Photo: Rent the Runway
Rent the Runway borrows from Apple with a fashion rental flagship
Since 2013, Rent the Runway has pursued a careful, multi-faceted expansion from online-only into brick and mortar. Now the startup has taken a bigger physical step with a Fifth Avenue flagship that is being touted as a prototype of the startup’s new high-tech hybrid retail model.
Rent the Runway’s flagship features professional stylists equipped with iPads who provide service akin to what the Genius Bar affords Apple customers, reported Fast Company. Management says it designed the store based on observations of customer data. The selling floor is laid out like a walk-in closet rather than a traditional retail store. To speed the shopper’s trip, renters can use an app to make style requests and a dress drop-off chute.
The store also leverages data from customers’ Rent the Runway website browsing habits to inform in-store assistants about customers’ tastes in apparel when they check in at an in-store digital kiosk, according to a CNBC report.
The location is three times the size of any of the retailer’s existing stores, according to Fast Company. Rent the Runway’s physical stores (which will number seven by the end of the year) bring in an average 20 percent higher order value than the company’s website.
Since learning this perhaps surprising statistic after rolling the dice on its first pop-up store three years ago, Rent the Runway has been experimenting with non-traditional physical concepts serving disparate markets. Earlier this year, the startup partnered with Neiman Marcus to open a store-within-a-store in the luxury retailer’s San Francisco location. It also opened a series of pop-ups in the Woodbury Common Premium Outlets.
Other one-time online-only retailers have pursued similar digitally-driven strategies as Rent the Runway to bring brick-and-mortar concepts to life.
In 2015, for instance, GameStop leveraged the data from its popular loyalty program to inform both the product selection and store placement of its newly launched brick-and-mortar ThinkGeek sub-brand concept. The strategy has been a success, with the company opening 25 more ThinkGeek locations in the U.S. and 25 more worldwide throughout 2016.
- Rent the Runway Mines User Data To Design Sleek New Flagship – Fast Company
- As online sales reach new highs, Rent the Runway goes Analog – CNBC
- Are Neiman Marcus and Rent the Runway meant for each other? – RetailWire
- Coming soon, a chain built by geeks for geeks – RetailWire
- Once e-tail only, ThinkGeek expands brick-and-mortar presence – RetailWire
Discussion Questions
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: Will Rent the Runway succeed with its expansion into physical retail by investing in the Apple-style, data-driven elements used in its Fifth Avenue flagship? How should Rent the Runway pursue a broader physical expansion throughout the country?
Poll
BrainTrust
Tom Dougherty
President and CEO, Stealing Share
Cathy Hotka
Principal, Cathy Hotka & Associates
I’ve shopped the Rent The Runway Georgetown store and it’s a wonderful experience. Associates take away selections that don’t fit and bring new ones. Merchandise is limited enough that associates can make suggestions once they understand shopper preferences. Historical data about customers will only improve the potential for great new finds. If you can imagine retail with a big brain and no need to rely on inventory, that’s Rent the Runway.
The Apple style means a personalized, convenient and aesthetically pleasing retail experience. If Rent the Runway has its act together in the flagship store, and clones that experience in all its retail locations, it is transformative. A breath of fresh air in a retail category that is hesitant to make BIG changes.
Sounds like the “Apple style” of service is just good old-fashioned helping the customer where they’re making their buying decision — in the fitting room.
Rent the Runway has obviously discovered that the fitting room is the most important square footage in their stores and that devoting payroll and a data-driven service strategy is the key to unlocking the fitting room’s power.
Bravo Rent the Runway for discovering the key to success in brick-and-mortar apparel retail — fitting room service!
Rent the Runway has a great chance at success with their focus on service and with employees/stylists who know the inventory. The other side is their app which is designed to both help the staff but also the customer. The end result — the best possible experience.
While I don’t know their price points or sales volume, I can only speak to the concept itself. I suppose time will tell if the model is sustainable.
And that’s my 2 cents.