How to maintain your parasol so that it lasts long?
At Belveo, we try to offer you outdoor products such as umbrellas that last a long time. We are committed to selling you quality products that will last over time and avoid additional waste each year.
A fair price
If you have ever visited our website or if you are a customer of ours, you have probably noticed that our parasols are more expensive than most of the classic parasols available on the market. There are several reasons for this :
First of all, you should know that we charge for delivery. Why do you ask? Well, because sunshades and pergolas are products with an imposing size. Therefore, the delivery has a certain cost. To find out, it is therefore necessary for us to include the shipping costs in the price of the product.
Secondly, the price of our parasols is high because you are paying for quality products. Belveo parasols are not parasols that you will throw away after one or two seasons. The structure with the integrated Belveo patent allows the parasols to resist the wind and therefore they break much less easily than a classic parasol. In addition, you can change the fabric of your parasol even if it is a little worn. It is therefore very easy to give your Belveo parasol a new lease on life and it is much more cost-effective than buying a whole parasol each time.
We believe it is more important to focus on the use value than the purchase value. It is more interesting for you to invest in a Belveo parasol that will last you many years than in a classic parasol that you will only be able to use for a few seasons before it breaks. To give you an example, let's compare a classic parasol at 100€ that breaks after two years against a Belveo parasol at 300€ that will last you maybe 10 years. The use value per month of the classic parasol will be 100/24 = 4,16€/month while the Belveo parasol will be 300/120 = 2,5€/month. So we have to look at the long term, not only at the immediate purchase price, but also at the fact that even if our parasols are expensive, they will be more profitable than a classic parasol.
Finally, a question you may be asking yourself if you know anything about our brand: why do we never run promotions? The answer is quite simple. We already offer fair prices all year round, taking into account production, storage, delivery, wages, etc... So we cannot reduce the prices any further because we do not make an exorbitant margin on them. Moreover, we do not participate in events such as Black Friday for ethical reasons. We find that this kind of event encourages people to overconsume because of course the offers are often interesting. This goes against our values which are to encourage people to consume less but better.
Service at the forefront
What we love about Belveo is being close to our community. You are the best people to talk about our products so we want every customer to be satisfied. We make it a point of honor to be responsive by answering each of your requests within 24 hours.
We want to create a closeness with our community. That's why we call you by your first names. We don't want to put unnecessary barriers between us.
Our goal is to make sure that each of you can be advised or helped quickly and efficiently. We believe that if you have a delivery problem or a product defect, trying to resolve the problem quickly shows you that we are invested in our customers and that we are always responsive to help you.
Our areas for improvement
Belveo has made the choice to manufacture products that last a long time in order to reduce the number of annual furniture wastes. However, we know that some points remain to be improved, especially regarding production.
First of all, our parasols are not made of recyclable materials. Therefore, they cannot be recycled if they are broken or if they are no longer in use.
Secondly, our products are manufactured in China, which means that our products have a significant carbon footprint because the goods have to be transported back to Europe by plane or boat. This is a point on which Belveo would really like to improve by bringing the production closer to the places of sale.
Still related to the carbon footprint, we deliver our parasols by truck. These products are quite large in volume so we haven't found any other alternatives for the moment.
We prefer to first take the initiative to create products that will have an important longevity to reduce waste and then in a second time try to improve our materials, our means of production, deliveries etc...