Your wardrobe on subscription

The rental market for clothes does not seem to have a demand problem – the market has doubled in size to USD 6.2 billion globally between 2016 and 2023. Consumers appear to have welcomed renting as a viable alternative to owning everyday clothes. Much like resale, rental is an area many fashion brands and retailers consider as an opportunity to cater to the consumption preferences or younger, more cost- and sustainability-conscious consumers. Profitability remains an issue for clothes rental companies. Problems include rapidly depreciating inventory, variable logistics costs and fickle consumer behavior. With multiple business models catering to a range of different consumption patterns emerging today, we observe promising partnerships between brands and various clothes rental companies. These models could be paving a way to new growth opportunities for brands, leading to higher clothes utilization rates as well as lower waste generation.

Source: GlobalData, Financial Times, February 2024.