Rent Vs. Buy: Cause For Concern?

Millennials’ tendency to rent versus buy anything from apparel to home goods has caused concern in the retail industry as of late. Rent The Runway and Bag Borrow Or Steal, for example, allow customers to rent, buy, or trade designer apparel and merchandise for a set number of days or weeks.  Rent The Runway enables customers to rent special occasion dresses in either a four- or eight-day window. Jennifer Hyman and Jenny Fleiss co-founded Rent The Runway in 2009, and it’s a brilliant concept. The company charges $50 to $400 for dress rental.

Rent The Runway is an exceptional company — one that I’ve shopped myself. That said, neither its mere existence nor its success spells doom for other retailers, even those catering to Millennials. Rent The Runway and concepts like it fulfill a specific customer need, but not every customer need. Consumers — Millennials included — want the opportunity to try on multiple articles of clothing in different colors, styles, and sizes — and buy to own. Not everyone is interested in returning the merchandise they’ve paid good money for in a matter of days. Further, consumers like to touch, feel, examine, try on, and compare merchandise before they purchase it. While Rent The Runway caters to its customer base, so do omni-channel retailers with traditional transactions.

Please log in or register below to read the full article.