Online clothing rental market; Renting Clothes Could Be the Future of Fashion

 

Online clothing rental is a rental service through which people can rent clothes for a predefined period. These services are sometimes beneficial for individuals attending events, such as theme parties, wedding parties, corporate parties, filmmaking, and photo-shoots. Fashion-conscious people lack the financial resources to buy clothes of their choice can use such rental services. Furthermore, these services are also useful for people who are undergoing temporary changes in their physique. The above-mentioned factors are expected to drive the online clothing rental market growth.

Renting a product is always a cost-effective option in an industry, where the trends keep changing and individuals do not prefer repeating clothes. As a result, people prefer to rent clothes to remain fashionable. The growth e-commerce sector, particularly in the Asia Pacific is expected to drive the growth of the online clothing rental market. For instance, in 2019, India-based Clothing Rental expanded its digital presence to boost online sales across the country. Moreover, the company planned to focus on e-commerce platforms for growth in the country and also plans to enter international markets. However, factors such as less societal acceptance, low consumer awareness, and improper regulations are expected to hamper the market growth. Furthermore, rented clothes cannot be altered based on the size of the individuals. Thus, some companies offer the same product in different sizes so that individuals can choose the most suitable product.

Moreover, the online clothing rental market is highly fragmented due to the presence of many unorganized manufacturers offering non-branded and affordable products. The ease of use of online retail is also expected to augment the market growth. Thanks to the rapid advances in the telecom industry, the popularity of internet shopping portals has grown rapidly in the last decade. In terms of geography, the online clothing rental market is divided into six regions, such as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America, the Middle East, and Africa. The major players active in the market are focused on product launches and partnerships to meet the growing demand as well as strengthen their market presence. For instance, in August 2020, Selfridges jumped into clothing rental to offer fashion items for rent to attract younger and ecologically minded customers. The company joined forces with an online fashion rental platform, HURR, to offer 100 items from around 40 fashion brands for up to 20 days.