensuring our suppliers hold these same values.

Thank you

Finally, a big thank you from all of us for continuing to support us and our mission to make playtime better. A thank you in advance for bearing with us as we settle into our new home, and we’re looking forward to you benefitting from a better Whirli service!

Craig Simpson
Head of Operations

Whirli Announces Seed Funding Round

Every year at Whirli HQ, we take a moment after our busy Christmas period, to reflect on our progress towards our mission to help parents live more sustainably without breaking the bank. Similar to every business and every family around the world, 2020 has been full of surprises, uncertainty, and overall it has been incredibly challenging for us.

I have been incredibly proud with how our team responded to these challenges. Most of all, we have been so delighted to have received so much support from our subscriber community. Thank you for continuing to believe in our mission, for recommending us, for buying gifts for your friends, and thank you for all the kind notes of thanks and encouragement we received throughout the year. It means a lot and shows that what we’re doing has mattered to thousands of families and children across the UK. We will continue doing our best and going the extra mile for you.

This level of customer love and support has meant that, despite a challenging year for business and fundraising, we have been able to secure a substantial investment in our business, in a Seed funding round led by Octopus Ventures, with participation from MMC Ventures.

It’s an incredibly exciting time for us, as we have so many ideas and plans for the business that will make it even easier to use, more flexible, offer more choice, whilst still offering amazing value for money. Some of the first things we are likely to do include:

Adding more toys and products to our range: we loved hearing all your suggestions for products you’d like to borrow from us. With plans to open a larger warehouse underway, we’re really excited to turn to this shopping list and having more brands and products available to borrow through your Whirli subscription.
Better delivery/return convenience and control: adding more courier networks to give subscribers more choice about how and when to receive their parcels or return them. Better platform integrations to give you more visibility, notifications, and control for upcoming deliveries.
More engaging content and guidance for parents: helping you with advice and recommended toys for learning through play
Improved product feedback and suggestions: helping you discover new toys your family may enjoy based on your feedback of toys you’ve borrowed
Better overall operations: to ensure a consistent and high level of service for every parcel delivered to every customer

Again, a big thank you to all our subscribers and to all our staff who have gotten us to this point. Together, we have truly demonstrated the demand and strong potential for a different way to shop and consume – one that is better for consumers, better for children, and better for our environment.

Merry Christmas!

Nigel Phan
Founder & Managing Director

How I saved money with Whirli

In three years, my husband and I have gone from £16,000 in debt, to debt-free with savings. In doing so, we’ve completely overhauled our lifestyles, going from purchasing mindlessly to consuming intentionally. Shortly after I had our son, Leon, we discovered Whirli and it was a game-changer.

Babies grow so quickly, and their needs develop on a weekly basis. Before Whirli, we often purchased new toys to keep up with Leon’s development. This is so expensive and comes at a huge cost to the planet. Think of all the plastic toys that also come with a mountain of plastic packaging!

One might argue you can buy secondhand, and this is something I fully advocate. However, it’s likely that a toy is only passed from one home to one or two more before being thrown away.

So when I heard about Whirli from another mum, it was a revelation. This is the solution for parents who want to live more sustainably and save money.

Saving money using my subscription

I was so excited when my first Whirli box arrived. All the toys were in great condition and specific to Leon’s development stage. I love that I can exchange the toys when we are ready to move on to the next stage.

We’re currently on the Toy Box half-yearly plan which costs £81 and this allows us to play with toys worth up to £120 at any one time. This year, I plan to use our subscription to order all of Leon’s Christmas presents, meaning that Christmas is already paid for. I’ll also use Whirli for his birthday presents! I usually swap toys every month, so after 6 swaps, Leon would have played with £720 worth of toys!

Saving money using my referral code

I belong to several parent groups so naturally I’ve raved on about Whirli and shared my referral code with them. Therefore, I get to save money (Whirli adds £20 credit to my account for every referral) and help out other parents too.

Saving money through Whirli gifts

For Christmas 2020, many of us are turning towards gifting our loved ones with vouchers to limit purchasing unwanted gifts. This year, I’ve asked Leon’s grandparents to gift him a Whirli voucher so we can continue our subscription next year. Receiving the gift of Whirli means you aren’t just getting one gift, you’ll get a new one every time a new box arrives. It is the ultimate present for any parent or child who wants the gift of choice.

Whirli has allowed us to cut our plastic consumption and save a lot of money. It has truly been a joy to discover, and I recommend it to any parent out there.

Our top 10 toys for Christmas

For Christmas 2020, more than any other year, you probably want to treat your kids to something extra special. Being a ‘re-commerce’ retailer, we can offer parents, friends and families the luxury of ordering a desirable toy or gift (desirable for the adult often means expensive, beautiful and purposeful….desirable for the child usually means bright, flashy and plastic) but only paying for the time it has actually been played with. A natural money saving and enviable space saving, not to mention landfill avoiding, choice.

So our Top 10 Toys for Christmas 2020 list is slightly different to those you may have seen from more traditional toy retailers. We naturally have a preference towards the responsible and sustainable, as well as an understanding that millennial parents are keen to offer their family choice and swerve outdated stereotypes.

Top 10 Toys for Christmas 2020

1. Lottie Dolls

Millenial parents are keen to swerve outdated stereotypes and offer their children life goals that are not destructive, unrepresentative or limiting. So naturally Lottie dolls were an obvious choice for us. Lottie dolls were developed on the basis of positive messaging for kids. Each doll is inspired by a real life child and is designed using real life children’s body proportions. They do not wear make-up, jewellery or high-heels and have childhood focused interests, not adult ones. They represent children who are bold, creative, innovative and curious.

2. Pikler Triangles

Whilst traditional playgrounds are only accessible for confident walkers and climbers, Pikler triangles are designed to promote motor development in much younger children. Those who are practising to grasp, reach, stand and climb, all in their own time.

With upper weight limits of 50kg (that’s 7 stone) they are also suitable for older kids too. Plus, they’re not limited to climbing. With just a dash of creativity and unbound imagination, our subscribers have turned their triangle into a den, tunnel, baby gym and so much more. These toys are responsibly and sustainably made by small businesses so no wonder they are hands down one of our most popular toys.

3. Playmobil 1 2 3 Zoo with Penguin Enclosure

Playmobil encourages creative play and this zoo enclosure set is perfect for the little ones. The pieces are sturdy and large enough for their little hands to play with. We also assemble all the pieces together before sending them out so the kids can play with them straight away.

Fun fact: Nigel, Whirli’s founder, loves building Playmobil sets for our subscribers.

4. Fisher Price Zebra Walker

This is a Whirli classic. A toy that may only be needed for a month at best and then is no longer needed. It is very popular, affordable, durable and the perfect Whirli swap.

5. Plan Toys Doctor Set

Plan toys are made from rubber trees that no longer produce latex. These trees are reclaimed and made into chemical free toys. They are really hard wearing, super durable and are even waterproof so make great bath toys. In recognition of our NHS heroes we’ve popped their Doctor Set in at number 5.

6. PJ Masks Fold & Go Headquarters Playset

The kids just got over their Peppa Pig phase, but now they are obsessing over PJ masks. You are now worrying when will they stop re-watching all the episodes. It’s ok, we got your back. Why don’t you gift this action-packed Fold N Go Headquarters Playset? It will help them take a break from the screen and recreate their favourite scenes instead. The best part about this playset is they can pack it up so there’s no toy-clutter in sight.

7. Melissa & Doug Wooden Ice Cream Counter

Kids love nothing more than pretending to be a grown-up; no wonder this is one of our most popular toys. The little cute shop keepers will have ample hours of fun, scooping and serving different flavoured ice cream. This is a great imaginative playset to help develop their communication (and business management) skills.

8. Micro Mini Micro Deluxe Scooter

Scooters kept many kids active during the lockdown. So you have probably seen Micro scooters everywhere and now you are wondering if they are worth it. Yes, they are! These scooters are light, durable, easy to use and the handlebars are adjustable. It is the best scooter for a safe and smooth ride while helping the kids develop their coordination and balance.

9. VTech 2-in-1 Sports Centre

You can keep your little ones active inside the house too with the VTech 2-in-1 Sports Centre. When they score using the football net or basketball hoop, fun animations will light up and it will play encouraging sounds. This is one of those bright, flashy and possibly annoying toys you might not like but your kids will love! It’s ok…you can swap it when they are done with it.

10. Magformers 30 Piece Set

This is the best present for kids who are obsessed with Lego or construction sets. They will love using their imagination to build colourful structures, improving their creative thinking and motor skills. The pieces easily connect to one another so you won’t hear any frustrated sighs during their play. Another amazing toy that is guaranteed to give you some peace and quiet for a couple of hours.

Guest Post: Borrowing things for your home

WHIRLI INTRO: As part of our Ownership is Overrated series we have been chatting to the team at The Library of Things. We want to encourage our customers, who may themselves be new to the circular economy, to think about other areas of their home and lives that they can borrow rather than buy.

The Library of Things is a London based community-led library of…well, things! Things for adventuring, hobbying, cleaning, DIY, cooking and more. We’ve been speaking to them about their London successes and their recent drive to expand across the UK.

Borrowing in a pandemic world

During lockdown, we’ve all spent a lot more time than usual at home. And without our usual activities to keep us busy with friends, we’ve all had to find creative ways to keep busy. From clearing out the house, to giving growing a go in the garden, or even bringing the cinema home, like Laura and her partner.

“We love going to the cinema and we’ve really missed it during lockdown. We’re also trying to find interesting things to do on the weekends to mix it up a bit, so we decided to borrow the projector to watch Hamilton and create our very own movie theatre.”

It’s now almost three years since we opened the very first Library of Things. If you wander down the high street in Crystal Palace, South London, you’ll find our kiosk in Upper Norwood Library Hub. Here you can borrow everything from fun stuff to get started with a hobby or activity like Laura – we’ve got a sewing machine and ice cream maker – to tools like a drill, carpet cleaner, or strimmer. There’s even camping equipment for a weekend getaway, like tents and backpacks too.

We were inspired by communities across the globe who had set up lending libraries in Berlin, Toronto and beyond, to share items with their neighbours and cut down on waste. We knew our community would love to get involved with this, so we brought Library of Things to London.

Since then we’ve been helping our neighbours cut down on the clutter in their kitchen cupboards and garden sheds by making it easier and more affordable to borrow, rather than buy, the useful things you only need occasionally for your homes, projects and adventures.

You can borrow items for as long as you need them and drop them back once you’re done for another neighbour to use, and because you’re borrowing, it’s a fraction of what it costs to buy something new.

But it’s not just our purses that stand to benefit. Borrowing means that we produce, buy and waste fewer natural resources. Together, our Crystal Palace borrowers have saved a whopping 15,900 kg of waste from going to landfill by borrowing rather than buying.

Sharing is more important now than ever

Over the years we’ve seen how powerful sharing can be as a way of bringing local people together. As well as borrowing items from Library of Things, you can join or host practical events like repair parties and sewing classes. Something simple and practical like borrowing a drill can become a transformation – making friends with your neighbours and learning skills that change your outlook on life.

During lockdown, sharing has brought our community closer together, even though we’ve had to stay apart physically. When the Library Hub closed back in March, lots of our members got in touch to say that they couldn’t do the activities that were important to them, because they couldn’t get the tools they needed. So we floated the idea of trialling a home delivery and collection service and we got a big thumbs up.

A fantastic bunch of volunteers signed-up to run our community-powered delivery service to help their neighbours get hold of the things they needed. This is what Lucy, one of volunteers had to say:

“I’m no longer working due to Covid, so I wanted to spend my time supporting the local community and helping people stay entertained during lockdown. It’s also a great excuse to chat to people and meet our lovely neighbours (from a safe distance, of course!)”

92% of people who borrowed during this period told us it has helped them feel closer to their neighbours and community. Now, more than ever, sharing has the potential to change how each of us live and relate to our communities and the planet around us.

Ready to give borrowing a try?

We’d love it if you’d be up for giving borrowing a go. If you live in South East London, browse our catalogue of things and make a reservation for delivery .

There’s good news for other Londoners too. We’ll be extending our delivery service to reach more of South London and new kiosks will be opening in the autumn across the city. You can already sign-up to become a founder member in Dalston.

And if you are interested in setting up your own Library of Things in your community, register your interest and see if there are any other people interested in helping in your area.

Guest Post: Making Kids Clothes Circular

Collaborating with Whirli

I’m Charlotte, the founder of The Little Loop kids clothing company. We have many shared values with Whirli and when they asked if we would be interested in collaborating with them on their Ownership is Overrated series, we jumped at the chance.

If you, like many people, have a house full of majority ‘owned’ things and would like to borrow more of the things that you only need for a short time, then you may be interested to learn about what we do at The Little Loop.

The truth about children’s clothes

Your littlest family member will outgrow over 1000 items of clothing before they are fully grown. Their voracious need for new clothes from ages 0-12 (about every 3 months due to growth and changing seasons) means the average household in the UK will spend around £11,000 on clothing each child. Ouch!

And what do we do with all those clothes when they’re done?

A whopping 183 million items of outgrown baby clothing (not to mention all the other ages) are stashed in UK homes. Many parents intend to reuse them for second and third children. But if they are a different gender, or born in a different season, the clothes may never be worn again.
⅓ of parents have thrown away children’s clothes because they didn’t know what else to do with them. Yet only about 5% of those clothes are damaged, and many are not worn at all.

But why is that a problem?

Kids’ clothing has the potential to be worn by up to 4 children. Compared with one use, that would reduce its carbon and water footprint by up to 75%.

Or think about it like this…for every garment which isn’t re-used or handed on, 3 more brand new garments have to be bought. This takes 3 times more cotton, thus 3x more carbon and 3x more water.

So the knock on impact of that 183million item clothes stash is the purchase of 549 million garments which didn’t need to be manufactured; creating 2 million tonnes of CO2e…the equivalent of powering 200,000 homes for a year!

It would take 33million tree seedlings to grow for 10 years to absorb that much carbon.

So what can we do?

Reducing the environmental and financial burden of clothing our children is getting easier and easier. There are several ways to tackle it and we cover the full list in our most recent blog “5 ways to dress your kids for less”. But of all of them there’s one thing which is guaranteed to have the greatest impact. Moving away from ownership and toward a world where we treat things as a service to be borrowed as and when we need them. A circular economy powered by rental.

Kids clothes rental ensures that every garment reaches its maximum potential and is never left to languish in a cupboard until it is no longer usable or desirable. Clothing can be reprocessed, professionally laundered, repaired where necessary, and circulated until it reaches its rental life end. And even then, it can be up-cycled into new products. All things which cannot be guaranteed or controlled in the world of ownership.

If you were to rent just 6 items of your child’s wardrobe for three months you would prevent another 18 from being manufactured, saving 67kg of Co2e, and up to 58,000 litres of water. The carbon saving alone is equivalent to driving 166 miles in a car.

Increase that to a modest indoor wardrobe (4 trousers, 6 tee shirts, 4 dresses/dungarees, 2 cardigans/sweaters, 2 sweatshirts), for a whole year, and you’re looking at a saving of 877kg CO2e and upto 756,000 litres of water. That’s the equivalent of 1/10 of your household’s annual energy.

OK, but isn’t rental harder than ownership? It seems daunting…

Not at all. In fact there are many other benefits to rental besides environmental ones.

Quality and Value

Because of the cost saving from buying new, you can generally access more expensive ethical and sustainable clothing, from the best sustainable brands, for far less than their retail price. And you’ll no longer have to:

Buy too big so they’ll ‘last’
Compromise on style, quality or ethics for the sake of cost
Buy gender-neutral in case of future babies

Plus you can exchange items your kids don’t like, or that don’t work as you’d expected. No more unworn items hanging in the wardrobe making you feel bad. And no more wasted money.

Convenience

Every time your kids grow, you have to sort through, pack away, and dispose of their discarded clothes. It takes a LOT of time and energy, not to mention precious storage space. Renting takes the pain out of clothing your children. You send back all of the clothes you’re done with. And get another set with just a few clicks of a button. No more stress, no more guilt, lots of time back to spend with your little heroes.

Feeling like a super hero.

Our children are our world, and we’d do anything for them. But they’re streets ahead of us in their quest to save the planet from the impact of over-consumption, pollution and waste. Rent their clothing to support them in their quest to save the planet. And you can feel like a hero too!

So what are you waiting for? Check out thelittleloop.com to see what rental is all about. Here’s a little taster of how it works.

Ownership is Overrated

With the recent news that Selfridges and John Lewis are the latest retailers to join the rental revolution, and with Ikea set to launch its rental offering at the end of the year, it is clear that Generation Rent is driving the shift towards rental.

Millenials and Gen Z’ers are defined more by ever-changing experiences, careers and lifestyles, than their parents’ were. They are more likely to move home, change jobs and make ever-evolving lifestyle choices. They have also realised that owning everything they need to support this lifestyle is expensive, wasteful and more of a commitment than they would like.

Customer challenge

To mark the shift towards a Rental Revolution we would like to challenge our customers to consider which areas of their homes are filled with things they own or borrow. We’ve created a list which you can go through. Mark each category with a %. 100% means you own 100% of the items within that category. 0% means you own 0% of the items in that category and rent them all.

Other Rental Businesses

To compliment the list, we’ll also add a link to any rental businesses we know of that you may want to consider in your quest to own less and rent more.

The Rental Lifestyle List

Women’s clothing

Hurr at Selfridges – peer to peer luxury clothing rental

My Wardrobe HQ – peer to peer and brand to peer luxury fashion rental

Rotaro – a fully centralised clothing rental service

Men’s clothing

Watch this space!

Home interiors

John Lewis Furniture – rent instead of buy your favourite household furniture

Harth – design-led interiors rental

Rise Art – original paintings for sale or rent

Household and personal items

Fat Llama – a peer to peer lending platform for electronics, tools, bikes and more

Library of Things – London based local community library offering ‘things’ across DIY, gardening, hobbying etc.

Kid’s clothes

Bundlee – a pre-bundled capsule wardrobe to rent for 0 – 24 month babes

The Little Loop – a choice of clothes to rent for 2 – 5 year olds from brands such as Frugi, Mini Boden and more

Kid’s toys

Whirli – us of course!

Baby stuff

Buggi – a UK buggy subscription of reconditioned buggies

Pets

Borrow my doggy – want a dog but not full time? The borrow a local dog for the weekend.

Car

Zipcar – the UK’s largest car sharing club in London, Bristol, Oxford & Cambridge

Working at Whirli

Every couple of months we like to give some insight into our business. A opportunity for anyone who may be interested to see how we do things.

Last time on Insta we shared details of our small and multicultural team. At the time there were just 24 of us. We have heritage from 12 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe and North America, and there’s a fair gender distribution across departments including our technology and warehouse operations.

Flexible working hours

This time, we want to share with you our working hours and what that means for everyone at the company. Traditionally, companies operate a 9am – 5:30pm policy. Anyone sneaking in the door past 9am is often considered to be late and anyone finishing before 5:30pm, a “part timer”.

Over the years, some business have evolved and we are one of them. We operate core hours between 10am – 3pm and outside those hours, everyone can start or finish when it suits them. It means we can collaborate, pair up and discuss things quickly and easily, without having to schedule every conversation. But it also gives flexibility to those that cannot start at 9am or need to finish before 5pm.

Never late

Something that has been a huge relief to me, especially as a parent, is that I am never late. Turning up a 9:45am is perfectly acceptable yet it isn’t a special privilege given to just me, a parent. The entire company can come and go as it suits us. There is no ‘being late’.

Multiple morning drops off and evening picks ups with small children is not without stress. But taking away the added stress of ‘being late’ for work has made such a difference.

Making work work

I started working at Whirli after I’d had my second child and the core hour policy created made full-time possible. Had the policy been stricter, I’m not sure me and my husband would have been able to make it work. We equally share our family’s needs between us which has meant he has a career that he has an equal opportunity to succeed in and so do I.

A post-pandemic working world

Now our World has been flipped on its head, I’m curious to know how all businesses will adjust. Working from home was always a possibility at Whirli. But perhaps they’ll be more of it or it will be structured differently. As a business we’re doing really well. We’re growing quickly, hiring more people. We’ve launched a new website, built a heap of new things and it was all done from home.

But many of us are missing face-to-face contact. So it’s likely, post-pandemic, there will be an even blend of office-based and home-based working. Perhaps readjusting the reasons for location-based activities, especially as the team grows. Most screen time work can be done from home, especially if it is quieter and less distracting. Perhaps office based work prioritises face-to-face contact, such as meetings, break-outs, collaborations and socials.

It will be an opportunity for every company to re-write the rules and create a working environment that is flexible. Support the person that needs quiet, focused time or encourage people to collaborate and interact more. Support the person that is simply not a morning person and does their best work later on. Or support the person that has responsibilities that don’t fit the 9am – 5:30pm structure.

And maybe, just maybe, our roads and trains will be less congested. I think we’d all vote for that!

Changes to our subscription plans and delivery fees from 4th August 2020

Our mission

Our core mission at Whirli is to support busy parents. For me, this has always meant providing a high level of service that is convenient, flexible, affordable, and also driven by ethical values. These principles run through Whirli today, from how our sharing economy works, to our selection of toys, and even to how we provide customer service and treat all our staff.

More recently, we stood firmly by these values and principles, and served the thousands of families in our community throughout the COVID-19 lockdown from March to July. We heavily subsidised our home collection service at the fraction of cost price, so families could continue to use our service without having to leave their homes. Our staff also navigated the crisis admirably and continued to put our community of parents first, helping all our subscribers through an extremely challenging and difficult time.

It goes without saying that COVID-19 has ravaged many businesses. While we count ourselves as relatively fortunate, we were not unscathed. Whirli is largely a founder-owned small independent business (not backed by corporates or venture capital). As with all small independent businesses across the country, we have had to adapt to huge changes as well as absorb unexpected costs. Whilst this has been possible in the short term, we now need to look ahead and strengthen our community and business so we can thrive in the long term.

Looking ahead

We’re making small changes to our subscription plans and delivery fees to address the long term impact of COVID-19 and ensure our business can be sustainable. These changes have a small impact on individual subscribers. There are no immediate charges levied or changes to the prices for our subscription plans, but standard delivery and return fees are increasing by 50p each (£1 monthly for Delivery Booster).

These small changes will help us materially improve the experience for all subscribers in our community. It will allow us to continue investing and improving our customer experience – better toy availability, a broader range of products, further improvements to the web experience, more varied delivery options, and many more things to come. All while staying true to our mission for all our subscribers and all our staff.

Value for money

We scrutinised our changes and remain confident that Whirli still represents the best value for money, by far, when it comes to children’s toys.

Our data shows that :

Over 6 months, the average subscriber plays with 400-600 Tokens of toys (worth £400-600 RRP), representing 3-5X more than they have paid to Whirli (including all delivery and return fees).

Despite the changes announced today, all our subscribers will still continue to enjoy this unbeatable value where Whirli is always better value for money than shopping for toys, no matter how frequently you swap with us.

Here are the changes to our subscription plans and delivery fees in full detail:

Token allowance changes

There have been no changes to the price that subscribers pay for the plan. However, the maximum Token allowance for each plan has reduced slightly to the following:

Each plan continues to deliver tremendous value for money, allowing subscribers to play with toys equivalent to at least 8 times the monthly plan cost at any time. There is no need for subscribers to return any toys immediately, these changes only take effect in your next swap. There are also no changes to Swifter Swaps, so customers can continue to enjoy receiving their latest orders before returning toys and be in a period of ‘overdraft’ with toys exceeding their plan’s token allowance.

We are also now able to craft bespoke plans beyond 240 Tokens. If you need more than 240 Tokens, please do get in touch and we will be able to cater for you.

‘Keep a toy’ changes

In buying a toy to keep, we consider the amount of time you’ve borrowed the toy to ensure you never pay more than retail price.

A toy never swapped

In line with the changes to our subscription plans, you can now keep a toy forever, at no extra cost, if you have had the toy for 8 months (vs 9 months previously).

Buy a toy

When buying a toy from your toy box, we will now calculate the residual value based on 243 days (8 months) rather than 274 days (9 months).

This therefore makes it cheaper to buy a toy to keep, and is a pricing improvement for all subscribers.

Pay monthly ‘Intro period’

For new customers only

For new pay monthly subscribers only, we are increasing our introductory period from 2 months to 3 months in line with many other subscription companies. This means that you will only unlock your full Token allowance after 3 months of being with Whirli.

In token terms here’s how it plays out:

No changes for existing customers in their introductory period

This introductory period change only affects new pay monthly subscribers. All existing subscribers who are still in their 2 month introductory period are unaffected and will get all their plan’s tokens available upon completing their 2 month introductory period.

Delivery fee changes

We’ve made some changes in line with price increases received from our delivery partners.

All changes are highlighted in yellow. Our Standard Delivery and Standard Return fees have increased by 50p each, and Home Collection has increased by £1.50 (this continues to be a subsidised service priced well below market rate).

Delivery Booster has correspondingly increased by £1 per month. There have been no immediate charges, the new pricing for Delivery Booster only takes place on the next renewal of your subscription plan.

Changes to our Subscription and Gifting Terms and Conditions

We’ve made changes to the formal terms and conditions for subscriptions and gifting. These were to correspond to the changes listed above, as well and capturing new features that we’ve built since we launched Whirli in 2018.

Have any questions?

As ever, please contact us if you have any questions about any of these changes or if you need any help getting the best value possible out of your Whirli subscription. We’re always here to help.

Thank you for all the positive encouragements and continued support.

Best wishes,
Nigel Phan
Founder and Managing Director

Guest post: 5 ways that toy rental improves my life

With three kids and a neurotic approach to keeping things tidy; toys (and more specifically, plastic crap) has been something I’ve fretted over for years. I’m basically a fun sponge. Our flat has duplo, lego, brio, soft toys, dinosaurs and one, constantly emptied ‘everything drawer’ which is where things on death row go. If I haven’t seen it being played for three months; it’s out.

When birthdays and Christmas approach we clear out anything that’s not been played with for a while and take it to the charity shop or pass it to younger cousins. My relatives have been discouraged from big/noisy/ugly/tacky anything since I first gave birth.

The thing I can’t bear about kid’s toys is that inevitably the old plastic crap gets replaced with new plastic crap – same stuff, different year.

When I heard about Whirli I was a bit sceptical. I was worried that the toys would get lost or broken or would be old and battered, but I gave it a try. We started with a Toy Sack and have quickly moved up to the ‘Toy Trunk’ membership plan which is £19.99 a month and (after 3 months which are a bit like a probation period) has 180 tokens available per month.

The kids absolutely love browsing the toys and choosing their next swap – and Whirli day (when the new haul arrives) is like Christmas morning!

If we get something they don’t end up liking then we can send it back early. Otherwise each load is returned in the box it came in (postage prepaid) and we choose more. It has changed my life for the better in so many ways. Here are five of them:

1. We have less stuff that we own.

I hate having too much stuff. By renting toys we can have all sorts of toys and enjoy them and then send them back when the novelty wears off. This means we can now have Peppa Pig, Paw Patrol, Marble Runs, Hey Duggee, Playmobil, Baby Yoda – you name it, I’m cool with it!

2. We look after things better

When you borrow things, you look after them really well. When some of your toys are borrowed and some aren’t, it makes you careful about looking after things, all your things. So our belongings are being looked after too now!

3. We can get big toys that wouldn’t fit long-term

While my sister thinks it’s hilarious to pretend she’s going to send a baby toy Land Rovers to drive around our flat, the truth is that we just don’t have space for big stuff. When we’re borrowing, I don’t mind having an extra balance bike or wobble board which gets in the way for a few weeks but will be sent back before I kick it so hard that I break my foot and scream something sweary about needing a bigger flat!

4. Less Impact on the environment

This is mostly about packaging. I get overwhelmed with the packaging which toys bring. It’s usually obscene amounts of plastic which simply isn’t needed. I love that toy rental means the packaging has only happened once but loads of kids can use the toy.

Also, less stuff = less emissions.

Finally, Whirli takes toys out of boxes to send in bags. This means less weight and less bulk, so less emissions per delivery journey.

Triple win! The sharing economy makes so much sense from an environmental standpoint.

5. Money and time saved

This is more of an aspiration. I’d really like to cut the spending and time people allocate to buying stuff for the kids. It’s unbelievably kind that they want to buy gifts, and my children love being thought of and receiving presents. But life has a lot on, and if they wanted to ‘top up’ the Whirli balance for one of the boys who could choose something to borrow themselves and no one has to wrap or send, then that feels like a really positive option and one I’ll definitely try in the future.