The global online clothing rental market size is estimated to increase by USD 3.00 billion from 2021 to 2026. The market's growth momentum will decelerate at a CAGR of 17.91%. The rising popularity of experiential marketing is a key online clothing rental market trend. In the online clothing rental market, vendors have adopted experiential marketing by including consumer participation in various marketing activities. Online fashion platforms involved in both sales and rental businesses attract more consumers through experiential marketing efforts. Consumers are encouraged to participate in various campaigns like live marketing, participation marketing, loyalty, and event marketing. Furthermore, millennials are the most important target group for experiential marketing efforts. Such factors are expected to propel the online clothing rental market growth during the forecast period.
Vendor Landscape - The global online clothing rental market is fragmented, with the presence of several global as well as regional vendors. A few prominent vendors that offer online clothing rental in the market are AARK World Pvt. Ltd, Armoire Style Inc., Dress and Go SA, Front Row, Girl Meets Dress, Glam Corner Pty Ltd., Glamourental, Gwynnie Bee, La Reina Gown, Mine for Nine LLC, My Secret Wardrobe, Rent An Attire, Rent the Runway Inc., Rotaro, Style Lend Inc., Stylease Pvt. Ltd., TheDressBank, Urban Outfitters Inc., Wrapd, and Your secret closet and others.
Segment Overview - Technavio has segmented the market based on end-user (women, men, and children) and geography (APAC, North America, Europe, South America, and Middle East and Africa). The market share growth by the women segment will be significant during the forecast period. Women select attires depending on different occasions like a date, formal meeting, and others. As occasional clothing wear is priced higher, women increasingly prefer renting clothing over purchasing them. Furthermore, dumping unwanted clothing into landfills has a serious environmental impact. There is also a rising number of branded clothing retailers pointing out that there has been a growth in the number of women returning sold items. Additionally, an increasing number of working women, who prefer online shopping for buying apparel due to a hectic lifestyle are driving demand for online luxury apparel.
Geography Overview - By geography, the global online clothing rental market is segmented into APAC, North America, Europe, South America, and Middle East and Africa. The report provides actionable insights and estimates the contribution of all regions to the growth of the global online clothing rental market. APAC is estimated to contribute to 44% of the market's growth during the forecast period. The factors facilitating the growth of the market in the region include the demand for affordable fashion and a wide assortment of fashion goods. Market growth in the APAC region is expected to be faster than the growth of the market in other regions.
Leading Drivers - The growing e-commerce fashion industry is one of the major drivers supporting the online clothing rental market growth. The increasing clothing requirements of consumers are fulfilled through the provision of online rental services. Consumers prefer renting apparel through online platforms because of the availability of a wide product portfolio and the convenience offered by online services. With a large number of existing e-commerce players as well as startups expanding their operations by heavily investing in the online clothing rental business, the global online clothing rental market is expected to grow during the forecast period.
Major challenges - Inventory management is one of the primary challenges hindering the online clothing rental market growth. When there is a high demand for a particular type of clothing, and enough supply is not readily available to them, vendors face stock-outs. A high-speed reverse logistics system is needed to complete product returns. Then, the returns need to be closely inspected in terms of damages so that the respective customer could be held responsible for the damages. Hence, vendors must maintain a track of SKUs for clothing under different stages like new items, older items, damaged items, and return items for laundry services. Timely replacements of older clothing items with new items must be checked regularly by the vendors. Therefore, a weak inventory management system might affect the overall business of vendors operating in the global online clothing rental market.