In India, Clothing Rentals Too Have Their Seasons

“When I began my legal career, I aspired to be a leading lawyer, but eventually changed my mind. I've always believed that when you build a business, you're creating an asset, whereas when you build a legal career, you're only creating a person. I cannot cash in on my brain after 20–30 years as a lawyer, but I can cash in on my business, which was a major reason for my pivot. 

“In terms of barriers, I believe that every leader, regardless of gender, encounters them at some point during their entrepreneurial journey. When I first started the business, there was no precedent to look up to, so we had to build everything from scratch. 

“We handle our rental operations differently than a selling portal because we need to ensure effective communication at multiple levels. When an outfit is reserved for a specific date, multiple operations must be completed before it is handed over to the customer, including quality check, alterations, laundry, dry cleaning, and more. Similarly, after being recovered from customers, the garments are reverse quality checked and dry-cleaned before being placed back in inventory for future orders. 

“During a particular season, multiple orders for the same product may occur. As a result, it is a very unique and diverse supply chain. It took us a while to design everything as a rental fashion and attire company to ensure the effective workflow of our processes.”

Responding to a query on whether she would have gone about the business any differently, Aanchal says, “I would have done the same things, probably at a faster pace, and would have definitely tried to move toward profitability sooner. There definitely were challenges, no mistakes, and a lot of learning. 

“In the earlier days, the challenge was to set up the entire operations of a business that was new to the country without any precedents. Second, changing the habits of Indians was not easy. Our strategy to have a physical display of products; exhibitions and retail stores helped us.

“While the world is moving away from physical stores to more online, we are still omnichannel (online since the business's inception). We still need to create more stores across the country as our customer base is spread across 30+ cities and all of them need retail stores too especially when it comes to their own wedding.”

GROWTH STORY: From an idea about renting fashion, the company, which was initially bootstrapped, now is the country’s first and largest fashion rental brand. “We raised the first round of investment after launching the first retail store. Post that we acquired Flyrobe to make the business multifold and rule the ethnic or indutva rental space in the country. It started with spending ₹2,700 as customer acquisition cost, only to earn ₹300 for the service; as against the current CAC being ₹400 and the AOV being ₹6,500.

Rental is an operationally heavy business. “It took us a while to set up the back-end operations, streamlining and using technology to handle the scale was key. But before that understanding each step in detail was crucial. As a founder, I have worked at the warehouse in mostly all departments, home-delivered orders to customers, and worked at all levels at the retail store.” 

Inventory is the most important element in this business. The struggle to sort the inventory supply chain was a challenge. The company commenced with renting westerns and accessories as the small ticket size lured Indians to try the service and understand the concept. Then the next step was to add the indutva/occasion wear category which turned out to be a real rentable asset. And then was the learning of the omnichannel approach. Online alone was not enough, as customers wanted to touch and feel the product. “From the profitability point of view and also to expand our sustainability narrative the C2C model was launched”, Aanchal informs.

The omnichannel strategy is working well for the company as it claims to be “completely dominating the market” with a presence in over 30 cities. It has physical stores in 3 major cities — New Delhi, Gurgaon (now Gurugram) and Bengaluru — and is in the process of expanding. With every city vying to be the first to open a luxury rental store, the company believes that franchising is the way to go, and is gung-ho about opening more doors. 

Furthermore, the C2C model is expanding faster than expected, which is when consumers can make money from their closet by renting their heavy indutvas or Indianwear through Flyrobe. Before COVID-19, if a user gave out his/her designer product, it used to be at least a year old, but in the last few months “we've been getting freshly bought/days-old products as people don't want to hoard but want to make money from them. This is very exciting for us because we have onboarded many curators through this model and people have begun earning money through us. I believe we have an unlimited supply because we are open to the entire country and it is one step forward in the right direction to achieve circularity in its true sense.”

The indutva market is valued at ₹1.5 lakh crore with the women’s segment owning 81% share at ₹1.21 lakh crore, and growing at a rapid clip. Flyrobe has been pioneering the growing fashion rental market since 2015 with focus on the indutva market, converting buyers into renters. Flyrobe’s market size is large as it services both men and women. 

The company claims to grant consumers access to designer products at one-tenth the price for a one-time use with no-storage, cleaning or maintenance hassles. Millennials prefer access rather than ownership, the opportunity to wear a new outfit for all their social media pictures and in the latest fashion trends. “We like to call ourselves the Netflix for fashion!” she underlines.