Rent the Runway enters into resale market

Rent the Runway (RTR), US-based designer clothes rental business has announced that it will enter the fast-growing resale market in an effort to attract new consumers.

Shoppers may now peruse the company’s selection of designer items for purchase, however, the company’s rental service will remain available.

The business announced that all consumers may now get a discount on secondhand designer clothes on its platform. Previously, this option was only available to customers who paid a monthly clothing rental subscription.

After a trying year for the corporation, the announcement of this move comes as welcome relief. The epidemic wreaked havoc on its business, as demand for renting one-of-a-kind pieces or officewear dried up overnight, knocking $250 million off the company’s value and forcing it to liquidate stores and lay off or furlough half of its workforce.

Meanwhile, the secondhand industry is rising, generating about $30 billion per year and on course to account for more than 10% of the garment industry in the next ten years.

Chief Executive Officer, Jenn Hyman, said customers may connect with them for the first time in this method as well. There’s a large audience of individuals who want to consume secondhand but haven’t used their platform before because they weren’t ready to subscribe or didn’t have a party or event coming up.

She added that by combining rental and resale, the corporation may increase profit margins by doing many transactions on the same item. Because they monetize the goods through subscriptions, by the time they sell it, they may have already rented it and profited from it. They don’t have to charge as much as some of their rivals do since they only have one chance to earn a profit. There is value to the client in the fact that they will almost certainly discover lower prices on their platform.

Rent the Runway already collaborated with the online resale platform ThredUp, which launched in September last year where they used to bring used, unsold inventory onto ThredUp’s site.