The rental model is gradually evolving in B2B towards integrated financing, inspired by embedded finance. To the point of becoming a real decision accelerator improving conversion.
For a long time, equipping yourself in B2B was a simple process: you chose equipment, validated a quote, immobilized capital, then depreciated the asset over several years.
This model had its consistency in a relatively stable economy, with long technological cycles and more limited pressure on cash flow. This model has not disappeared. But he is no longer dominant. And above all, it no longer responds to current issues.
The numbers give the measure of the phenomenon. According to the French Association of Financial Companies (ASF)the financing of equipment for businesses and professionals by specialized establishments represents more than 40 billion euros in 2025, including more than 35 billion in equipment rental and 858,000 rental operations over the year. The subject is not marginal. It’s already massive.
But real change isn’t just financial. He is commercial.
The property must now be justified
For a growing portion of professional equipment (IT, telephony, furniture, displays, point-of-sale equipment), the firm purchase is becoming less obvious.
In a context where business failures reach 68,564 cumulatively over twelve months at the end of December 2025 (Bank of France), customer risk is no longer theoretical. Each euro tied up in a depreciating asset is one less strategic ammunition.
Hence a series of questions now asked in all organizations. Why tie up capital in an asset that depreciates quickly? Why finance equipment today that will have to be renewed in three years? Why charge the cash flow with an expense that could become a predictable monthly payment?
CAPEX is not dead. But it must now prove that it is more relevant than OPEX.
The real driving force: the psychology of monthly payments
This subject is often treated from a financing perspective. It’s reductive.
The rental model transforms the way the buyer decides. Equipment priced at 18,000 euros excluding tax triggers a heavy arbitration process: budget, validation, committee, report. The same equipment presented at 490 euros per month enters another mental category. The customer compares the monthly payment to the usage value, accepts options more easily, and decides more quickly.
This shift explains why integrated leasing has become a conversion lever. It does not just finance the purchase: it triggers the decision.
On the ground, this impact is measurable and we see it on a daily basis within Onliz. Proposing a financing solution right from the quote helps increase conversion rates by 20 to 30%, immediately simplifying decision-making on the customer side. This is not insignificant.
The B2B paradox: demand is modern, the journey remains archaic
McKinsey estimates that the share of industrial companies preferring digital interactions and purchases has increased from around 20% in 2017 to 67% today. B2B buyers have become accustomed to e-commerce standards: autonomy, instant simulation, online signature, real-time monitoring.
However, in many organizations, the purchase of professional equipment remains stuck in a path from another age. A sales representative identifies the need and prepares a PDF quote. The financing then arrives, as a separate layer: tax packages to send, bank scoring in 48 hours to 5 days, paper signature, reminders.
The problem isn’t that businesses don’t want to rent. This is because the rental process has long been incompatible with the standards of digital purchasing. In B2B, friction kills conversion and has a direct impact on performance: up to 30% of conversion can be lost with each additional step in the decision funnel.
In this context, a fragmented journey not only slows down sales. He puts her at risk.
From financing to sales infrastructure
The real disruption is not leasing itself, which has existed for decades. This is its native integration into the moment of sale.
When financing is directly integrated into the quote, the CRM or the e-commerce funnel, it ceases to be an administrative step. It becomes a commercial feature. The buyer immediately sees their monthly payment. The seller quickly knows the customer’s eligibility thanks to instant scoring. The contract can be signed electronically. Financing no longer comes after the decision: it is part of the decision.
This is the transition from traditional leasing to embedded leasing, embedded finance applied to B2B.
Players equipped with integrated solutions observe significant operational gains on their sales teams: reduction in administrative time per proposal, increase in the average basket thanks to monthly payment reasoning, improvement in the conversion rate on financed offers. This is what we observe within Onlizwhere the integration of financing into the journeys makes it possible to both reduce sales cycles and significantly improve conversion rates, with gains of up to +50% on leasing sales and cycles reduced by 10 days in certain cases.
An underestimated lever: life cycle traceability
The environmental dimension is increasingly entering into the equipment criteria of companies, not in the form of a moral injunction, but as a real operational constraint: calls for tenders, customer reporting, responsible purchasing policy.
In this regard, the rental model offers a structural advantage that outright purchase cannot reproduce. In a classic purchasing scheme, the company often loses control of the equipment after delivery: actual duration of use, maintenance, end of life. In a rental contract, this monitoring is contractualized. The recovery is anticipated. Reconditioning is organized. The second life is documented.
This is not a secondary argument. According to ADEMEaround 60% of the environmental impact of a digital terminal is concentrated in its manufacturing phase, and not in its use. Better management of the duration of use, avoiding unnecessary renewals and encouraging reconditioning are therefore not only CSR issues: they are economic levers. The rental model does not guarantee this result on its own, but it creates the contractual conditions to achieve it: controlled durations, planned renewals, effective takeovers.
Renting is not automatically more virtuous than buying. But the rental contract makes the life cycle traceable and controllable where the purchase abandons it.
The last advantage, on the seller’s side
The rental model is often presented from the buyer’s perspective. Its interest is just as strong on the supplier side.
In a typical B2B cycle, the supplier delivers, invoices, then waits. Thirty days. Sixty days. He bears the risk of non-payment, finances his working capital requirements, and mobilizes his teams for recovery. With a well-integrated rental model, the financier takes over: once the file has been validated and the equipment delivered, the supplier is paid quickly. The client pays his rent to the financier.
The growth in turnover finally stops destroying cash flow. Leasing leaves its costume as a payment option to become a cash flow infrastructure.
The future of professional equipment will not only depend on product quality. It will be based on ease of access, speed of decision-making, security of payment, the ability to renew without friction and traceability of the life cycle. In an environment where decision cycles are becoming more complex, the ability to reduce friction and accelerate decisions becomes a competitive advantage.
Ownership remains an option. Usage becomes a strategy.
Sources: ASF (2025 production of equipment financing), Banque de France (company insolvencies, 12 months cumulative at the end of December 2025), DGCCRF (B2B payment terms, ceiling 60 days net or 45 days end of month), McKinsey (Next-gen B2B sales, 2023-2024), ADEME (environmental impact of digital).
