1329. Selling and Subscriptions for Clothing Retailers
Invited abstract in session WA-47: Consumer Demand and Marketing II, stream Retail Operations.
Wednesday, 8:30-10:00Room: Parkinson B08
Authors (first author is the speaker)
| 1. | Janice Carrillo
|
| Information Systems and Operations Management, University of Florida |
Abstract
Recently, several retailers (such as Rent the Runway and Nuuly) have offered subscription services for clothing enabling consumers to effectively rent items of clothing for a short period of time. Yet many of these retailers were unprofitable and discontinued these subscription services. To illustrate, Rent the Runway initially established itself as a clothing rental company focusing on luxury clothing used for special social or work occasions, procuring inventory mainly from designer clothing retailers. While Rent-the-Runway experienced initial success, its profitability recently dropped. In contrast, Nuuly is a profitable subscription service associated with the Anthropologie group which utilizes inventory similar to that which is sold in its stores, focusing chiefly on everyday clothing options. In this paper, we compare and contrast subscription and traditional selling business models in the clothing retail space to establish key factors for success in the clothing industry. In particular, we analyze a model of clothing subscription focusing on the impact of inventory and scale on ultimate retailer profitability.
Keywords
- E-Commerce
Status: accepted
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