Urban Outfitters Tries On Clothing Rental Service for Women
Urban Outfitters Inc. plans to launch Nuuly, an online clothing rental subscription service for women.
Set to debut late summer, the service will cost $88 per month and will allow consumers to pick six items up to a combined value of $800, wear them as much as they’d like, and trade them for new apparel the following month. The service will also offer the option to purchase items.
The clothing rental market size is expected to reach $1.8 billion by 2023, according to Allied Market Research. Urban Outfitters’ entry into the space comes as a number of other retailers, including American Eagle and Express, are testing variations of the model.
Rent the Runway, a designer gown rental service, was valued at $1 billion in March after a $125 million round of funding led by Franklin Templeton Investments and Bain Capital Ventures. The company has recently expanded into kids’ apparel rentals and home furnishing rentals in partnership with furniture retailer West Elm.
“URBN enters the rental landscape with many strategic advantages,” said David Hayne, the company’s chief digital officer and president of Nuuly. “We bring our distinctive brands and their proprietary assortments, millions of existing customer relationships with rich preference histories, long-standing brand partnerships, a broad point-of-sale distribution network, as well as deep, operational know-how and investable capital. When paired with our proven ability to develop creative lifestyle brands, we believe Nuuly is uniquely positioned to deliver the dynamic subscription rental experience the modern customer desires.”
At launch, Nuuly will stock more than 1,000 styles, with plans to add 11 more styles each week and around 3,000 styles by the end of 2019. Styles will span lifestyle categories, and include everything from premium denim and everyday dresses to seasonal outerwear and vintage pieces in sizes 00-26.
Brands will include in-house properties Anthropologie, Free People and Urban Outfitters as well as fashion and streetwear offerings from Reebok, Fila and Champion. A curated selection of rare vintage items will also be offered. Denim brands will include Levi’s, Wrangler, DL1961, Paige, AYR, Citizens of Humanity, One Teaspoon and AGOLDE.
Nuuly will operate out of a dedicated warehouse and fulfilment center located outside Philadelphia, with state-of-the-art laundry equipment operated by veteran laundry technicians. Nuuly has also invested in dedicated marketing, merchandising and creative teams.
For comments, questions or concerns, please contact David Cohen
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