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Online clothing rental platforms must rely on clothing rental to make a profit to maintain their survival. Fast fashion has more demands when it comes to clothing rental.

Will you rent a fast fashion dress for 260 yuan?

Swedish fast fashion giant H & M raised this new question to consumers. According to the fashion business news, H & M recently opened a new Sergels Torg concept store in Stockholm, where the headquarters is located. In addition to general merchandise, the concept store launched the first H & M clothing rental service, and will also open a tailoring counter to repair damaged clothes.

H & M ’s clothing rental service is available to members. Members can rent up to 3 pieces of clothing at a time for a week. The rental price of each piece of clothing is about 350 Swedish crowns and about 260 yuan. 600 to 3000 SEK. Consumers can try it on in the store, pre-book online, and reserve H & M’s personal stylist for advice.

It is worth noting that H & M’s rental service is limited to high-end series, the price is higher than ordinary products, suitable for event wear rather than daily use, including about 50 select party dresses and wedding dresses, from H & M since 2012 Conscious Exclusive limited series of environmentally conscious actions launched and some of the new autumn 2019 products.

The popularity of fast fashion discounts is well known. It usually costs more than one H & M dress to spend 260 yuan in the discount season, so H & M chooses to rent only high-end products.

H & M’sThe rental service is limited to high-end series, and the price is higher than ordinary products.

H & M has developed clothing leasing business to China. According to the latest news released by H & M official today, H & M Group’s Innovation Lab will cooperate with domestic online clothing rental platform Yi Ersan to test apparel rental business in China for a period of three months. It is reported that Yi Ersan, founded in 2015, currently has 15 million registered users.

Laura Coppen, head of the Innovation Lab of the H & M Group’s Recycling and Sustainable Business Development Center, said that H & M was inspired by Yi Ersan’s green and environmentally friendly cleaning factory and Yi Ersan’s sustainable fashion vision. The recycling and treatment of water resources and the technical investment that helps to improve the recycling utilization rate of Yi Er San Washing Operation Center are in line with H & M Group’s expectations for partners.

H & M is not the only fast fashion brand involved in clothing rental services this year. Fast fashion giants such as Gap and Urban Outfitters have launched similar businesses.

Banana Republic, a subsidiary of the American fast fashion group GAP, launched an online women’s clothing rental service “Style Passport” in the US market in September this year. It uses a monthly subscription model, and users spend $ 85 per month, about RMB 600 , You can rent three pieces of clothes for about $ 100, and enjoy free delivery, exchange and laundry services. If the user fancy a certain clothes, they can choose to buy and keep.

Early than Gap and H & M is the parent company of fast fashion brand Urban Outfitters, Free People, and URBN. URBN officially launched Nuuly, a women’s clothing rental service website, on July 30 this year. Users pay $ 88 a month to rent 6 pieces of clothing, which is similar to the “Style Passport” model of Banana Republic but seems more cost-effective.

URBN also appointed Chief Digital Officer David Hayne as President of Nuuly. David Hayne expects to launch Nuuly in the first year, which will attract 50,000 subscribers and generate more than $ 50 million in annual revenue without affecting apparel sales revenue.

“We don’t think customers will stop buying behavior. Purchases are suitable for products that are used more frequently, and leases are suitable for products that you want to try.”

Nuuly tries to stay close to the renter’s thinking logic. Unlike competitors who choose to rent well-known fashion brands, in addition to “own” brands such as Urban Outfitters, Nuuly provides mostly niche brands that users are interested in and want to try to form a unique competitive advantage. David Haynere believes that people usually don’t buy an unfamiliar brand, but are willing to try it.

Nuuly, a rental service launched by the parent company of Urban Outfitters, can choose from more than 100 brands and thousands of products

According to the current introduction of Nuuly’s official website, the clothing available for rent includes classic brands, emerging designer brands, premium denim brands, vintages, etc., covering Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Free People and third-party brands Levi’s, YUMI KIM , Love Shack Fancy, PAIGE, Universal Standard and more than 100 brands, with a total of thousands of products.

In addition, Ann Taylor, American Eagle, Vince Unfold, Express and other American clothing brands have launched clothing rental business one after another this year. New York rental clothing startup CaaStle is the operator of the rental clothing business for these brands, providing technical and logistics support. Style Passport is also jointly created by Banana Republic and CaaStle. In the future, the two parties may launch similar men’s clothing rental services.

CaaStle CEO Christine Hunsicker once said that clothing rental business can bring more revenue to clothing retailers, because consumers often buy clothes when they rent them.

In fact, clothing leasing is not a new concept at all, and there are not a few offline rental shops for costumes, dresses, and formal wear. As early as 2009, Jennifer Hyman, a graduate of Harvard Business School, has successfully developed this business online with the help of the Internet. She is the co-founder and CEO of Rent the Runway, the originator of online clothing rental platform in the United States. When Jennifer Hyman saw her sister worrying about whether to buy an expensive dress for a wedding, she came up with the idea of ​​starting Rent the Runway.

Rent the Runway pioneered the business model of online clothing rental and has become a model for many platforms to follow.

Rent the Runway originally rented only expensive dresses. Now the scope of rental services has been extended to daily clothing. The products are mainly from designer brands, light luxury brands, and the rental prices of ready-to-wear and accessories are generally only 10% to 20 %. Rent the Runway offers single-item leasing and monthly subscriptions, the latter of which is growing rapidly and already accounted for more than 50% of the company’s total sales in mid-2018.

Rent the Runway’s monthly subscription offers a variety of package options, such as an unlimited package of $ 159 / month, customers pay $ 159 per month, and can choose to rent 4 pieces of clothing from hundreds of brands at a time, with a total monthly rental Unlimited amount.

It is significant that Rent the Runway, which was founded ten years ago, has now become a model for fast fashion brands with a longer history. Both the Style Passport online women’s clothing rental platform launched by Banana Republic and Nuuly, the women’s clothing rental website of URBN Group, both got some inspiration from Internet clothing rental companies such as Rent the Runway.

Rent the Runway, the pioneering business model of online rental clothing, is favored by capital. Alibaba founder and former chairman Ma Yun and former executive vice chairman Cai Chongxin once injected RMB 20 million into Rent the Runway through investment fund Blue Pool Capital in March 2018. At the time, there were comments that Jack Ma wanted to use the accumulated experience of Rent the Runway over the past ten years to improve Alibaba’s “leasing business” layout.

Rent the Runway announced in March this year that it had refinanced $ 125 million from investors. At present, Rent the Runway has a market value of more than $ 1 billion and has more than 10 million members.

However, Unlike the booming development of foreign online clothing rental platforms, China’s online clothing rental platform has rapidly transitioned from the expansion period of 2016 and 2017 to the market contraction period, and the entire industry has undergone several rounds of washing brand. At present, there are only a few survivors in the market such as “Yi Er San” and “Goddess”, and more platforms such as “Dora Yimeng”, “Magic Wardrobe” and “That Clothes” have lost in fierce market competition , Has been bankrupt or completely transformed.

The ups and downs of China’s online clothing rental platform have shocked investors and paid more attention to clothing rental