dress rental business plan

Clothing Rental Business Plan [Sample Template]

By: Author Tony Martins Ajaero

Home » Business Plans » Fashion & Style

Are you about starting a clothing rental company? If YES, here is a complete sample clothing rental business plan template & feasibility report you can use for FREE .

Okay, so we have considered all the requirements for starting a clothing rental business. We also took it further by analyzing and drafting a sample clothing rental business marketing plan template backed up by actionable guerrilla marketing ideas for clothing rental businesses. So let’s proceed to the business planning section.

Why Start a Clothing Rental Business?

Businesses that are worth going for, especially if you are starting your first business, is simply to go for a business that you are certain people would need your services or products from time to time.

A clothing rental business falls into this category; you can be certain that there would be corporate dinner parties and wedding ceremonies at least once in a week in your city or town and brides and grooms would usually source for clothes to rent.

So, if you are looking for a simple and straightforward business to start, then one of your options is to open a clothing rental business.

One good thing about this type of business is that you don’t need to enroll in a conventional school to learn how to start and run this type of business; it is a business that requires basic business skills such as customer service, accounting, bargaining, networking and of course overall business management skills.

If you have decided to start a clothing rental business, then you should ensure that you carry out feasibility studies and market survey. The service delivery for a clothing rental shop business is simple and straight forward, especially if they are not involved in other complimentary services.

Please find below a comprehensive clothing rental business plan template that can aid you in writing a workable business plan for your business.

A Sample Clothing Rental Business Plan Template

1. industry overview.

Clothing rental business falls under the Formal Wear & Costume Rental Industry and businesses in this industry engage in renting out women’s formal wear (e.g. bridal wear and gown), men’s formal wear (e.g. tuxedo and suit), costume, motion picture wardrobe and costume, theatrical wardrobe and costume and other clothing to consumers.

It is important to state that this industry does not include companies that sell these items. If you are a close watcher of the Formal Wear and Costume Rental industry, you will agree that the industry has lost momentum, as rising external competition and the falling marriage rate have caused industry revenue to decline.

Additionally, inexpensive imports are diverting consumers away from rental services by allowing them to purchase the same goods at little more than the cost of renting.

Going forward, the revenue generated in this industry is expected to continue declining as a steep annualized decline in marriage rate and increased online-based competition will continue to push unprofitable companies to exit the industry.

The Formal Wear and Costume Rental Industry is indeed a large and vibrant industry not only in the united states of America and but also in most developed countries of the world. Statistics has it that the industry in the United States of America, is worth about $506 million, with an estimated growth rate of – 0.7 percent between 2013 and 2018.

There are about 1,582 registered and licensed formal wear and costume rental businesses in the United States and they are responsible for employing about 6,900 people. In the United States, only Tailor Brands Inc. can boast of having a lion market share in the industry. The industry is still very much open to competition from aspiring investors.

According to report recently published by IBISWORLD, concentration within the Formal Wear and Costume Rental industry is moderate, with the four largest industry players accounting for 40.1 percent of total industry revenue. The report shows that Tailored Brands Inc. is the only major player in the industry and accounts for 33.9 percent of market share in 2017.

The report shows that its market share has increased significantly over the five years to 2017 due to advantageous partnerships with David’s Bridal, Vera Wang, TheKnot.com and Macy’s, as well as the 2014 acquisition of Jos. A. Bank.

Other significant operators in the industry, such as Friar Tux Shop and Al’s Formal Wear, are regional chains that account for less than 5.0 percent of market share. The remaining formal wear and costume rental companies are either small businesses with one or a couple of locations, or very small non – employing operators.

The clothing rental shop business will continue to blossom because they will always be weddings, corporate dinners and parties hence the need to rent tuxedos and other formal wears. Some of the factors that encourage entrepreneurs to start their own clothing rental business could be that the business is easy to set up and manage with minimal startup capital and manpower.

The truth is that if a  cloth rental shop is stocked with designers’ tuxedos, costumes and other corporate wears and also positioned in an environment with the right demography, they will sure attract regular clients and their items will be well booked all through the year.

2. Executive Summary

St. Steve™ Clothing Rental Services, Inc. is a registered corporate wear and costume rental company that will be located in West Palm Beach, Florida – United States of America. We chose to operate in this city because we know that our clothing rental services will be in high demand due to the growing number of events in this city that will warrant people renting clothes and costumes.

St. Steve™ Clothing Rental Services, Inc. will engage in renting out women’s formal wear (e.g. bridal wear and gown), men’s formal wear (e.g. tuxedo and suit), costume rental, motion picture wardrobe and costume, theatrical wardrobe and costume and other clothing to consumers.

Although our intention of starting St. Steve™ Clothing Rental Services, Inc. is to offer only the above stated services, but we will not close our doors to diversification (additional services) as long as it does not affect our core services.

We are quite optimistic that our values, quality clothes and costumes and of course the quality of service offering will help us drive our clothing rental business to enviable heights and also help us attract the number of clients that will make the business profitable.

We are dedicated to establishing good business relationship with our clients giving them value for their money and reasons for them to rent our clothes and costumes over and over again.

Our overall business goal is to position St. Steve™ Clothing Rental Services, Inc. to become one of the leading clothing rental brands in the United States of America within the first 10 years of operation. This might look too tall a dream but we are optimistic that this will surely come to pass because we have done our research and feasibility studies.

Our client’s best interest will always come first, and everything we do will be guided by our values and professional ethics. We will ensure that we hold ourselves accountable to the highest standards by meeting our client’s needs precisely and completely.

St. Steve™ Clothing Rental Services, Inc. is owned and managed by Steve Nelson and his immediate family members. He is a notable figure in the fashion industry in Florida. Aside from this new clothing rental business, the family owns a boutique business all across major cities in the United States of America.

3. Our Products and Services

St. Steve™ Clothing Rental Services, Inc. offers a wide range of services that revolves around the formal wear and costume rental industry. We intend giving our customers reasons to always rent our clothes and costumes which is why we have customized our services.

Our intention of starting our clothing rental services company is to favorable compete in the industry and of course to make profits and we will do all that is permitted by the law in the United States of America to achieve our aim. Our business offerings are listed below;

• Women’s formal wear (e.g. bridal wear and gown) rental
• Men’s formal wear (e.g. tuxedo and suit) rental
• Costume rental
• Motion picture wardrobe and costume rental
• Theatrical wardrobe and costume rental

4. Our Mission and Vision Statement

• Our Vision is to become the number one clothing rental company in the whole of Florida with active presence in major cities in the United States of America.
• Our mission as a clothing rental company is to develop a highly successful, profitable all-round clothing rental business that will provide quality services in our community and to become a standard for an ideal clothing rental business in the State of Florida.

Our Business Structure

We are quite aware that the success of any business lies in the foundation on which the business is built on, which is why we have decided to build our clothing rental company on the right business foundation.

As a matter of fact, we are set out to build a clothing rental business that will compete favorably with leading brands in the industry. We want to build a business of dedicated workforce who will ensure that our customers are satisfied and they get value for their money.

We aware that it takes a business with the right employees and structure to achieve all what we have set to achieve, which is why will be putting structures and standard operating processes in place that will help us deliver excellent services and run the business on autopilot. The success of our clothing rental business will be anchored on the team not on any individual.

With our service offerings, we are only expected to employ more than it is required to run a conventional clothing rental business. Definitely, we will have various employees to man the various job roles available in St. Steve™ Clothing Rental Services, Inc.

St. Steve™ Clothing Rental Services, Inc. will employ professionals to occupy the following positions;

• Manager (Owner)

Accountant/Cashier

Marketing and Sales Executive

Client Service Executive

• Dry Cleaners (6)

5. Job Roles and Responsibilities

Manager (Owner):

• Responsible for providing direction for the business
• Creates, communicates, and implements the organization’s vision, mission, and overall direction – i.e. leading the development and implementation of the overall organization’s strategy.
• Answerable for fixing prices and signing business deals and payment of salaries
• Responsible for signing checks and documents on behalf of the company
• Evaluates the success of the organization
• Responsible for managing the daily activities in the organization
• Ensures that the shop facility is in tip top shape and conducive enough to welcome customers
• Formulates budget and reports for the organization
• Regularly hold meetings with key stakeholders (clients and member of the board) to review the effectiveness of the business Policies, Procedures and Processes
• Maintains office supplies by checking stocks; placing and expediting orders; evaluating new products.
• Oversees the smooth running of the daily activities of organization.
• Identifies, prioritizes, and reaches out to new clients, and business opportunities et al
• Identifies development opportunities; follows up on development leads and contacts; participates in the structuring and financing of expansion
• Develops, executes and evaluates new plans for expanding increase sales
• Documents all customer contact and information
• Represents St. Steve™ Clothing Rental Services, Inc. in strategic meetings
• Helps to increase sales and growth for St. Steve™ Clothing Rental Services, Inc.
• Liable for preparing financial reports, budgets, and financial statements for the organization
• Provides managements with financial analyses, development budgets, and accounting reports
• Responsible for financial forecasting and risks analysis.
• Performs cash management, general ledger accounting, and financial reporting for the organization
• Responsible for developing and managing financial systems and policies
• In charge of administering payrolls
• Ensures compliance with taxation legislation
• Handles all financial transactions for St. Steve™ Clothing Rental Services, Inc.
• Serves as internal auditor for St. Steve™ Clothing Rental Services, Inc.
• Welcomes clients and visitors by greeting them in person or on the telephone; answering or directing inquiries.
• Ensures that all contacts with clients (e-mail, walk-In center, SMS or phone) provides the client with a personalized customer service experience of the highest level
• Through interaction with clients on the phone, uses every opportunity to build client’s interest in the company’s products and services
• Manages administrative duties assigned by the manager in an effective and timely manner
• Consistently stays abreast of any new information on the organizations’ products and, promotional campaigns etc. to ensure accurate and helpful information is supplied to clients when they make enquiries

Dry Cleaners (6):

• Responsible for washing and ironing clothes and costumes
• Maintains a clean working area by sweeping, vacuuming, dusting, cleaning of glass doors and windows, etc. if required.
• Ensures that toiletries and supplies don’t run out of stock
• Handles any other duty as assigned by the manager.

6. SWOT Analysis

We are building a standard clothing rental services business with variety of complimentary services which is why we have decided to subject our business idea (company) to SWOT Analysis.

Ordinarily we can successfully run a normal clothing rental business without going through the protocol of setting up a new business, but because of the nature of the clothing rental business we want to establish and of course the huge startup capital involved, we don’t have any option other than to follow due process.

We hired the services of an HR and Business consultant with bias in startups to help us conduct SWOT analysis for our company and she did a pretty job for us. Here is a of the result we got from the SWOT analysis that was conducted on behalf of St. Steve™ Clothing Rental Services, Inc.;

Aside from the wide range of clothes and costumes from different designers under our rental services, St. Steve™ Clothing Rental Services, Inc. is centrally located in a densely populated business and residential estate in West Palm Beach – Florida; our location is in fact one of our major strength.

Another strength that counts for us is the power of our team. We have a team of experts in the formal wear and costume rental industry.

St. Steve™ Clothing Rental Services, Inc. is owned by an individual (family), and we may not have the financial muscle to sustain the kind of publicity we want to give our business. As a new business, we are also quite aware that it will take time for us to build trust with our clients.

• Opportunities:

We are centrally located in one of the busiest areas in West Palm Beach, Florida and we are open to all the available opportunities that the city has to offer. Our business concept also positioned us to be a one stop shop in the clothing rental business.

The truth is that there are no standard clothing rental services within the area where ours is going to be located; the closest clothing rental services company to our proposed location is about 6 miles away. In a nutshell, we do not have any direct competition within our target market area.

Some of the threats that are likely going to confront St. Steve™ Clothing Rental Services, Inc. are unfavorable government policies , seasonal fluctuations, demographic/social factors, downturn in the economy which is likely going to affect consumers spending and of course emergence of new competitors in our location.

7. MARKET ANALYSIS

• Market Trends

If you are conversant with one of the latest trends in the clothing rental industry, you will note that more people now rent clothes and costumes via mobile application, and other internet access rather than visiting the office. Clothing and costumes rental mobile application usage has seen an increment in recent time.

The business is also segmented into organized and unorganized labor, with the organized labor expected to provide the highest incremental opportunity going forward.

Please note that import penetration measures the portion of domestic demand that is captured by imports. An increase in low-cost imports enables consumers to purchase formal wear for a marginally higher rate than renting it. Import penetration is expected to increase over 2018, representing a potential threat to the industry.

The number of adults in the population affects demand for formal wear and costume rental. In particular, adults aged 20 to 65 are a key demographic for spending on formal wear rentals, as this age group accounts for almost 80.0 percent of industry revenue.

The number of adults aged 20 to 64 is expected to increase in 2018, representing a potential opportunity for the industry. Another notable trend in the industry is that most clothing rental companies in the bid to survive the recent global economic meltdown included additional services to their core service offerings.

8. Our Target Market

Before choosing a location for our clothing rental services, we conducted our feasibility studies and market survey and we were able to identify those who will benefit greatly from our service offerings.

The demographic component of those who need the services of clothing rental services spreads across the public sector, the organized private sector, and individuals from different strata of the society and from all walks of life. Below is a list of the people and organizations that our clothing rental services is designed for;

• Corporate Executives
• Movie producers

Our competitive advantage

Clothing rental is an easy to set up business that does not require formal training; anybody can set a clothing rental services business if they have the required startup capital. It means that the possibility of such businesses springing up in our location is high.

We aware of this which is why we decided to come up with a business concept that will position us to become the leader in West Palm Beach – Florida. We can confidently say that the location of our clothing rental business will definitely count as a positive for us amongst any competitor that might start a clothing rental business in same location.

For the time being, St. Steve™ Clothing Rental Services, Inc. has no real competitors that can compete with our wide range of clothes and costumes from different designers et al. Our customer service will be customized to meet the needs of all our customers.

Lastly, all our employees will be well taken care of, and their welfare package will be among the best within our category in the industry. It will enable them to be more than willing to build the business with us and help deliver our set goals and achieve all our business aims and objectives.

9. SALES AND MARKETING STRATEGY

• Marketing Strategy and Sales Strategy

The marketing strategy for St. Steve™ Clothing Rental Services, Inc. is going to be driven by wide range of clothes and costumes we have, excellent customer service, honesty and quality service delivery. We will ensure that we build a loyal customer base.

We want to drive sales via the output of our services and via referral from our satisfied customers. Our sales and marketing team will be recruited based on their vast experience in the industry and they will be trained on a regular basis so as to be well equipped to meet their targets and the overall goal of St. Steve™ Clothing Rental Services, Inc.

Our goal is to grow St. Steve™ Clothing Rental Services, Inc. to become the leading clothing rental company in West Palm Beach – Florida which is why we have mapped out strategies that will help us take advantage of the available market.

St. Steve™ Clothing Rental Services, Inc. is set to make use of the following marketing and sales strategies to attract clients;

• Introduce our clothing rental services business by sending introductory letters alongside our brochure to corporate organizations, movie makers, households and key stake holders in West Palm Beach – Florida
• Print out fliers and business cards and strategically drop them in offices, libraries, public facilities, airports and train stations et al.
• Use friends and family to spread word about our business
• Post information about our company and the services we offer on bulletin boards in places like schools, libraries, and local coffee shops et al
• Place a small or classified advertisement in the newspaper, or local publication about our company and the services we offer
• Leverage on referral networks such as agencies that will attract clients who would need our customized services
• Advertise our clothing rental services company in relevant magazines, newspapers, TV and radio stations.
• Attend relevant expos, seminars, and business fairs et al to market our services
• Engage in direct marketing approach
• Encourage the use of Word of mouth marketing from loyal and satisfied clients
• Join local chambers of commerce and industry to market our services.

Sources of Income

St. Steve™ Clothing Rental Services, Inc. is established with the aim of maximizing profits in the industry and we are going to ensure that we do all it takes to attract clients on a regular basis. St. Steve™ Clothing Rental Services, Inc. will generate income by offering the following clothing rental services and other related services;

10. Sales Forecast

We are well positioned to take on the available market in West Palm Beach – Florida and we are quite optimistic that we will meet our set target of generating enough income/profits from our first six months of operation and grow our business and our clientele base.

We have been able to examine the clothing rental services market, we have analyzed our chances in the industry and we have been able to come up with the following sales forecast. Below is the sales projection for St. Steve™ Clothing Rental Services, Inc., it is based on the location of our business and of course the wide range of related services that we will be offering;

• First Fiscal Year: $150,000
• Second Fiscal Year: $200,000
• Third Fiscal Year: $250,000

N.B : This projection was done based on what is obtainable in the clothing rental industry and with the assumption that there won’t be any major economic meltdown and there won’t be any major competitor offering same services as we do within same location. Please note that the above projection might be lower and at the same time it might be higher.

11. Publicity and Advertising Strategy

St. Steve™ Clothing Rental Services, Inc. is set to create a standard for clothing rental services in West Palm Beach – Florida, which is why we will go all the way to adopt and apply best practices to promote our clothing rental business.

Good enough there is no hard and fast rule on how to advertise or promote a clothing rental services business. Here are the platforms we intend leveraging on to promote and advertise St. Steve™ Clothing Rental Services, Inc.;

• Encourage our loyal customers to help us use Word of Mouth mode of advertisement (referrals)
• Advertise our clothing rental services business in relevant magazines, local newspaper, local TV and radio stations
• Promote our business online via our official website
• List our business on local directories (yellow pages)
• Sponsor relevant community programs
• Leverage on the internet and social media platforms like; Instagram, Facebook, twitter, et al to promote our brand
• Install our billboards in strategic locations in and around West Palm Beach – Florida
• Leverage on direct coupon mailing approach
• Engage in roadshow from time to time in target communities
• Distribute our fliers and handbills in target area
• Ensure that all our staff members wear our branded shirts and all our official vehicles are well branded with our company logo et al.

12. Our Pricing Strategy

Our pricing system is going to be based on what is obtainable in the clothing rental industry, we don’t intend to charge more and we don’t intend to charge less than our competitors are offering in West Palm Beach – Florida.

Be that as it may, we have put plans in place to offer discount services once in a while and also to reward our loyal customers especially when they refer clients to us. The prices of our services will be same as what is obtainable in the open market.

• Payment Options

The payment policy adopted by St. Steve™ Clothing Rental Services, Inc. is all inclusive because we are quite aware that different customers prefer different payment options as it suits them but at the same time, we will ensure that we abide by the financial rules and regulation of the United States of America.

Here are the payment options that St. Steve™ Clothing Rental Services, Inc. will make available to her clients;

• Payment via bank transfer
• Payment with cash
• Payment via credit cards
• Payment via online bank transfer
• Payment via check

In view of the above, we have chosen banking platforms that will enable our client make payment for renting our clothes and costumes without any stress on their part. Our bank account numbers will be made available on our website and promotional materials to clients.

13. Startup Expenditure (Budget)

We have been able to pull cash that will be enough for us to successfully launch a standard clothing rental company with a wide range of clothes and costumes from different designers. These are the key areas where we will spend our startup capital on;

• The total fee for incorporating the Business in the United States of America- $750.
• The budget for basic insurance policy covers, permits and business license – $2,500
• The amount needed to acquire a suitable facility that will accommodate our laundry (Re – Construction of the facility inclusive) – $80,000.
• The cost for equipping the office (computers, software applications, printers, fax machines, furniture, telephones, filing cabins, safety gadgets and electronics et al) – $ 5,000
• The cost of launching an official website – $600
• The cost for the purchase of a wide range of clothes and costumes – $100,000
• The cost for the purchase of a delivery van – $5,000
• Budget for paying at least 4 employees for 2 months plus utility bills – $30,000
• Additional Expenditure (Business cards, Signage, Adverts and Promotions et al) – $2,500
• Miscellaneous: $5,000

Going by the report from the market research and feasibility studies conducted, we will need about two hundred and fifty thousand (250,000) U.S. dollars to successfully set up a medium scale but standard clothing rental business firm in the United States of America.

Generating Funds/Startup St. Steve™ Clothing Rental Services, Inc.

St. Steve™ Clothing Rental Services, Inc. will be owned and managed by Steve Nelson and his immediate family members. They decided to restrict the sourcing of the startup capital for the business to just three major sources.

• Generate part of the startup capital from personal savings and sale of his stocks
• Generate part of the startup capital from friends and other extended family members
• Generate a larger chunk of the startup capital from the bank (loan facility).

N.B: We have been able to generate about $100,000 (Personal savings $80,000 and soft loan from family members $20,000) and we are at the final stages of obtaining a loan facility of $150,000 from our bank. All the papers and documents have been duly signed and submitted, the loan has been approved and any moment from now our account will be credited.

14. Sustainability and Expansion Strategy 

It is an established fact that the future of a business lies in the number of loyal customers that they have, the capacity and competence of their employees, their investment strategy and the business structure. If all of these factors are missing from a business then it won’t be too long before the business closes shop.

One of our major goals of starting St. Steve™ Clothing Rental Services, Inc. is to build a business that will survive off its own cash flow without the need for injecting finance from external sources once the business is officially running.

We know that one of the ways of gaining approval and winning customers over is to rent out our clothes and costumes a little bit cheaper than what is obtainable in the market and we are prepared to survive on lower profit margin for a while.

St. Steve™ Clothing Rental Services, Inc. will make sure that the right foundation, structures and standard operating processes are put in place to ensure that our staff welfare are well taken of. Our company’s corporate culture is designed to drive our business to greater heights and training and retraining of our workforce is at the top burner of our business strategy.

As a matter of fact, profit-sharing arrangement will be made available to all our management staff and it will be based on their performance for a period of five years or more as determined by the board of the organization. We know that if that is put in place, we will be able to successfully hire and retain the best hands we can get in the industry; they will be more committed to help us build the business of our dreams.

Check List / Milestone

• Business Name Availability Check : Completed
• Business Registration: Completed
• Opening of Corporate Bank Accounts: Completed
• Securing Point of Sales (POS) Machines: Completed
• Opening Mobile Money Accounts: Completed
• Opening Online Payment Platforms: Completed
• Application and Obtaining Tax Payer’s ID: In Progress
• Application for business license and permit: Completed
• Purchase of Insurance for the Business: Completed
• Acquiring facility and remodeling the facility: In Progress
• Conducting Feasibility Studies: Completed
• Generating capital from family members: Completed
• Applications for Loan from the bank: In Progress
• Writing of Business Plan: Completed
• Drafting of Employee’s Handbook: Completed
• Drafting of Contract Documents and other relevant Legal Documents: In Progress
• Design of The Company’s Logo: Completed
• Printing of Packaging and Promotional Materials: In Progress
• Recruitment of employees: In Progress
• Purchase of the needed office equipment, electronic appliances, office appliances and bar accessories: In progress
• Purchase of a wide range of clothing – In Progress
• Creating Official Website for the Company: Completed
• Creating Awareness for the business both online and in the neighborhood: In Progress
• Health and Safety and Fire Safety Arrangement (License): Secured
• Opening party/launching party planning: In Progress
• Establishing business relationship with vendors – event planners, wedding planners, movie makers and theater managers et al: In Progress

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A step-by-step guide to start a clothing rental business

• June 11, 2022

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Fashion is continuously changing and expanding, with new business models appearing in retail, reselling, and, most recently, fashion rental. What has already gained a lot of traction in the United States is now catching on in Europe. You’ve come to the perfect location if you want to start a clothing rental business.

We’ll go over the fundamentals of what it takes to establish, run, and develop express clothes rentals in this article.

Starting a business plan for your clothing rental business

Express clothes  rental businesses  come in a variety of business formats. You’ll need to figure out what sort of things you’ll sell, what kind of rental model you’ll use, and what type of corporate values you’ll have because these factors will influence other business decisions, as you’ll discover later in the guide.

Models to Rent clothes

As previously stated, there are numerous business and rental models from which to choose. We’ll go over two of the most common: one-time renting and subscription-based renting.

One-time rentals

A single piece of designer dress is rented for a short period of time, which could range from a few days to a week. This is most common in clothing rental business that specializes in special occasions such as weddings, proms, and formal events. The customer pays a single fee and can enjoy the garment without committing to owning a formal gown, for example.

Single-time rentals are useful for getting a sense of the local market. Rent clothes are most common in the United States, but Europe is catching up. Renting a piece of clothing lowers the barrier for people to be introduced to this relatively new form of fashion consumption and test it out.

Subscription clothing rental

Subscription-based renting, on the other hand, involves paying a monthly fee and selecting three to four outfits to rent for the month. Depending on the brands carried by the rental store, the subscription costs and the number of rentable clothing items vary.

Subscriptions make it easy to introduce a larger range of clothing that can be worn for more relaxed occasions, as well as for work and cocktails. It expands the market for various clothing types and allows them to reach a larger audience.

Budgeting for clothing rental business

It may seem obvious, but you must get all of your budgeting in order. This entails determining what you can afford in terms of utility bills, possibly a physical location, insurance, and so on.

This also includes considering the inventory you will be acquiring for the store. When compared to bikes, the shelf life in the fashion and clothing industry is much shorter. When investing to rent designer dresses, you must determine how much you must charge for the clothes in order to get your money’s worth.

Online shop to Rent clothes

This also appears to be self-evident, but it bears mentioning. Nowadays, it is nearly impossible to survive and succeed without having some sort of online presence. You can run and grow your clothing rental business without even having a physical location if you have a well-designed e-commerce website.

Having an online store and a  social media presence  can mean the difference between a one-time customer and a loyal, recurring customer. A well-designed website will strengthen your brand, improve the overall shopping experience, and foster a relationship between you and your customers.

A good e-commerce website will provide you with useful data and insights on how your business is performing in addition to reaching a larger audience and offering multiple ways to buy from your business. Most website platforms provide metrics that you can use to make better business decisions and make better use of your resources.

Clothing store setup ideas

Running an express clothing rental business does not necessitate having a physical site. You will need space to store your inventory as well as a place to package and maintain your items, but not necessarily a store. This is fantastic news because running a physical store takes a lot of time and effort.

The advantages of having a store, on the other hand, are undeniable. Having customers come into your store and interact with you provides you with vital information and a connection you wouldn’t get from an online store. Aside from the human connection, it’s a good approach to mitigate the challenges of running an entirely e-commerce-based business: In comparison to 8.89 percent in brick-and-mortar establishments, 30% of all products ordered online are returned. Having a physical location where clients can come in, try on clothes, and make sure everything fits precisely would provide a superior customer experience that an online business alone cannot provide.

Descriptions of products

As previously stated, having a physical site where your consumers may visit guarantees that they have a positive experience and depart with items that fit perfectly. When establishing an online business, it’s critical to make sure that the information you provide compensates for the lack of face-to-face interaction with the product and store staff. Expectation management and ensuring that your customers know what they’re getting are both aided by product descriptions. The value of well-written product descriptions is much greater in the fashion and garment industries.

One of the most important tools and processes for a fashion clothing business is inventory acquisition. To be successful in the clothing rental business, you must be in touch with either your surrounding audience (for example, the trends that are most popular in your region) or know what the target audience is looking for. The simplest way to get started is to believe that you already know what works and what is in demand, and, most importantly, to collect and analyze data. Keep up with what’s popular, what styles your customers prefer, what brands they prefer, and what sizes they typically come in.

Fortunately, most e-commerce website platforms and rental platforms provide analytics tools that allow you to find and easily analyze this information, making the next round of inventory acquisition much easier.

How to Make a Purchase Decision

There is no one-size-fits-all recipe for what you should purchase for your F business. This is why it’s critical to conduct market research and collect data because factors such as location, target audience values, demographics, local fashion trends, and so on will have a significant impact on what sells well.

Management of risks

Retailers and rental businesses face a unique set of risks when it comes to fashion and clothing. The most serious is the possibility of a clothing item becoming ruined after only one use. Some express clothes rental companies may require deposits or have a “you break, you buy” policy.

Another risk is that the clothing is out of date. Despite all of the data collection and estimations, it is possible that a piece of clothing did not perform as well as expected, or that it went out of style sooner than expected. Instead of letting the garment sit in the inventory unused, a good backup plan, in this case, is to try selling the item for a lower price. This way, you avoid losing all of your investments while also ensuring that the item of clothing finds a new home.

Clothing upkeep

Maintaining and cleaning the clothes is critical for a express clothes rental business, especially if your offering includes high-end and luxury brands. As with any other rental product, proper maintenance work ensures that the piece of clothing has a long shelf life and that you get your money’s worth out of your investment. It also adds to the experience for the customer to know that all they have to do is pick up and return the item of clothing – no need to worry about dry cleaners or anything else.

Dry cleaning was outsourced

There are a few things to consider when deciding whether to work with professional dry cleaners or do it yourself. Both have advantages and disadvantages; collaborating with a professional dry cleaner incurs additional costs, you lose control over your own products, and you must rely on their expertise in what they do. It may also take more time because the cleaners will most likely have other clients. You, on the other hand, would not have to worry about caring for the clothing yourself.

Related For You: Pros And Cons Of Owning A Dry Cleaning Business

In-house dry cleaning and maintenance

If you decide to do it yourself, consider whether you have or can afford the necessary equipment, a space to work in, and the necessary expertise to do it correctly without causing damage to the materials. While doing it yourself is definitely more work, it also means that any damages to the item can be easily identified and repaired.

In either case, it is critical to ensure that you have enough maintenance time in-between rentals and that the cleaning and maintenance process is nearly flawless. You want your customers to have a good time and receive a rented piece of clothing as if it were brand new.

Promoting your Clothing Rental Business

Marketing is made up of many small parts that must be nurtured and cared for on a regular basis. If you’re just getting started with marketing and the fundamental strategies, it can be overwhelming; it’s important to just experiment with different approaches.

It takes a lot of trial and error to find the right tone and way to market to your audience, depending on how broad or niche your target audience is. Because the clothes rental industry is still in its infancy, the old tricks that fashion retailers employ may not apply to your business, partly because you want customers to a) try out a new concept and b) return.

Creating a brand

Brand loyalty and emotional attachment are everything in the fashion industry. As previously stated, because the express clothes rental industry is still relatively new, establishing a strong brand identity and cultivating a community around it is critical. Unfortunately, because this type of marketing isn’t directly trackable, it frequently falls back on the priority list.

Depending on the brand you’re creating, you must strike a balance between refined and approachable. Of course, you want your brand to be refined, modern, and luxurious. But not to the point where your customers find you unapproachable and difficult to work with. You want people to be enthusiastic about your brand and want to be a part of the community.

Developing a community

This brings us to our next point: establishing a community. Being active on social media and interacting with your customers is the best way to stay connected with your audience and get free publicity. Once you have customers, you should encourage them to post their outfit photos, and then comment, like, and share their special moments. This helps you get other potential customers on board because they see other people’s experiences with your business, in addition to creating a sense of community.

Expanding your Clothing Rental Business

There are numerous ways to expand your business, but whatever you choose should be on-brand and based on your company values.

Establishing new locations to Rent Clothes

Deciding where to open a new location can be difficult. What you want to keep in mind when deciding where to open your new store is your data and how convenient the new location will be for your customers. Choosing a location where there is already demand and an audience will make it much easier to establish a community in a new area.

It’s critical to do your research and scout out things like competition, accessibility, storage, and room for potential maintenance work if you decide to do it yourself. If you don’t, make sure to look into possible dry cleaners and postal services to make the delivery part of your business easier.

In the dynamic landscape of retail and consumer preferences, businesses must constantly innovate to stay ahead. One strategy gaining popularity is the integration of rental

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Published on Aug 9, 2021

A complete guide on how to start a clothing rental business

14 min read

The world of fashion is constantly changing and evolving, with new business models emerging, whether it’s in retail, reselling, and now, fashion renting.

What’s already highly popularised in the States is now also catching the wind in Europe and the rest of the world. So if you’re looking into starting a clothing rental business, you’re in the right place.

In this article, we’ll be going over the basics and essentials of what it takes to start, run, and grow your clothing rental business. Of course, we need some help from an industry expert, which is why we’re excited to have Kaisa Härmälä from The Ateljé sharing her experiences and best practices. 

Together with her business partner Mari Kekäle, they founded The Ateljé in August 2020. The Ateljé is a fashion rental service based in Helsinki and carries major brands like Theory, Marimekko, and Helmut Lang.

Both Mari and Kaisa have backgrounds in fashion, design, and marketing, and after sitting on the idea of a rental business , they decided to make it a reality. Despite COVID and the clothing rental market still being rather untapped, The Ateljé has been a booming success. 

The Ateljé isn’t just a new business model - it’s a way of living. Through renting clothes we want to be a part of the change towards a better, more sustainable world of fashion.

Starting with a business plan for your clothing rental business

There are as many business models as there are clothing rental services. You need to decide what kind of route you’re going to take when it comes to the products you will be offering, the kind of renting model you’ll be using, and your company values, since they help navigate with other business decisions as you will see further on in the guide.

Renting models

As we said, there are countless amount of business and renting models that you can choose from. We’ll be going over two of the most common ones, which are one-time renting and subscription-based renting. 

One-time rentals

One-time renting is when a single piece of clothing gets rented for a short period of time, which could be from a few days up to a week. This is mostly seen in clothing rental stores that specialize in special occasions like weddings, proms, formal events, etc. The customer gets to pay a single fee and enjoy the garment without having to commit to owning a formal gown, for example. 

What single-time rentals are good for is feeling out the local market. Renting clothes is mostly seen in the US, and Europe is slowly catching up. Renting out a piece of clothing offers a significantly lower threshold for people to get introduced to this rather new form of fashion consumption and test out how it works. 

We started off with one-time rentals because we wanted to confirm that this is something that would work in Finland. It’s so much easier for people to try this concept out through single rentals because they don’t have to commit to any membership fees and they get to see how all of this works.

Subscription-based renting

Subscription-based renting, on the other hand, consists of a monthly subscription fee and the opportunity to choose three to four garments that can be rented out for the month. The subscription fees and the number of rentable clothing items vary depending on the brands the rental store carries. 

With the subscription model , it’s easier to introduce a broader collection of clothes that can be used for more casual events or even to work and for drinks. It opens up new opportunities for different styles of clothing and helps reach a broader audience. 

If we had known that people would react to our business in such a positive way, we would have gone with the subscription-based model from the get-go. But because of the uncertain market, and the situation with COVID, we still think starting off with one-time rentals was worth it.

It seems obvious, but you need to get all of your budgeting on point. This means figuring out what you can afford when it comes to utility bills, a brick-and-mortar location maybe, insurance, and so on. 

Additionally, this also means taking into account the inventory you would be acquiring for the store. In an industry like fashion and clothes, the shelf life is much shorter if compared to bikes, for example. When investing in clothes, you need to figure out how much you need to charge for the clothes to get your money’s worth.

→ Here's our guide on how to write the financial section of a business plan

Online store

This also seems like an obvious thing, but it needs to be said. It is nearly impossible to survive and succeed nowadays without having any kind of online presence. Your website is one of the most visible touchpoints. If you don't already have a website, try Squarespace. Creating a beautiful rental website with Squarespace is really easy and requires no technical know-how.

With a well-built e-commerce website, you can operate and grow your business without even having a brick-and-mortar location.

Having an online store and presence on social media makes the biggest difference between having a one-time customer and a loyal, recurring customer. A well-designed website will support your brand, improve the overall shopping experience, and create a bond between you and your customers. 

In addition to reaching a broader audience and offering various ways of buying from your business, a good e-commerce website will also provide you with useful data and insights on how your business is performing. Most website platforms offer metrics that you can follow that will help you make better business decisions and use your resources more effectively.

Check out our guide on how to create a rental website

Running a clothing rental business does not require a physical location, of course, you’ll need space to store your inventory and where to do the packaging and maintenance, but not necessarily a store. This is great news because running a brick-and-mortar store requires a lot of time and resources. 

The benefits of having a store, however, are also undeniable benefits. Being able to have customers visit your store and interact with you brings you valuable information and a connection that you wouldn’t otherwise get through an online store.

In addition to the human connection, it’s a solid way to decrease the struggles that come with running a solely e-commerce-based business: 30% of all products ordered online are returned as compared to 8.89% in brick-and-mortar stores. Having a store that your customers can visit, try out the clothes, and make sure everything fits perfectly will ensure a great customer experience that an online store solely cannot offer. 

While having a physical store isn’t necessarily for a clothing rental business to be successful, we really wanted to have one so we could have the chance to chat with the customers, hear about their experiences and offer them the opportunity to visit us, have a cup of coffee and enjoy their experience.

Product descriptions

As we mentioned previously, having a brick-and-mortar location that your customers can visit ensures that they leave with a great experience and with clothes that fit just right.

When running any sort of online business, it is important to make sure that the information you provide compensates for the lack of physical contact with the product and store staff. Product descriptions help with expectation management and making sure your customers know what they’re getting. With fashion and clothing, the importance of well-written product descriptions is even higher. 

All clothes move and feel differently on different people, so it’s important to find a way to communicate as accurately as possible the way the piece of clothing sits, how it looks, how the materials feel and move, and so on.

Some helpful things that should be included in product descriptions are things like high-quality photos, size charts, and material details.

Purchasing the inventory is one of the most important areas of rental inventory management and processes for a fashion clothing business. For a clothing rental business to succeed, you need to be in touch with either your surrounding audience (eg. the trends that are most popular in your region) or know what the target audience is looking for.

The easiest way to get started is to buy in that you already know what works and is sought for, and most importantly: collect and analyze data. Stay on top of what’s most popular, what kind of styles your customers are looking for, what kind of brands they support, and in what sizes they usually range in. 

Fortunately, most e-commerce websites and rental platforms offer analytics tools where you can find this information and analyze it, making the next round of inventory acquisition much easier. 

How to decide on what to buy

There’s no one right recipe for what you should buy for your clothing rental business. This is why it’s important to do your market research and follow data since things like location, target audience's values, demographics, local fashion trends, and so on will have a huge effect on what will sell well. 

However, when deciding on what kind of clothes to buy-in, Kaisa and Mari noticed that everything they knew before was inapplicable in the fashion rental world. For instance, the fashion retail world leans towards simpler clothing, offering more basic pieces that are diverse and easier to style with other pieces of clothing. Kaisa and Mari were surprised to find that the least rented pieces were the ones they initially thought would perform the best: beautifully tailored jackets or little black dresses.

Because renting allows the customers to try out something new and exciting without having to commit to paying the full price and owning the piece of clothing forever, they tend to get more adventurous and branch out to more extravagant styles. 

We always get surprised by the best-sellers after each season. Even though we both have experience in the fashion industry, we still have so much to learn and unlearn. The most important thing is to stay open-minded, research the data, and talk to the customers and ask what they want

Risk management

Fashion and clothes have a very industry-specific set of risks that retailers and rental businesses face. The biggest one is the risk of a clothing piece getting ruined after one use. In Ateljé’s experience, it’s very rare, but still, it is essential to have clear and comprehensive clothing rental terms and conditions in place.

Some clothing rental businesses might use deposits or a ‘’you-break-you-buy’’ policy, but Ateljé believes in letting the customers wear and enjoy the garment as if it’s their own.

Whether it’s borrowed or owned, people are usually mindful of what they’re wearing, and rarely get buck wild. Of course, there are occasions when during a party someone might spill red wine on a light-colored dress, but nothing that we can’t fix.

Another risk is the clothing being untrendy. Despite all the data collection and estimations, it might be that a piece of clothing didn’t perform as well as expected, or it went out of style quicker than predicted. In this case, a good backup plan instead of letting the garment sit in the inventory unused is to try selling the item for a lower price. This way, you’re not losing all of your investments and making sure the piece of clothing finds a new home. 

Clothing maintenance

For a clothing rental business, making sure the clothes’ maintenance and cleaning are on point is vital, especially if your offering includes high-end and luxury brands.

Just like with any other rental product, doing proper maintenance work extends the product's life cycle and, thus, ensures you’re getting your money’s worth of your investment. It also adds to the experience to know that all the customer needs to do is pick up and return the piece of clothing—no need to stress about dry cleaners or anything else. 

Some clothing rental businesses make it the customers’ responsibility to take care of the cleaning. For us personally, we wanted to do everything ourselves. This way we ensure that when the clothes are rented again, they are scentless (whether that would be perfumes, cigarettes, or even a specific detergent) and in a brand new condition

Outsourced dry cleaning

When deciding on whether to collaborate with professional dry cleaners or do the cleaning yourself, there are a few things to consider. Both have their pros and cons; with a collaboration with a professional dry cleaner, there are more additional expenses, and you’d be losing control over your own products and having to trust their expertise in what they do. It also might be more time-consuming, as the cleaners will likely have other clientele. On the other hand, you wouldn’t have to worry about taking care of the clothing yourself. 

In-house dry cleaning & maintenance

If you decide to do it yourself, consider whether you have or can afford the right equipment, a space to do it in, and the expertise to do it properly without damaging the materials. While it’s definitely more work to do it yourself, it also means that it’s easier to spot any damages done to the item, which you can fix up. 

When we’re investing in new clothes, we usually evaluate the average use amount for any piece of clothing to be around 10 times before it needs to be either replaced or sold off - however, we’ve noticed that the actual average use amount is much higher thanks to the proper maintenancing work that we do

In either case, it is extremely important to make sure you have enough maintenance time in-between rentals and that the cleaning and maintenance process is close to flawless. You want the customers to enjoy the experience and receive a rented piece of clothing as if it’s new.

We want to make renting clothes seem appealing - even though the clothes are "borrowed" we want the customer to have the experience as if it’s a brand new piece of clothing that they just bought. Having the clothes smelling like someone else’s detergent would just make the customer feel weird about it and as if they’re wearing someone else’s clothes.

Marketing your clothing rental business

Marketing consists of many small parts which have to be constantly nurtured and taken care of. If you’re just getting started with marketing and the basic customer acquisition strategies , it might feel overwhelming. But don't worry. It's normal that you have to try different things out before finding out what works. 

Depending on how broad or niche your target audience is, it takes a lot of trial and error to find the right tone and way to market to your audience. Because the clothing rental industry is still a relatively new concept, the old tricks that fashion retailers use might not apply to your business, partly because you want the customers to a) test a new concept out and b) keep coming back. 

Just like with inventory acquisition, we had to unlearn all of the basics we knew about marketing and start off from a clean slate. Of course, there are similarities between the retail and rental world, but it’s a completely different challenge to get someone to try something new for the first time. You learn as you go.

→ Here are the 12 most common digital marketing strategies you should know.

Building a brand

The fashion industry is all about brand loyalty and emotional attachment. As we’ve said before, because the clothing rental industry is still rather new, establishing a solid brand identity and building a community around it becomes even more important. Unfortunately, since this is the type of marketing that isn’t directly trackable, it often gets put back on the priority list. 

Depending on the brand you’re building, there has to be a balance between being refined and approachable. Of course, you want your brand to be polished, modern, and feel exquisite. But not to the point where your customers find it unapproachable and hard to interact with. You want people to feel excited about your brand and want to participate in the community. 

Creating a community

This leads us to our next point: creating a community. The best way to stay connected with your audience, and get free publicity, is to be super active on social media and keep interacting with your customers. Once you start getting customers, you want to encourage them to post their outfit photos. After they do, comment, like, and share their special moments. In addition to creating a sense of community and customer loyalty , this helps you get other potential customers on board because they see other people’s experiences with your business. 

By boosting and sharing the content your audience created, encourages others to hop on board and get excited to test your services. People are herd animals - if they see others doing something, they will want to try it out too.

Growing your clothing rental business

There are many, many ways of growing your business, but whatever it is you decide to do, it should be on-brand and based on your company values. 

Whatever it is we decide to do in the future - it has to be according to our values. If we talk about sustainability and start shipping clothes around the world, that’s not really sustainable, or according to our values.

Opening new locations

Deciding on where to open a new location can be tricky. What you want to keep in mind when deciding on where to open your new store is your data and how central the new location will be to your customers. Deciding on a location where you already have demand and an audience will make it considerably easier to build a community in a new area. 

It's important to do your homework and scout out things like competition, accessibility, storage, and room for possible maintenance work if you decide to do it yourself. In case you won't, make sure to research possible dry cleaners and postal services to make the delivery part of your business easier. 

Expanding your offering

Growing your operations doesn’t only mean physically expanding store locations, for example, but also offering a variety of services. If you started off with one-time rentals, you can consider offering subscriptions and vice-versa. You can also expand by offering larger collections of clothes for more than one gender or for special occasions like weddings, for example.

Hope you found this guide and tips helpful! We wish you the best of luck with your already and to be existing businesses. Of course, a huge thanks to Kaisa and The Ateljé for sharing their tips and expertise .

Photo credit: The Ateljé

Article written by Eliisa L.

The storyteller that spends her time in the studio, outdoors, or creating the best, most relevant content for rental shops.

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How to Start a Dress Rental Business

If you have a passion for fashion and an entrepreneurial spirit, starting a dress rental business could be a profitable venture. Dress rental businesses have become increasingly popular in recent years, thanks to the growing trend of sustainable and affordable fashion. If you're thinking of starting a dress rental business, here are the steps you need to follow:

Market your business Marketing is key to the success of any business. Use social media and email marketing to promote your dress rental business. Collaborate with influencers or bloggers to reach a wider audience. Attend local events and offer discounts to attendees who rent dresses from you. Starting a dress rental business requires dedication, hard work, and a passion for fashion. By following these steps, you'll be on your way to building a successful and profitable dress rental business.

2024 COPYRIGHT VIRTUAL BUSINESS 360

How To Start A Dress Rental Business

To start a dress rental business, identify your target market and inventory, develop a detailed business plan including sourcing and pricing strategy, secure necessary funding, establish an online and physical presence, and invest in marketing and customer service.

• Last Update: November 23, 2023

• Steps in this Guide: 11

Are you passionate about fashion? Do you have an eye for stunning dresses that can make anyone feel like a total fashionista? If so, then starting a dress rental business might be the perfect venture for you. In today’s digital age, there has been a significant rise in the popularity of renting clothes rather than buying them outright, making it an exciting and profitable business opportunity. In this blog post, we will explore the step-by-step process of starting your very own dress rental business, from sourcing inventory to attracting customers and everything in between. So, if you’re ready to turn your love for fashion into a successful and rewarding endeavor, keep reading to find out how to get started in the dress rental industry.

How To Start A Dress Rental Business: Step-by-Step

Step 1: business plan development,.

Developing a comprehensive business plan entails defining the target market, setting clear objectives, strategizing to reach potential customers, calculating the investment cost, and projecting future earnings, all crucial for business success.

Step 2: Market Research,

Conduct comprehensive market research to gain insights into the local dress rental demand, competitive landscape, current fashion trends, and potential obstacles, ensuring a thorough understanding of the market dynamics.

Step 3: Source Suppliers

To have a diverse dress inventory, find reliable suppliers, whether local or international, who cater to the preferences of your target market. Trustworthiness and product suitability are key factors in ensuring a wide selection.

Step 4: Secure Funding

Based on your business plan, determine the capital requirement for starting and running the dress rental business; explore various funding options like loans, grants, personal savings, or investor funds to meet the financial requirements.

Step 5: Legal Requirements

It is essential to adhere to all local and state legal mandates when running a dress rental business. This entails acquiring a business license, fulfilling tax obligations, and comprehending the regulations that apply to the dress rental industry.

Step 6: Locate a Store

When selecting a location for your business, prioritize accessibility for your target market. This can include a physical store that is conveniently located or establishing an online platform that allows easy access from anywhere. Consider utilizing both options to maximize reach and convenience for customers.

Step 7: Procure Inventory

Based on comprehensive market research, curate an extensive collection of dresses in a range of sizes, styles, and colors to cater to diverse customer preferences. Strive to stock highly sought-after designs while also offering unique and exclusive options to set your business apart.

Step 8: Hire Staff

Hiring staff becomes vital for dress rental businesses to efficiently handle customer service, dress management, finance, and promotional activities. Depending on the scale, additional personnel are required to manage these essential aspects of the business effectively.

Step 9: Set Up the Business

After procuring dresses, it is essential to carefully categorize and display them in an organized manner. It is crucial to maintain a clean and visually appealing store environment to create an inviting atmosphere for potential customers. Similarly, if setting up online, prioritize a user-friendly interface to enhance customer experience.

Step 10: Marketing and Promotion

In order to effectively promote your business, utilize a mix of marketing platforms like social media, fliers, ads, and local news. Also, consider offering attractive discounts and promotions initially to entice potential customers and drive early-stage business growth.

Step 11: Evaluate and Improve

It is important to regularly assess your business performance in relation to your goals and obtain feedback from clients. This will allow you to enhance your services, collections, and customer engagement strategies in order to adapt to changing needs and ensure ongoing success.

Starting a dress rental business can be a lucrative and fulfilling venture. Throughout this blog post, we have explored the key steps and considerations to take when embarking on this journey. By conducting thorough market research, creating a strategic business plan, sourcing high-quality dresses, implementing effective marketing strategies, and providing exceptional customer service, you can establish a successful dress rental business.

Remember, success in this industry relies heavily on staying up-to-date with fashion trends, maintaining a diverse and well-maintained dress collection, and continuously improving your business operations. Additionally, don’t underestimate the power of building strong relationships with customers and engaging with them through various channels.

With the right approach and dedication, you can tap into the growing demand for dress rentals and carve out your own niche in the market. Embrace the opportunity to provide an affordable and sustainable alternative to buying dresses, and watch your business thrive. Good luck on your dress rental business journey!

I make almost $5,000 a month renting out clothes online I hardly wear. It only takes a few hours a day — here's how I got started.

• Paula Pimlott started renting out clothes from her wardrobe in March 2022.
• Pimlott makes an average of about $5,000 a month on clothing-rental platforms including By Rotation.
• She shares how finding a niche audience and investing in high-quality dresses built her income.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Paula Pimlott, a stay-at-home mom who started a clothing-rental side hustle. Insider has verified revenue and profit with documentation. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I discovered fashion-rental marketplaces around March last year. My husband and I were going out for dinner for the first time since I'd given birth, so I wanted something special to wear. Google told me I could rent a handbag from rental platforms such as Hurr and By Rotation.

I saw a gap in the clothing-rental market  

While browsing the platforms in search of a bag to rent, I noticed there weren't many clothing options in my size. I'm a size 14 and most of the clothes were in a size 8 or a size 10.

I saw it as an opportunity to start listing my own stuff.

I rented out my first dress that same month. I'd already seen clothing I owned in popular listings on Hurr and By Rotation. As a new mom, I wasn't wearing these pieces, so I decided to try renting them out instead of selling them to help fund future purchases.

My first listing was a Rixo dress I bought in 2017. It wasn't the latest season, but the design is timeless. It's become one of my most popular items. 

My first listing was super popular — so I invested in a second dress

The Rixo dress was so popular that I bought a backup. The second dress cost £250, or about $311, and the full retail price was £300. I've rented it out about seven times in the past year for £50 each time.

I started with a portfolio of around 20 items from my closet that I was happy to rent out. I had a lot of interest right away, so I started to invest in more pieces for rentals, especially having seen a gap for certain styles in my size. I first started buying clothes to rent in June 2022.

I only rent out designer items because people look to rent high-quality things for special occasions.

What really helped grow my collection was buying fall and winter styles ahead of time in summer and doing the opposite in winter. I invested in some discounted items from high-end labels, paying close attention to the styles, brands, and customer feedback, which informed my buying decisions. 

I now operate my business more like a professional fashion buyer. I currently rent out 200 items consisting of clothing, bags, and jewelry, and I make £4,000, or about $4,900, a month.

I found my niche audience and built up a loyal following

When I bought items for an audience of women in their 20s, they weren't being rented. 

I now know my target customer is a middle-aged, professional woman who often goes to dinners and black-tie events, and I buy items with this customer in mind. I also look at what brands and styles are popular on social media. 

I rent out clothes that would be flattering on someone who is my size, and I have regulars that watch my accounts, especially on By Rotation, and get a notification every time I upload. 

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I've built relationships with them, and I'm happy to offer my regulars discounts. 

The items I buy are in my size and to my taste, but they are mostly investment pieces. I'd love to wear them myself, but as a full-time mom, I don't do enough to wear these types of clothes. 

I've decided the highest I would spend on a rental dress is £1,000.

One of my renters wore a dress of mine to an event and won a "best-dressed" award. I love having a collection of pieces that make women feel confident. 

Renting still drives consumerism, but I try and do my bit by using eco-friendly packaging.

How I run my clothes-rental business 

For each listing, on both platforms, you can input the retail price of an item, and the platforms come back with suggestions for what the rental price should be. 

I often buy more items to rent out from the money I make. Postage and dry cleaning per item come to about £12, or about $15, per rental. 

On Hurr, I rent items out for four days, and on By Rotation, I rent them out for three days. I try to send orders ahead of time every Monday to account for delays, and I send other last-minute orders throughout the week. 

I take pictures of each item before I send them off so I know what condition they're in when they leave. I then sometimes steam the item. I wrap them in tissue paper and put the dresses in garment bags.

To help my business, I've bought a label printer, a new steamer, and a ring light for pictures. I've also bought props including a chair and a plant that appear in the backgrounds of my pictures. 

I usually spend 3 hours a day running this business, but during busy periods it can go up to 6

A third of my income comes from Hurr, and the rest is from By Rotation. Now, I make about £4,000, or about $5,000, a month in combined income from the platforms. 

I'm in a good routine where I can balance orders with picking up my child from the babysitters four days a week. 

But during busy periods, I've sent out 30 rentals a week and worked for about six hours a day. When it's busy, it can get difficult to answer questions from renters and deal with delayed shipments. In less busy periods, I work about three hours a day. 

The only drawback is damaged items

Renters can pay for a damage-protection add-on, which covers them for up to £50 of damage. I've had incidents where renters have spilled wine on items. But if the item is badly damaged or not repairable, the renter has to cover the item's retail-market value. 

I also recently had an item go missing in transit — neither I nor the renter was at fault — but they kindly offered to pay part of the value and meet me in the middle. Most of the time, renters do look after the items really well, and if something's wrong, they usually say so. 

I consider what I do to be a business now, and you have to accept that there could always be some kind of loss. I wouldn't recommend renting out something that has sentimental value.

In the future, I'd like to hire a unit where potential renters can try on my garments by appointment. At the moment, returns and packaging take over my whole dining room. 

• Main content

How to start a clothing rental business

Table of Contents

Planning for your clothing rental business

Market research , target audience, specialisation and renting model, supplies and equipment, business plan and budget, starting a clothing rental business , register your business, prepare for taxes , find insurance .

• Regulations and hire contracts 

Organising your clothing rental business

Daily operations , inventory and sales system, financial organisation , business current account, accounting software, marketing your clothing rental business, website , social media marketing, influencer marketing , get your clothing rental business on the runway .

Did you know that the UK alone produces 206.456 tonnes of clothing waste each year? But with a clothing rental business, you can reduce this waste and earn money doing it. 

A clothing rental business lends items to people so they can try them out or wear them for special occasions. It’s a less expensive option for customers than buying. Plus, you can continuously earn money off a steady inventory. 

But if this idea is new to you or you’re not quite sure how to make it work, don’t worry. We’ve got you covered.  

This article discusses how to start a clothing rental business , including:

• Organising 

Rental clothing may seem like a lot to keep track of. But, with a well-developed plan, you can start your clothing rental business and structure it for success . Let’s go over the planning essentials. 

Start out with market research on fashion trends. With a clear idea of the current environment, you can understand what clothing people want, what’s in style, and what the best brands are . 

To learn about today’s fashion industry, consider looking to: 

• Your favourite clothing sites to analyse trends. 
• Popular fashion magazines like Instyle , British Vogue , or Grazia .
• Fashion Week runway looks. 
• Statistics and research from sites like Google Trends and Statista .

Then, narrow down your research to other clothing rental or sustainable fashion businesses. You may need to overcome competition from companies like By Rotation , Hurr , and Rotaro . 

Your market research will help you uncover your business’s target audience , or the people most interested in your rental products . 

For example, you may choose to focus on a primarily female audience since women typically shop for clothing more than men . From there, you could focus on environmentally conscious people. 

You may also focus on people who like expensive clothing but lack budget, like young professionals. 

Clarifying your target audience and understanding their motives will help you reach them and find customers for your business. 

Specialising your business allows you to stand out from the competition . If you offer something unique and specific, you can more easily draw people in. 

So consider a few things: 

• What type of clothing will you focus on? – You might focus on dresses for special occasions, seasonal pieces, or everyday wear. 
• What kind of style will you circle your business around? – Most clothing businesses focus on a particular fashion, mood, or type of buyer. For example, you could do preppy chic, vintage, or bohemian. You might also circle your collection around a particular colour scheme.

When you narrow down your business, you’ll also need to consider the renting model. Think about:  

• How long you’ll rent your clothing for . Will it be long term or short term rentals?
• How you’ll distribute, track, and reclaim it .  
• How you might handle lost or damaged clothing . 

To run a successful clothing rental business, you’ll need to have an eye for fashion and detail . It’s essential to have products people want to rent. Plus, if you can style a good look, it’ll be easier to sell your pieces.

If you’d like to take fashion styling courses, there are plenty, like this one from the London College of Fashion . 

Aside from that, it’s important to take care of your inventory well since you’ll reuse them. So, you may want to read into clothing care and laundering to get it right and prolong your inventory’s life.  

But what will you need to start your rental clothing business? Start by considering how you develop your clothing collection. For example, you could:

• Purchase an inventory of clothing – More initial costs but fewer regular business expenses. 
• Renting out clothing owned by other people – Fewer initial costs but more regular fees. This way, you won’t have to pay for the clothing yourself,  but you will pay the owners to use their clothing. 
• Design and create your own clothing to rent – if you have fashion design skills and want to invest in the time and cost of clothing creation.

Also, consider how much clothing you want to start out with and the different sizing you’ll need. 

Then, decide if you’ll open a clothing shop for your rental business or run it primarily online. You might let people pick up their clothing or offer to ship. 

Apart from clothing, you’ll likely need 

• A washer and dryer
• Clothing care products (stain remover, fabric sprays, polishes etc.)
• Storage for your inventory

All these questions may seem like a lot to consider. But if you iron out the details beforehand, you can approach your new business wisely. 

So, once you have a clear idea of your clothing rental business, put it all together into a business plan . This plan can outline everything we’ve covered so far in addition to your business’s objectives, values, and starting budget . 

Your budget will determine how much you need to spend on starting your business, or the startup costs. It’ll also look at the running expenses once you get started. 

Plus, your budget can help you determine what to charge for your rentals and how much you expect to earn . 

Think you’ll need external funding to cover the cost of your inventory? You’ll also need a business plan to secure an investor or business loan . 

Part of how to start a clothing rental business is setting it up for success. Once you have a plan, you can turn your business into a legal entity. 

To establish your business, you’ll need to register it with the UK Government. You have two main options for this. You could register as either a: 

• Sole trader – This one’s a bit easier to do and takes less time to manage. But you’ll also be personally liable for your business and it’s finances.
• Limited company –  It’s a bit more of a process to register, and there are more regulations and taxes (i.e. corporation tax). But, the business is a separate legal entity from you , so you only risk what you put into it. 

So, weigh each option to understand which is the right fit for you . This may feel like a big decision, but don’t worry, you can always transition to a limited company later on. 

You can also check out our article on how to set up your business: sole trader or limited company . 

You’ll also need to manage and report your own taxes , including income or dividend tax and national insurance. If you’ve never done this before, it’s pretty easy if you know where to look.

People with variable income submit a Self Assessment tax return , which you can do online. 

Here are a few other things to know:

• As we mentioned, limited companies also need to pay corporation tax . 
• If you expect to earn over £85,000 annually, you must register for VAT . 
• Ever heard of Making Tax Digital (MTD) ? It’s a government initiative to digitise the tax process. Only VAT registered businesses must worry about it, but eventually all companies will need to comply. 

Finding the right insurance will protect your business’s finances . For example, you might want to insure your rental clothing inventory . This protection will help you stay profitable if you lose or damage any of your products.  

You could also get public liability insurance to defend you from injury or damage claims against your business. 

Regulations and hire contracts  

Make sure you’re aware of the regulations behind renting clothing. If you plan to rent items longer than three months , you may require consumer credit authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority .  

Also, write up clear rental contracts, so your expectations and limitations are clear to the client. Without a client contract, you may not be able to hold clients responsible for lost or damaged clothing. 

Knowing how to start a clothing rental business is one thing. But, you’ll need to stay organised to keep it alive. 

To stay on top of your day-to-day, it’s important to check your sales, communications, and calendar regularly. A business management tool like Google Workspace can help you do this . 

This way, you can keep a clear to-do list and respond to client emails efficiently.

Though your inventory may not change, you will need to stay on top of it well and know where it is and when. If you struggle to meet customer needs, it might be a sign to expand and add to your stock. 

Be sure to keep clear records of where your products are and when they’re due back. This way, you can hold customers accountable, remind them, and protect your profitability . 

Also, consider how you’ll accept payments . If your business is primarily online, it’s important to add a payment method to your website. Paypal , for example, is safe and secure. 

If you run a clothing rental shop, you might need payment machines. Sumup has some great options for small businesses.

You’ll also need to organise your finances to track your profits and make accurate tax reports. The best way to stay on top of what you spend and earn for your business is by separating it from your personal finances. 

You can separate your finances by opening a business current account , a bank account designed specifically for businesses. With this, you’ll have all your business transactions in one place . 

On top of organising your expenses and earnings, it’s important to analyse them and record them in your bookkeeping . Modern accounting software will make this much easier. 

Accounting software can help you: 

• Track your cash flow.
• Categorise expenses for your records.
• Send and receive invoices. 
• Simplify your tax process.  

The best tools automate the process to promote accuracy and take stress off your hands. 

But what tool is right for you? Why not try Countingup, the business current account with built-in accounting software ? It’s rated ‘Excellent’ on Trustpilot and used by thousands of small businesses in the UK. 

Start your three-month free trial today .

So, you know how to start a clothing rental business. Now you’ll need to earn some customers. Let’s go over a good marketing strategy for a clothing rental business. 

Your brand identity is how your business looks to the public, and you want it to look as good as the clothing you rent . So, consider how you might design your brand using a consistent colour scheme, tone, and memorable logo.

With a free design tool like Canva , you can get ideas for your brand and design marketing materials that make it pop.

Learn more about developing a strong brand with our article on how to create a brand identity for a small business . 

You’ll also need a good website for your clothing rental business . If you plan to sell your clothing online, this is even more crucial. Consider designing a website filled with fashion elements that draw the eye. 

In general, you website should include: 

• Your business story – who you are, what you do, and why. 
• Contact information – your email address, phone number, and links to other places to find you. 
• Pictures of your products – and a digital shop if you sell online.

If you’re unsure where to start , see: How to create a business website . 

People often start their shopping journey on social media. Platforms like Instagram, Pinterest , and TikTok are great places to find outfits, style tips, and shopping ideas. So, consider marketing your business on these platforms.

Start by creating profiles and adding your business name and logo. Then, you can post pictures of your styled looks . You could also create videos about quick tips and trends . 

Platforms like Instagram and Pinterest also let you pay to promote your posts, which will help you reach more people .  

Another way to reach customers is through influencer marketing . You can pay fashion bloggers and influencers or offer them a discount to wear and promote your products. 

If they post about your business and review it highly, it’ll help you earn their audience’s attention and increase your sales .  

So, there it is. This article will help you learn how to start a clothing rental business. And soon you can help people wear the clothes or their dreams sustainably.  

Just remember, to succeed, you’ll need to: 

• Plan ahead. 
• Set it up legally and logistically.
• Organise everything clearly. 
• Market yourself strongly.

Wondering how long it all might take? Starting a business is a lot of work, but with a little focus and dedication, you can make it happen in a timely manner. 

To learn more, check out our article on how to start your own small business in 30 days .

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• Rental operations

Starting a Dress Rental Business in 2024: A Comprehensive Guide

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Key Takeaways

Introduction.

In the age of sustainable living and smart consumption, starting a dress for rent business in 2024 is not only a trendy choice but also a financially wise decision. With the growing demand for rental services due to increasing environmental and economic consciousness, the dress rental industry is set to flourish. Sharefox.co, a leader in dress online rental website building and clothing rental software , is the perfect partner for entrepreneurs embarking on this journey????.

Market Research and Planning

Understanding your market.

Before diving into the business, conducting thorough market research is crucial. This involves understanding the demand for dress rental services in your area, identifying the types of events people rent dresses for, and recognizing market gaps your business could fill??.

Crafting a Business Plan

A robust business plan is the backbone of any successful venture. It should include a clear mission statement, a unique selling proposition (USP), and a detailed financial plan. This plan will guide your business decisions and help in securing funding??.

Setting Up Your Dress Rental Business

Choosing the right location.

Selecting a suitable location for your business, whether online or a physical store, is essential. Your choice should align with your target market’s accessibility and preferences.

Sourcing Inventory

Your inventory is your asset. Sourcing high-quality, trendy, and diverse dresses will appeal to a broader customer base.

Technology Integration

Incorporating efficient technology solutions like Sharefox can streamline your rental process, enhance customer experience, and optimize operations??.

Financial Considerations

Careful budgeting is key to managing your expenses effectively. Factor in costs such as inventory, marketing, technology, and operational expenses.

Funding Strategies

Exploring various funding options, from personal savings to business loans, is essential to ensure the smooth operation of your dress for rent business .

Marketing and Promotion

Building an online presence.

Creating a compelling website and utilizing social media platforms are crucial for reaching your target audience. Sharefox offers tailor-made solutions for rental businesses, ensuring maximum online visibility??.

Collaborating with Influencers

Partnering with influencers and launching social media campaigns can significantly boost your business’s visibility and appeal.

Launch Strategies

Consider launching your business with a special event or promotion to create buzz and attract initial customers??.

Starting a dress rental in 2024 is a promising venture, combining profitability with sustainability. By understanding your market, planning strategically, leveraging technology, managing finances wisely, and executing effective marketing strategies, you can establish a successful and sustainable business.

Inventory Acquisition and Management

Your inventory is your most valuable asset. Consider the following:

• Quality over Quantity: Focus on versatile, high-demand styles.
• Sourcing: Partner with designers or wholesalers for a diverse collection.
• Inventory Management: Implement a system to track and maintain your dresses, ensuring they are always in pristine condition.

For effective inventory management, consider using Sharefox’s advanced Inventory Rental Management System to optimize your rental process.

Choosing the Right Software

A robust rental management system is crucial. clothing rental Software like Sharefox offers features like digital orders, payment processing, and inventory tracking. This efficiency is key to scaling your business.

Marketing Your Business

Marketing strategies to consider:

• Digital Marketing: Utilize social media and SEO to reach your target audience.
• Partnerships: Collaborate with event planners, wedding venues, and fashion influencers.
• Promotions: Offer introductory discounts or loyalty programs.

Customer Experience and Services

Enhance the customer experience by:

• Offering personalized consultations.
• Providing a seamless booking and return process.
• Ensuring exceptional garment quality and cleanliness.

Legal Considerations and Insurance

Ensure compliance with business regulations and secure insurance to protect your inventory and business operations.

Sustainability and the Circular Economy

Align your business with sustainable practices, contributing to the circular economy. This approach not only appeals to eco-conscious consumers but also sets a positive brand image.

Rent a Dress: Simplifying Fashion Choices

The concept of ‘Rent a Dress’ is revolutionizing the way people approach fashion. It’s not just about providing a dress for a special occasion; it’s about offering a sustainable, cost-effective, and fashionable solution. This service allows customers to enjoy a variety of styles without the commitment of purchase, making high-end fashion accessible to a broader audience. It’s a win-win for both the business and the customer, as it supports sustainability while fulfilling the desire for new and trendy outfits.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Why is a dress rental business a good idea in 2024, what are the first steps to starting a dress rental business, how can technology enhance my dress rental business, what financial considerations are important for a dress rental business, what marketing strategies are effective for a dress rental business, how do i create a business plan for my dress rental business, for more information visit:.

Maximizing Profits in Your Dress Rental Business.

The Future of Fashion Rentals: Industry Trends & Predictions.

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How to Start an Online Dress Rental Business Like Rent The Runway – Business Model & Website Features

Last Updated: 14th March, 2024

Web-based dress rental platforms like Rent the Runway, Bag Borrow or Steal, Le Tote, etc. let the style-conscious people rent designer dresses, clothes for special occasions and accessories and have become the topic of discussion in the fashion industry.

The idea of renting out clothes may seem odd at first, but the success of all the aforementioned platforms have proven the potential that this emerging marketplace.

In this post, FATbit Technologies would like to educate aspiring entrepreneurs who want to launch a similar business by explaining the process they need to follow to build a dress rental website like Rent The Runway.

Read on and learn what online dress rental features you need to consider to make a superior website and app to rent out designer, weddings, prom or other dress collections.

• How online dress rental business works?
• Revenue generation from online dress rental portal
• Top Online Dress Rental Marketplaces
• Online rental business website features
• Process flow of customer

Business model of online clothes rental business

An online dress rental portal is more than just a fashion company. It is also a technology company that is reinventing the fashion industry. The business model is based on strategic partnerships with multiple designers and agencies to give their audience access to their newest outfits and accessories.

As a dress rental website owner, you will rent out items for up to one week and charge a certain percentage of the rental price as the fee. The fee covers the service charges, dry cleaning, and other minor expenditures.

When an order is placed, the product will be dispatched from the vendor’s inventory with per-addressed packaging. There should also be a provision for holding an insurance amount during the rental period to cover any sort of accidental damage.

Online clothes rental business revenue model

Besides making money from renting clothes, your online dress rental platform can generate revenue from the following channels:

• Commissions: Get a small commission from every dress rental transaction on your website.
• Advertising : Make advertising on website or app a part of your long-term monetization plan
• Featured or Sponsored Listing : Allow dress owners to feature their offerings on homepage & other highlighted sections of the website in exchange for a small fee.
• Subscriptions: Create an annual subscription model where users purchase a subscription in exchange for perks like relaxation in delivery fees, cashbacks or even a free dress rental on successfully registering themselves.

In addition, you can also upgrade your online designer dress rental platform by adding a selling feature to it. Allow fashion brands to sell their products on your website, and it will serve as another source of revenue in the form of commissions from those sales.

Looking for a readymade solution to start a dress rental business?

Top online dress rental marketplaces.

• renttherunway.com
• rentez-vous.com
• bagborroworsteal.com

Most of these dress rental websites cater to a specific geographical area. So, it would be wrong to consider them as a competitor to your dress rental portal, unless they operate in the same market that you are targeting.

Now that we have understood the business model and have an idea about the top online dress rental marketplaces, let’s find out more about the required website features.

Note: If you are planning to build a multi-vendor dress rental website powered by Yo!Rent, then make sure it has the most – if not all – features listed in this post. Let’s begin!

Dress rental website features

As mentioned earlier in this post, your online clothing rental platform is more of a technology business, thus, its website should be loaded with interesting features.

Let’s start with the homepage and highlight the elements that can make it highly conversion-focused and engaging.

The homepage should focus on two important things that customers care about i.e. discovering and renting dresses. The homepage should also have a neat design and use the white space carefully. It should not be lengthy and only consist of the most important sections. Here are the most prominent ones:

Banner: You need to add a pinch of innovation on the homepage banner by adding two conversion elements. One should take visitors to How It Works page while the other should start the dress booking process instantly. Don’t forget to use an image and a website message for the banner area to make it more attractive.

Most popular styles: Some designers and dresses would be popular amongst customers. These should be displayed on the homepage in a slider to get visitor’s attention. The ideal place for this section would be below-the-fold area. In addition to dress images, the section should also display:

• Designer name
• Rental price
• Add to favorites option

Seasonal Styles: The homepage should feature another eye-catching section that introduces the visitor to different seasons. This should be in the form of a dedicated page and display lists of seasonal collections. You may also add filters in a side panel to generate tailor-made results.

In addition to that, you can offer a discount on the first purchase to encourage users to buy from your website or app and boost conversions..

Make sure that they get to know about it by displaying a pop-up that highlights the discount & registration link when a user lands on the homepage of your dress rental website.

A large number of e-commerce stores are following this strategy to increase user registrations and establish communication through email even if the visitor doesn’t place an order.

Now, let’s take a step ahead and discuss how a website’s inner pages should be designed.

Dress on rent pages

Item pages of your website should be an inspiration for e-commerce stores as well as users. They should be highly informational with zero clutter.

From renting process to image reviews, everything has to be organized while keeping the user experience in mind. It would be best if you cover the dress page one section at a time.

Rental Form: The process of reserving a dress should be quick. Users should be asked about necessary information like zip code, size, delivery date and at the end of the form, there should be the ‘Reserve’ button. The following value added options can also be featured in the section:

• Stylist notes: Details about product being in trend
• Size and fit: Size guide table
• Product details: Technical details about the product
• Share buttons: Share product on social networks

Dress Images: Like most online stores dealing in clothes, your website should consist of high-quality images clicked professionally. But you shouldn’t stop there. Beside the product images it should also have a place to display customers’ photos who previously rented them.

These images can be fetched from reviews and would help the customers see how a dress really looks. Implementing such competitive features will add more value to your brand.

Review system: The rating and review system should be implemented in a way that users can easily discover relevant reviews. Here are a few things you can  implement to deliver a satisfying user experience:

• Filters like size, height and bust
• Details like age, body type, and height
• Review and photo sliders

Recommendations Section: Sometimes, just one dress is not enough. That’s why your website and app should add a ‘You may also like’ section just below the product details.

From design to implementation, everything should be right with dress recommendation feature.

Up-renting (like upselling): A dress needs accessories to complete the look and you can give your users the option to get them using a ‘Complete the look’ section on the dress page that suggests supplementary accessories.

Process flow diagram for an online dress rental platform

Suggested read:   Launch A Multi-vendor Rental Ecommerce Marketplace with Yo!Rent

On the main navigation bar, there should be tabs for main product categories like Dresses, Clothing, Occasions, and Accessories to lead users to the selected product category page. Other than that, following tabs can also be displayed to make the section easier:

• Subscription

Let’s discuss how the page tabs listed above should be designed and understand their unique features, starting with the Subscription tab.

Subscription: This page deserves a special mention because it carries the service that is at the apex of a website’s revenue generation strategy. In order to accomplish the feat of making your customers rent from you on a daily basis, you need to come up with some engaging subscription plans. For example, year long free delivery, unlimited clothes, and more.

Here is a list of sections that  improve engagement on the subscription page:

• Banner with service introduction
• Brand associations

Note: For all web designers working on rental clothing websites and apps, our recommendation is to plan & craft this page meticulously.

Designers: Under this tab, list the designers associated with your dress rental marketplace. Designers should have a dedicated page that features an introduction about them followed by their products and their availability for rent or sale.

Stores: Under this section, list the stores that act as physical addresses for a brand. Clicking on any store will take users to the respective store’s page, which should feature the following:

• Contact info
• Booking system

It is recommended that you use a reliable third-party solution for booking functionality. This will reduce the website building cost and provide a secure and tested payment gateway to your customers.

Product category pages

How to find the right size, length, color, sleeve, body type, neckline, age, trend, style, and designer when looking for a dress? The answer is simple  — use filters. Make sure that you offer a detailed set of filters that give complete freedom to your customers and helps them search for what they are looking for in a seamless manner.

Checkout process

The details required to rent or shop a dress were gathered in the beginning. Now, it is time to furnish the card with shipping details. Unlike most e-commerce stores, your dress rental website shouldn’t divide the whole process into different sections and wrap it all up on a single page. Don’t forget to emphasize the security of the payment gateway.

Additionally, you can enable a feature that allows your customers to pick up the order from nearby locations instead of getting them delivered.

User account

Through their account, registered shoppers should be able to view and manage every detail related to their orders, profile, and rewards. It should have dedicated sections for:

• Upcoming order – View and modify your orders.
• Order history – View history of your orders.
• Profile – Update your profile
• Credits – View referral credit available
• Invites – Send invites to earn credits
• Assessment – Submit personal details to get style assessment.
• My appointments – Appointment details with sellers

Basically, users should be able to manage every aspect of their activities on your website and app through their respective accounts.

Help section

Features of a dress rental website can be overwhelming for people who use e-commerce websites regularly. Hence, to simplify things for users your team should plan and deliver an extensive Help section. Major highlights of the Help section include:

• How It Works page
• Contact Us page
• Section to ask a new question

Detailed search filters, intuitive contact forms, and links to other helpful resources should enable your website’s Help section to answer every query related to the website’s features and functionalities.

Incorporating the features discussed so far will help you in building an ideal dress rental website. But why stop there? Take it a level further with the following recommendations.

Quality assurance

Quality assurance is a challenging aspect of every e-commerce business. But since the products are reused things become more challenging for rental marketplaces.

Renters get a dress in the condition it is displayed on the website, but when the dress is returned, will it be in the same condition?

Such concerns that need to be addressed proactively to ensure a smooth sailing for your online rental business.

Here are some steps you can take in this regard:

• Charge an insurance fee from the renters to cover any unexpected damages
• Conduct a thorough quality check before renting a product
• Implementing the provision of insurance for expensive items

Request an item option

There is a possibility that your target market already has an online rental marketplace and maybe new ones will emerge with time. And in order to stand out from the competition, you need to offer something unique.

Request an Item is one such feature. Its purpose is simple, if customers don’t find the dress or accessories they are looking for, they can request for it on your marketplace. In the long-term, this feature will also help you expand your product categories without spending extensive efforts on market research.

Login relaxation

Not every visitor will be comfortable with registering right away. Many e-commerce stores let their visitors ‘like’ products and even add them to cart without registration. This feature can increase the time customers spend on your website or app and improve conversions and must be taken into consideration when building a dress rental website.

Optimized checkout pages

Every e-commerce store owner hates cart abandonment. Optimized checkout pages can play a pivotal role in minimizing cart abandonment rate. In an effort to close the deal on a single page, do not clutter the checkout section. Take inspiration from other e-commerce stores and implement a design that is a best-fit for your business.

Other features

You may incorporate some other interesting features like creating a rental product calendar that displays real-time stock availability, define buffer days for product return, block unavailable dates for rented products and extend rental duration from the admin panel.

Yo!Rent dress rental software makes it easy to create a clothing rental store

The rental model has its positives, especially when it comes to variety and savings. Incorporate the features and recommendations mentioned in this post and create your own advanced online dress rental platform today. Make sure it is flexible so that changes and enhancements can be made.

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Disclaimer: The Blog has been created with consideration and care. We strive to ensure that all information is as complete, correct, comprehensible, accurate and up-to-date as possible. Despite our continuing efforts, we cannot guarantee that the information made available is complete, correct, accurate or up-to-date. We advise - the readers should not take decisions completely based on the information and views shared by FATbit on its blog, readers should do their own research to further assure themselves before taking any commercial decision. The 3rd party trademarks, logos and screenshots of the websites and mobile applications are property of their respective owners, we are not directly associated with most of them.

Author: FATbit Chef

FATbit Chef is the official broadcaster of everything that happens inside FATbit. Count on the invisible reporter for detailed analysis based posts, new service additions, and other brand related updates.

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White-label car rental software to create online marketplace in 2024, start outdoor gear rental website – business model & key features analysis, everything you need to know about starting an online gym & fitness equipment rental marketplace, leave a comment cancel reply.

Need a dress rental website. Please sen me an estimated

Hello Jessica,

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One of our expert will get in touch with you soon.

Hello, i want to build an ecommerce website with a uniqhue 3 hour delivery service in hyderabad, India. Please get back to us to help us.

Hello Sameer, We will be more than happy to help you. Our experts will get back to you soon. Cheers !

i am interested in creating an online dress rental business. Can you please get back to me asap. Cheers

Hello Lena, Our startup expert will contact you soon ! In the mean time, kindly send us your business requirements via https://www.fatbit.com/website-design-company/requestaquote.html , this will help us serve you better 🙂 Regards, FATbit Team

I want to start an online renting business..Please share Estimate cost that I need to put in.

Hi Lakshika,

Thanks for connecting with us.

We would be glad to work on this project. Our expert will get in touch with you to discuss the same. Meanwhile, you can share your detailed requirements with us via https://www.fatbit.com/website-design-company/requestaquote.html

Regards, FATbit Team

Hi FatBit team, exploring this business idea – need help with developing the platform. Please connect to discuss. Thanks.

Thanks for showing interest in us.

Hello Fatbit team, I’m interested in starting a clothing rental website, would like your help. Can you get back to me ?

Sure, we will be more than help you 🙂 Our business team will get in touch with you soon. Meanwhile, if you have any specific requirements related to the clothing rental website, you can share with the team at [email protected] . This will help us serve you better. Have a nice day. FATbit Team

I loved the way you discuss the topic great work thanks for the share.

You’re welcome. Keep visiting us for more such interesting topics.

Cheers! Team FATbit

This is great information for students. This article is very helpful i really like this blog thanks.

You are Welcome.

Cheers! Team FATbit.

Hi FatBit team,

I want to start the rental business. Can you please get back to me asap.

Hello Janice,

Thanks for reaching us out. One of our representatives will get in touch with you soon to discuss the details. Meanwhile, please send your more queries if any, through https://www.fatbit.com/website-design-company/requestaquote.html

Nice post 🙂 Thanks for sharing this 🙂

Hello I’m interested in starting an online rental company. Could someone reach out to me for consultation?

Hello Stephanie, One of our experts from the business development team will get in touch with you shortly. Have a nice day! – FATbit Team

Hi there – would like to get some figures on building a clothes rental website.

Please advise. Also, do you provide the back-end inventory management?

We would be glad to help you. Our expert will get in touch with you to discuss the same. Meanwhile, you can share your queries with us (if any) via https://www.fatbit.com/website-design-company/enquiry.html

Regards, FATbit Team.

The only thing I’m struggling to find information on, is how to charge customers for damaged or lost items. Once a customer is charged when they place the rental, there is no way to charge them again if the items isn’t returned. If someone could shed some light on this, I’d be grateful.

Hello Drew,

Thanks for connecting!

In the scenario you mentioned, you can charge a security amount when the product is being rented out. The security amount can equal to or less than the cost of the product. If the product is returned in the same condition, then the whole amount can be refunded back to the rentee. If the condition is not up to the mark, an amount can be dedicated which is decided mutually by the admin and the renter.

Yo!Rent, a rental ecommerce solution, has an inbuilt security deposit at the admin end. The security is received and kept with the admin and is released once the item is returned. Check the admin demo to know more https://fashion.v3demo.yo-rent.com/admin

We hope you have received an answer to your question. If not, please let us know more. https://www.fatbit.com/website-design-company/requestaquote.html

I’m interested in starting a clothing rental website and superb blog.

Please send in your details, we’ll be glad to assist. https://www.fatbit.com/website-design-company/requestaquote.html

Thanks & Regards, Team FATbit

I heard this online rental business first time, but i am excited to do.

Hello Lakshmi,

That’ll be great. Please feel free to get in touch. We’ll be happy to help. https://www.fatbit.com/website-design-company/requestaquote.html Thanks & Regards, Team FATbit

Detailed article. Can you people guide me on the integrations and plugins your software supports?

As per study added by Value Market Research, the online clothing rental refers to services that allow consumers to rent garments for a specific time. The booming online retail industry is one of the main factors driving the market growth worldwide. Additionally, a growing urban population with higher fashion consciousness is also contributing to the increasing service demand.

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Bridal Gown Shop Business Plan

Start your own bridal gown shop business plan

Recycled Dreams

Executive summary executive summary is a brief introduction to your business plan. it describes your business, the problem that it solves, your target market, and financial highlights.">.

Recycled Dreams – a Bridal Repository is a Portland, OR based retail rental shop of bridal dresses and accessories. Founded and operated by Connie Jugal, Recycled Dreams will meet the unmet market demand of formal wedding wear that is rented as opposed to purchased. Traditionally, participants in the bride’s wedding party are required to buy their dresses for the wedding, yet they have no input as to what the dress looks like. They are told exactly what dress they need to purchase. More often than not the dresses are horrendous looking and after the occasion they remain in the closet collecting dust indefinitely. It is therefore very practical to provide people with the option of renting a dress in light of the fact that the dress will only be used once. This makes the event far more cost effective, yet just as fashionable. Men can rent tuxedos, now women can rent bridal dresses.

The Services

Recycled Dreams rents dresses, shoes, head pieces and veils. For the bride and others if they so choose, the dresses can be purchased. However most customers will be overjoyed with the option of renting these one time pieces of clothing. In addition to providing the wedding party will the ability to rent all the necessary clothing pieces and accessories, Recycled Dreams has established strategic partnerships with top-flight local wedding related service providers such as invitations, flowers, catering, and photographers. Not only do these alliances provide a one stop shopping option for customers where all preparations can be accomplished at Recycled Dreams, but Recycled Dreams earns a commission on the referrals creating an additional revenue source.

The Market and Competition

Recycled Dreams will be targeting two distinct market segments, the bridal couple and the parents of the bridal couple. Couples as a market segment is growing at 9% a year with 114,584 potential customers, and the parents of the couple have a 8% growth rate with over 112,000 possible customers.

Recycled Dreams faces competition from traditional bridal shops that sell the products. While these are competitors, Recycled Dreams sees them as indirect competitors since Recycled Dreams believes that the ability to rent the dresses is a huge value added service. Currently, there are no other bridal rental facilities in Portland. The concept is brand new. It has been tested to great success in San Francisco and Recycled Dreams is the first to offer it in Portland.

Competitive Edge

Recycled Dreams has two competitive advantages that will help them quickly grow their customer base and validate this new concept. The first is the idea that indeed, like men’s tuxedo’s, women’s bridal wear can be rented. This is particularly intuitive since the dresses are only worn once. Although some might feel that there is a social stigma attached with women renting clothing, there is no way for anyone other than the renting customer to know that the dress that they are wearing is rented. Their second competitive edge is their benchmarked customer service. Recycled Dreams sees their role in the entire process as the one to hold the client’s hand and walk them through the entire event, meeting all of their needs. This philosophy has been engrained within the entire organization.

Beyond the fact that Recycled Dreams is a great idea, the company has a seasoned founder and manager at the helm to guide the company to profitability. Connie has years of retail management experience. Her experience was at the Salvation Army where she was the manager of several stores. While manager, Connie was responsible for growth up to 46% a year per store. Connie will leverage this outstanding industry experience to make Recycled Dreams a success.

Recycled Dreams is an exciting concept that acknowledges the fact that most bridal party dresses are not the prettiest creations, are quite expensive, and almost never worn after the intended wedding. Recycled Dreams will reach profitability by month 10 with healthy sales for year one and more than doubling by the end of year three.

1.1 Objectives

The objectives for the first three years of operation include:

• To create a service-based company whose primary goals is to exceed customer’s expectations.
• To increase the number of clients by 20% per year through superior service.
• To develop a sustainable start-up business providing cost effective bridal dresses.

1.2 Mission

Recycled Dreams’ mission is to provide cost effective use of bridal dresses and accessories for weddings. Our services will exceed the expectations of our customers.

Company Summary company overview ) is an overview of the most important points about your company—your history, management team, location, mission statement and legal structure.">

Recycled Dreams is a bridal wear store that provides dresses for rent for the Portland, Oregon market. Most people agree that bridesmaids dresses are unattractive and are not usually worn again. Recycled Dreams will offer bridal gowns (for sale and for rent) and bridesmaid, matron and maid of honor, and flower girl dresses, as well as shoes for rental for the special event.

2.1 Start-up Summary

Recycled Dreams will incur the following start-up costs:

• Computer with a point of sale terminal.
• Back office terminal including printer, CD-RW.
• Microsoft Office, QuickBooks Pro, POS software.
• Display racks and shelving.
• Three couches.
• Desk, chair and filing cabinets.
• Materials  to construct a plush series of changing rooms.
• Full-length mirrors.
• Website development.
• Inventory of dresses, shoes, head pieces and veils.

Please note that the following items which are considered assets to be used for more than a year will labeled long-term assets and will be depreciated using G.A.A.P. approved straight-line depreciation method.

2.2 Company Ownership

Recycled Dreams is a sole proprietorship owned by Connie Jugal.

Recycled Dreams will provide rentals for all the necessary dresses required for a wedding including the bridal gown, bridesmaid, matron or maid of honor, and flower girl dresses. In addition to the dresses, shoes can be rented as well. The bridesmaid’s dresses are particularly useful for rental since the bridesmaids do not get a choice in the dress they will wear, and even if they do not have to pay for the dress themselves, the dress usually is only worn once and then is stored in the back of the closet for many years, so it is not a good investment to purchase. Recycled Dreams has an on-staff seamstress to make any alterations necessary.

The bridal dress, headpiece, and veil can be rented, or purchased, depending on the whim of the bride. Often the bride will want to keep these items as there is a strong emotional connection with the dress from their wedding.

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Market Analysis Summary how to do a market analysis for your business plan.">

Recycled Dreams has two segmented groups that they will be targeting. The first group is the bridal couple that is responsible for the production of the wedding. This population typically has limited financial resources so they are particularly interested in ways of maximizing the money they can spend on the wedding. The other group is the parents of the bride. While they are likely to be more financially secure then the wedding couple themselves, they still typically have a limited budget. Usually the parents will solicit information from the couple and they (if they have been in a wedding party before) will relay the sentiment that buying the attendees dresses is a waste of money as the individuals really do not care if they own the dress if it is a gift, and if it they have to buy it they are bordering on resentment, tempered only by tradition that they have to purchase this ugly dress to wear once.

4.1 Market Segmentation

Recycled Dreams will be targeting low- to middle-income brides to be as well as the parents of the bride. Traditionally, it is the parents of the bride who are responsible for the costs associated with the wedding. Not everyone follows tradition however, it is increasingly the trend for the wedding couple to be responsible for the costs associated with the wedding production. For this reason both the couple, and the bride’s parents, will be targeted.

The wedding couple is likely to be interested in the rental of attendee’s bridal wear because the couple is usually young, just getting started, and not yet financially secure. A wedding in general is a large expense and the couple is typically looking for ways in which costs can be cut, yet will have no real effect on the event. In addition, the couple has other financial responsibilities such as the wedding rings and honeymoon that money is obviously tight. Even if the couple does not pay for the rentals and pass the costs onto the attendees, the attendees are likely to be in similar financial conditions as the couple and could in theory put the money saved from the rental into a nicer gift.

The other group to be targeted is the parents of the bride. This segment is likely to appreciate the option of renting bridal wear instead of purchasing it for several reasons. They are likely to recognize that the attendees of the bridal party do not typically care about the dresses that they must wear. With this in mind, they are more likely to spend the saved money from the rental on some other expense in the wedding that will be more meaningful. This is assuming that they will end up spending the money saved in some other way. They may also choose the renting option as a way to save the money. As many know, weddings can get very expensive upwards of $20,000-30,000 is not unheard of. Saving a few thousand dollars is certainly appealing.

4.2 Target Market Segment Strategy

Recycled Dreams will be targeting its chosen segments through an advertising campaign that involves advertisements in the local newspaper. Weddings in general are very social occassions and the social scene is captured in several different sections within the newspaper. People that are having a wedding typically page through the local newspaper, looking at the other wedding announcements. The local newspaper is also a good resource for finding local services and people use the paper as a resource guide.

Recycled Dreams will also be targeting these groups through advertisements in the yellow pages. The yellow pages are a fantastic resource guide, although it is at times not all that refined in terms of searching for information.

Lastly, Recycled Dreams will be relying on their website to increase visibility regarding their services. The website provides Recycled Dreams with a very controlled way to raise awareness of Recycled Dreams’ service offerings.

4.2.1 Competition and Buying Patterns

Recycled Dreams’ main competition comes from traditional bridal stores. These stores can be broken down into various types:

• Franchise stores : these shops are national or regional franchises that use buying power of a multi-shop establishment to lower prices as well as increase selection.
• Sole proprietor shops : this style is a single outlet. It is hard to categorize much beyond this. There are some high-end independent shops as well as some budget ones. These stores are often relying on knowledge of local tastes as well as being a member of the community.

Currently Portland has no bridal wear rental facilities. There are rental facilities for men’s wear such as tuxedos, however, the rental trend has not extended to bridal wear. Entrepreneurs have been afraid to venture into women’s rentals out of fear that women are too fashion conscious to be willing to rent a dress, that would simply be a fashion faux pas.

As people’s finances become tighter and tighter, women are making decisions as to how to spend their money. As disposable income becomes more and more of a scarce resource, they are now more than ever willing to sacrifice what someone else might think of the idea of wearing a rental in return for freeing up their cash to do with it as they choose.

Strategy and Implementation Summary

Recycled Dreams will meet Portland’s latent demand for bridal wear rentals. Currently, there are no stores that allow people to rent dresses and shoes for wedding parties, you are forced to buy them, use them once, and then let them sit in the closet. Recycled Dreams will supply this service with incredible attention to detail regarding customer service. Connie recognizes that the success of a business is totally dependant on customer service and will train her employees accordingly.

5.1 Competitive Edge

Recycled Dreams’ competitive edge is a service offering that has been so far shunned by the Portland market. As indicated before, it is the business owners, or entrepreneurs, that are shunning the concept, not the consumers. For this reason, having a service offering that supports a latent demand is truly a competitive advantage.

Recycled Dreams’ other competitive advantage is their recognition that superior customer attention is required to succeed. This holds true for two fundamental reasons, a business can only succeed if it meets or exceeds their customers needs. A company might offer the most wonderful service in the world, but if it does not meet their customer’s needs, they will not succeed. The other fundamental reason particular to the bridal industry is more often than not, people only get married once so traditional repeat customers is unusual. Recycled Dreams is hoping that positive word-of-mouth referrals will continue to bring customers in the door. With this in mind, a lot of business will be based in referrals from already married friends. Offering the highest customer service will ensure a steady stream of referrals.

5.2 Sales Strategy

Recycled Dreams’ sales strategy will be based on their ability to convince prospective clients on the economies of rentals as well as the misnomer regarding the fashion faux pas of rental dresses. Typically people will call in and request information regarding rentals. While many stores will attempt to make the phone inquiry as short as possible, Connie believes that this is the best opportunity to turn an information seeker into a customer. This can get time consuming because a large number of people will call seeking information, however, Connie recognizes that the time spent now will pay off significantly in the future. For this reason, employees will not receive commissions on sales, instead employees will receive bonuses for positive feedback that Recycled Dreams receives from customers.

5.2.1 Sales Forecast

The first month will be used to set up the store front, interview and hire employees and start up a media campaign to build awareness. Month two will see limited sales activity as people are just becoming aware of Recycled Dreams. Month four will see an increase in sales and subsequent months will build off of month four sales.

5.3 Milestones

Recycled Dreams will have several milestones early on including:

• Business plan completion. This will be done as a roadmap for the organization. This will be an indispensable tool for the ongoing performance and improvement of the company.
• Set up of the store front.
• The first month of profitability.
• Revenues exceeding $100,000.

Management Summary management summary will include information about who's on your team and why they're the right people for the job, as well as your future hiring plans.">

Connie Jugal received her undergraduate degree in communications from Portland State University. Connie put herself through school financially by working at the Salvation Army thrift store. Initially Connie worked at the Salvation Army as a register attendant. Within a year of working, she moved up to assistant manager first and then manager because of her attention to detail, her people skills, and her general management ability.

After graduating Connie was offered a regional manager position that put her in charge of three different stores. While Connie was not wanting to stay at the Salvation Army forever, she saw this offer as a unique opportunity, particularly for someone her age. While Connie was the regional manager, she was instrumental in raising revenues through sophisticated marketing and merchandising. She increased revenue 46% at store one over the previous year, 33% for store two, and 23% at store three. All three stores had between 1-5% revenue growth for the previous eight years. This revenue growth was quite a surprise relative to all the stores in Oregon for the last 10 years so Connie was offered an even larger territory for management the following year. While Connie was flattered to say the least, she recognized her need start her own business, to be her own boss. This was the beginning of Recycled Dreams.

6.1 Personnel Plan

Connie will work for Recycled Dreams full time. During month two Connie will hire one full-time person and one part-time person. The headcount will remain at four until month five when Connie will hire an additional full-time person. Connie has designed Recycled Dreams to be a very decentralized organization allowing all employees to share in responsibility for almost all tasks. Connie will also hire a part-time seamstress to make all the necessary alterations beginning in month two.

Financial Plan investor-ready personnel plan .">

The following sections will outline important financial information.

7.1 Important Assumptions

The following table details important financial assumptions.

7.2 Break-even Analysis

The Break-even Analysis indicates what will be needed in monthly revenue to reach the break-even point.

7.3 Projected Profit and Loss

The following table and charts display the projected profit and loss.

7.4 Projected Cash Flow

The following chart and table will indicate projected cash flow.

7.5 Projected Balance Sheet

The following table will indicate the projected balance sheet.

7.6 Business Ratios

The following tables shows a variety of standard business analysis ratios, as calculated for the years of this plan. The Industry Profile column shows, for comparison, typical ratios for other businesses in the Formal Wear and Costume Rental industry, NAICS code 532220.

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How To Start A Wedding Dress Rental Business

You’ve come to the right place if you want to learn how to start a wedding dress rental business. The best part about starting a wedding dress rental business is that you don’t have to be available on a set schedule to run it because, aside from customer phone calls and wedding dress deliveries and pickups, you don’t have to be available all of the time. Furthermore, the initial investment required to start a wedding dress business is relatively low. This step-by-step guide will assist you in learning more about this business venture and determining whether it is the right step for you as an entrepreneur.

Table of Contents

1. Familiarize yourself with Wedding Dress Rental Industry

Since weddings are always in demand, wedding dress rental businesses provide vital services to a specific demographic. The wedding dress rental businesses typically rent out a variety of weddings dresses. Brides, who do not want to spend a fortune on wedding dresses, rent the dress for short-term use. Since the brides will be only wearing the wedding dress for just one day, this service completely makes sense. When a wedding dress is rented, the rental company delivers it to the specified location and then returns it at the end of the rental period.

Brides don’t have to worry about purchasing a wedding dress that they’ll only need temporarily. Wedding dress rental businesses benefit from rental fees on their wedding dress on a regular basis, allowing them to profit from their one-time dress purchases and possibly scale the business by purchasing more wedding dresses in the inevitable future.

Market Research

The wedding niche is a huge industry. Wedding apparels account for a whopping 40 billion USD market in the USA alone. Many brides have begun to look into wedding dress rental options in order to save money. While sentimental brides will not tolerate a rental, others prefer to rent their wedding gowns in order to splurge on the reception or honeymoon. Another advantage of the wedding dress rental business is that it allows brides to wear styles of dresses that are out of their price range. Brides can afford to select from a much larger selection of styles and designs because they are not purchasing the dress. This creates a unique opportunity for someone to mainstream his/her passion for wedding dress into a home-based rental business online.

How much does it cost to start a wedding dress rental business?

You could start a wedding dress rental business at a basic level for around $6,000 assuming you buy just three wedding dresses for $4500 and budget $1500 for marketing and other expenses. An extra $5000 to $10,000 could get you a couple of designer wedding gowns to add to your inventory. That being said, if you want to operate on a bigger scale and provide a variety of wedding dresses for rent, it will easily cost you around $20,000 to $25,000 to get started.

Keep in mind, if you want to go really cheap, you can buy as you grow. If you don’t mind a little hard work, wedding dress rental is one of the best businesses to start and scale.

Is wedding dress rental business profitable?

The wedding dress rental business is one of the highly profitable businesses all year round. There is a pretty easy formula to calculate the profitability of a wedding dress rental service. For example, if you buy a wedding dress worth $2000, you can charge around $200 per day to your clients. Now think about it, if you just manage to rent the wedding dress for 10 days, you will get all your money back.

Is wedding dress rental business worth it?

The wedding dress rental business is absolutely worth it. With such low startup costs and high-profit margins, I think it is one of the best businesses to start in 2022. Not only that, the wedding dress rental business has a high scalability factor to it. That means, if you reinvest a certain portion of your profit back into the business, you can easily turn it into a million-dollar business pretty quickly.

2. Plan your Wedding Dress Rental Business

In order to start a successful wedding dress rental business, planning is critical. Let’s get into some of the key steps you will need to take while planning your wedding dress rental business.

Choose a name for your wedding dress rental business

Whether you want to start a wedding dress rental business or a utility trailer rental business , you must choose a name that reflects the values and beliefs of your business.

Keep in mind that the legal business name must comply with state naming rules in the states where you intend to operate your wedding dress rental business; otherwise, the state may refuse to accept the documents filed to form or qualify the company. Even though you are not looking to register your business when just starting out, you should put consideration while choosing a name. Think about the scenario where your wedding dress rental business suddenly takes off and you want to scale it by registering and trademarking the business name.

Shopify’s Business Name Generator is super useful while brainstorming brandable names for your wedding dress rental business. Once you decide the name of your wedding dress rental business, you need to perform three final checks.

• First, check your State’s business name database to see if your desired name for your wedding dress rental business is available.
• Second, do a domain name search to check if your business name is available as  yourbusinessname.com. If it is available go ahead and register the domain before anyone else gets it. BlueHost offers domain names free of cost if your purchase 1-year hosting package with them . You can use the tool below to see if the domain name is available.
• And lastly, do a federal search on the US Trademark Electronic Search System and make sure nobody has already trademarked your name.

If the name for your wedding dress rental business is available you can choose to trademark it, but honestly – don’t bother about it right now. It is a lengthy process and will cost you around $600. I would rather spend the money and time on marketing and scaling your wedding dress rental business.

Wedding dress rental business plan

If you want to start a successful wedding dress rental business, you will need a compelling business plan at a bare minimum. A well-written business plan should explain the company’s core objectives and how it plans to achieve them. One of the other purposes of a business plan is that it makes your wedding dress rental business look professional and appealing to prospective lenders and investors.

All in all, a well-written actionable business plan is a crucial document for your wedding dress rental business. Without it, you’d be running around in the darkness. 

A compelling business plan has many sections, some of the must-includes are:

• Executive Summary
• Business Description
• Market Analysis
• Competitor Analysis
• Services to Offer
• Competitive Pricing Strategy
• Marketing Strategy
• Financial Projections

You can use business plan software like BizPlan and Enloop to compose a professional-looking business plan for your wedding dress rental business. However, don’t get lazy and pay someone 10 bucks to write a business plan for your wedding dress rental business. You will need professional high-quality work that comes from within you.

3. Register your Wedding Dress Rental Business

You must first register your wedding dress rental business in order to operate it as a legal entity. However, before registering the company, you must first understand and choose a business structure for your wedding dress rental company. Because how you set up your wedding dress rental business will affect your taxes and legal obligations, you’ll want to make an informed decision.

Consider one of these most famous business structures:

a. Sole Proprietorship

A single person or a married couple owns this type of unincorporated business. Your company will not be required to register, and your taxes will be reported on your personal tax return.

b. General Partnership

An unincorporated business with multiple owners that operates similarly to a sole proprietorship in terms of registration and taxes.

c. Limited liability company (LLC)

A registered company that offers personal liability protection to all of its members in the event that your company gets sued. You can choose whether to be taxed as a partnership or a corporation.

Incfile offers one of the best services when it comes to forming an LLC. Their pricing starts from just $ 0 + filing fees. And these costs are often tax-deductible.

d. Corporation

This is a type of corporation, with S-corporations and C-corporations being the most common. The taxes you pay will vary depending on the type of corporation you form.

4. Register for Taxes and Obtain an EIN

As a business owner, you must ensure that you always follow the rules and regulations of both federal and state levels. That is, you must comply with all tax, licensing, and employer requirements. Taking the time to become acquainted with any legal requirements of running your wedding dress rental business will save you a lot of trouble—not to mention money and stress—down the road. The business entity you select, as well as other aspects of your wedding dress rental business, will determine what business taxes you must pay and how you must file them. It might be a good idea to consult with a tax professional right now to make sure you know what to expect.

If your wedding dress rental business relies on employees, you’ll need an employer identification number. This is also referred to as an EIN or a business tax ID number. You can obtain your EIN from the IRS for absolutely free plus online and use it when filing taxes for your wedding dress rental business. It will also be required if you open a business bank account, obtain a business credit card, or apply for a business loan. Even if you don’t intend to hire employees, there are significant other advantages to obtaining an EIN.

5. Get Funding for your Wedding Dress Rental Business

Even if you have the best wedding dress rental service that can win the hearts of brides from miles away, your business will fail if you don’t have enough money. It may sound absurd, but in order to make money, you must first have money. There is no getting around the fact that purchasing a wedding dress for just one-time use is costly. If it weren’t so expensive, everyone would buy one, and the scope of the wedding dress rental business would not exist. Not to mention paying high rent, marketing your service, and hiring employees with salaries and benefits.

Small businesses like wedding dress rental businesses can take advantage of numerous incentives, subsidies, loans, and equity investments. However, regardless of the funding source you choose, you will need to have (at a minimum) the following documents:

• A Wedding Dress Rental Business Plan
• Projected Financial Statements
• Tax returns of both the business owner and the business itself (when available)
• An explanatory document on how the money will be used
• A description of services offered by your wedding dress rental business

Once you’ve done the number crunching and figured out how much money you’ll need for your wedding dress rental business, you may look into the following choices.

• Obtain funds through SBA-backed lenders (Wells Fargo, US Bank, MidFirst Bank, etc.)
• Get funds through Banks
• Obtain funds through P2P lenders ( Prosper , Peerform , Lending Club , Funding Circle )

6. Promote your Wedding Dress Rental Business

Most business owners, for some reason, do not include marketing in their business strategy. This is likely one of the most serious mistakes you can make, and you should avoid it at all costs. For a service-oriented business like a wedding dress rental business, marketing makes or breaks your business. Furthermore, if you do not have a large sum of money to invest into your business right away, you must understand what it takes to successfully promote a wedding dress rental business. You’ll also need a solid marketing strategy and communication strategies in place.

Let’s go over some of the traditional and modern marketing strategies you can use to promote your wedding dress rental business.

Build a website

I can’t emphasize this enough. In order to run your wedding dress rental business, you will NEED a website. There is no getting around it. The world has gone digital, and you must establish a digital presence for your wedding dress rental business.

Make the most of the internet’s capabilities. You must customize your wedding dress rental website so that it is consistent with your brand. You can include images of your dresses as well as testimonials to make an excellent first impression on your visitors. Actions, after all, speak louder than words.

Remember to include your mission statement on your wedding dress rental website and explain why customers should rent from you. A website establishes a digital presence for your wedding dress rental business, allowing potential customers to search for and find you on the internet.

You can read my guide on how to make a basic website for your small business if you want to do it yourself. However, if you want someone else to work on the technicalities while you focus on acquiring more customers for your wedding dress rental business, we are ready to help you. Our $499 digital package comes with a professionally designed website, custom email, 24/7 support and maintenance, SEO, and digital marketing services. You wouldn’t want to miss the deal. Contact us today before the deal runs out.

Establish social media accounts

Set up social media accounts for your wedding dress rental business to establish a digital presence. You must be strategic in this regard, as you do not want to waste your time appearing on all social networks, especially those that do not correspond to your target audience.

You want your wedding dress rental business to be on these platforms, depending on the size of your operation:

Almost everyone nowadays uses social media not only to communicate with friends and family but also to shop for goods and services. Getting your wedding dress rental business in front of the right people can lead to more leads and sales. Furthermore, it can be used to keep current customers informed as well as to attract new customers.

Run Paid Ads

Paid Ads can target prospective customers based on a specific demographic and region, making them an excellent tool for your wedding dress rental business. Consider using paid advertising services such as Facebook Ads, Yelp, or Google AdWords. Furthermore, paid advertisements produce results quickly, allowing you to scale your wedding dress rental business both vertically and horizontally.

If you need any professional help to run paid ads for your wedding dress rental business, please contact us . We will be more than happy to provide you with help and resources for absolutely free.

How to Start a Costume Rental Business

While there is a greater demand for costumes during the Halloween season, many consumers have a need for costumes throughout the year. A costume business offers its customers costumes, wigs, and makeup for special events, theater performances, holidays, and festivals. Successful shops offer a combination of items available for rental and purchase, depending upon the needs of their customers.

Learn how to start your own Costume Rental Business and whether it is the right fit for you.

Ready to form your LLC? Check out the Top LLC Formation Services .

Start a costume rental business by following these 10 steps:

• Plan your Costume Rental Business
• Form your Costume Rental Business into a Legal Entity
• Register your Costume Rental Business for Taxes
• Open a Business Bank Account & Credit Card
• Set up Accounting for your Costume Rental Business
• Get the Necessary Permits & Licenses for your Costume Rental Business
• Get Costume Rental Business Insurance
• Define your Costume Rental Business Brand
• Create your Costume Rental Business Website
• Set up your Business Phone System

We have put together this simple guide to starting your costume rental business. These steps will ensure that your new business is well planned out, registered properly and legally compliant.

Exploring your options? Check out other small business ideas .

STEP 1: Plan your business

A clear plan is essential for success as an entrepreneur. It will help you map out the specifics of your business and discover some unknowns. A few important topics to consider are:

What will you name your business?

• What are the startup and ongoing costs?
• Who is your target market?

How much can you charge customers?

Luckily we have done a lot of this research for you.

Choosing the right name is important and challenging. If you don’t already have a name in mind, visit our How to Name a Business guide or get help brainstorming a name with our Costume Rental Business Name Generator

If you operate a sole proprietorship , you might want to operate under a business name other than your own name. Visit our DBA guide to learn more.

When registering a business name , we recommend researching your business name by checking:

• Your state's business records
• Federal and state trademark records
• Social media platforms
• Web domain availability .

It's very important to secure your domain name before someone else does.

Want some help naming your costume rental business?

Business name generator, what are the costs involved in opening a costume rental business.

Before making any business purchases, a location must be chosen. Setting up shop near a theater, school, or church is a great way to start building a loyal customer base. Once you’ve settled on a location, start designing and filling your space. Ample storage and display cases will help with maintaining organization. These can often be purchased used, which will allow you to reallocate a portion of your budget. If your work space’s current floor plan doesn’t already have changing rooms, consult with a reputable contractor to discuss renovations. Building specifics, local code, and scope of the project will define contractor costs, ranging anywhere from $3,000 to more than $20,000. Before signing a lease, have a general contractor inspect the building and discuss your needs. This will safeguard against unexpected issues and ensure you budget properly.

Whether you offer rentals only, or plan to sell as well, your business will need to be set up like a retail space. Business tools such as a cash register, credit card machine, computer system, and business software will lay the foundation for a successful shop. Set aside $3,000 - $4,500 of your budget to purchase or lease these items.

Additional items you’ll need are:

• Name and logo design that will draw people in
• Business cards
• Website - Cost for a simple site build ranges between $1,500 - $3,500. If you plan to sell inventory online, invest in an Ecommerce site. This has the potential to double your initial website cost, but is a great way to increase profits.
• Inventory - Costumes, wigs, makeup, and jewelry. Pieces vary in price from just a few dollars, to several hundred.

Total start-up costs, assuming your storefront doesn’t require major renovations, average from $5,000 to $27,000.

What are the ongoing expenses for a costume rental business?

Aside from the standard operational expenses, your biggest overhead expense will be payroll and inventory. Each new trend signals the need to purchase new costumes and accessories. That, coupled with the need to replace pieces that were lost or damaged, means you’ll need to consistently expand your collection. Specific costs vary, depending upon the type and quality of costumes and how many are purchased.

Who is the target market?

Most consumers have the need to shop for a costume at least once a year. The bulk of your business, however, will come from specific niches, such as: theater groups, schools, churches, and musicians. These are often very tight knit communities, so establishing a positive reputation with these groups will help your business achieve success.

How does a costume rental business make money?

Shops generate revenue through the sale and rental of costume items. Shop owners set rental prices, which vary from item to item. In addition to the rental fee, customers put down a deposit in case the item is lost or damaged. For sale item profits vary depending upon wholesale cost; shop around and build relationships with wholesalers to minimize inventory costs.

Costume rentals range in price from $35 to $250. Customers pay a flat fee per day. To accommodate longer rentals, consider offering special pricing and discounts.

How much profit can a costume rental business make?

Smaller businesses report an annual profit of $35,000 - $50,000. Shops located in urban areas are generally larger, allowing for a higher profit margin, generating a profit of up to $250,000. One entrepreneur started her business out of her home. With an emphasis on princess parties, she was able to work part-time and realized a profit of $27,000 in her first year.

How can you make your business more profitable?

Successful entrepreneurs continuously seek out innovative opportunities to generate more profit for their business. The following are a few strategies other costume shop owners have implemented to ensure a more profitable business:

• If you enjoy the process, consider manufacturing your own costumes and accessories that could be sold or rented to individuals. While your start-up and ongoing expenses will increase, as you’ll need to invest in reliable equipment and quality fabric. The profit margin on your own creations, however, is much higher than on items purchased wholesale.
• Host community workshops or courses, where you teach students how to make their own costumes.
• Expand your business to include the sale and/or rental of decorations and props for theaters and parties.
• If your business strategy includes catering to the acting community, offer delivery service. Just make sure you track transportation and maintenance expenses and charge a fair delivery fee.
• Sell costumes and accessories online.
• Consider offering franchising opportunities.

Want a more guided approach? Access TRUiC's free Small Business Startup Guide - a step-by-step course for turning your business idea into reality. Get started today!

STEP 2: Form a legal entity

The most common business structure types are the sole proprietorship , partnership , limited liability company (LLC) , and corporation .

Establishing a legal business entity such as an LLC or corporation protects you from being held personally liable if your costume rental business is sued.

Form Your LLC

Read our Guide to Form Your Own LLC

Have a Professional Service Form your LLC for You

Two such reliable services:

You can form an LLC yourself and pay only the minimal state LLC costs or hire one of the Best LLC Services for a small, additional fee.

Recommended: You will need to elect a registered agent for your LLC. LLC formation packages usually include a free year of registered agent services . You can choose to hire a registered agent or act as your own.

STEP 3: Register for taxes

You will need to register for a variety of state and federal taxes before you can open for business.

In order to register for taxes you will need to apply for an EIN. It's really easy and free!

You can acquire your EIN through the IRS website . If you would like to learn more about EINs, read our article, What is an EIN?

There are specific state taxes that might apply to your business. Learn more about state sales tax and franchise taxes in our state sales tax guides.

STEP 4: Open a business bank account & credit card

Using dedicated business banking and credit accounts is essential for personal asset protection.

When your personal and business accounts are mixed, your personal assets (your home, car, and other valuables) are at risk in the event your business is sued. In business law, this is referred to as piercing your corporate veil .

Open a business bank account

Besides being a requirement when applying for business loans, opening a business bank account:

• Separates your personal assets from your company's assets, which is necessary for personal asset protection.
• Makes accounting and tax filing easier.

Recommended: Read our Best Banks for Small Business review to find the best national bank or credit union.

Get a business credit card

Getting a business credit card helps you:

• Separate personal and business expenses by putting your business' expenses all in one place.
• Build your company's credit history , which can be useful to raise money later on.

Recommended: Apply for an easy approval business credit card from BILL and build your business credit quickly.

STEP 5: Set up business accounting

Recording your various expenses and sources of income is critical to understanding the financial performance of your business. Keeping accurate and detailed accounts also greatly simplifies your annual tax filing.

Make LLC accounting easy with our LLC Expenses Cheat Sheet.

STEP 6: Obtain necessary permits and licenses

Failure to acquire necessary permits and licenses can result in hefty fines, or even cause your business to be shut down.

Federal Business Licensing Requirements

If creating your own costumes, make sure to comply with the Federal Trade Commission’s regulations for labelling clothing products .

State & Local Business Licensing Requirements

Certain state permits and licenses may be needed to operate a costume rental business. Learn more about licensing requirements in your state by visiting SBA’s reference to state licenses and permits .

Most businesses are required to collect sales tax on the goods or services they provide. To learn more about how sales tax will affect your business, read our article, Sales Tax for Small Businesses .

STEP 7: Get business insurance

Just as with licenses and permits, your business needs insurance in order to operate safely and lawfully. Business Insurance protects your company’s financial wellbeing in the event of a covered loss.

There are several types of insurance policies created for different types of businesses with different risks. If you’re unsure of the types of risks that your business may face, begin with General Liability Insurance . This is the most common coverage that small businesses need, so it’s a great place to start for your business.

Another notable insurance policy that many businesses need is Workers’ Compensation Insurance . If your business will have employees, it’s a good chance that your state will require you to carry Workers' Compensation Coverage.

FInd out what types of insurance your Costume Rental Business needs and how much it will cost you by reading our guide Business Insurance for Costume Rental Business.

STEP 8: Define your brand

Your brand is what your company stands for, as well as how your business is perceived by the public. A strong brand will help your business stand out from competitors.

If you aren't feeling confident about designing your small business logo, then check out our Design Guides for Beginners , we'll give you helpful tips and advice for creating the best unique logo for your business.

Recommended : Get a logo using Truic's free logo Generator no email or sign up required, or use a Premium Logo Maker .

If you already have a logo, you can also add it to a QR code with our Free QR Code Generator . Choose from 13 QR code types to create a code for your business cards and publications, or to help spread awareness for your new website.

How to promote & market a costume rental business

Because the costume business ebbs and flows, your marketing strategy should be focused and analyzed for improvement regularly. An online presence, particularly on social media, is a great way to reach potential customers.

Target previously mentioned niche groups. Direct mailers and advertising in school yearbooks and play programs are effective strategies for getting your name remembered throughout the community. Many of these niche communities are very tightly knit. Take the time to get involved and get to know them on a personal and professional level. Participate in parades and set up booths at local special events - networking could prove to be your strongest marketing tool.

How to keep customers coming back

September and October are big months for the costume industry, with merchandise flying off the shelves as fast as employees can stock them. To build a solid customer base that generates revenue year round, you’ll need to get creative. Research other costume shops in your area. What are they lacking? What do they have too much stock of? What target opportunities are they not catering to? By offering items the community is lacking, you have a leg up on the competition. Above all else, consistently delivering quality products and services will help ensure customer retention.

STEP 9: Create your business website

After defining your brand and creating your logo the next step is to create a website for your business .

While creating a website is an essential step, some may fear that it’s out of their reach because they don’t have any website-building experience. While this may have been a reasonable fear back in 2015, web technology has seen huge advancements in the past few years that makes the lives of small business owners much simpler.

Here are the main reasons why you shouldn’t delay building your website:

• All legitimate businesses have websites - full stop. The size or industry of your business does not matter when it comes to getting your business online.
• Social media accounts like Facebook pages or LinkedIn business profiles are not a replacement for a business website that you own.
• Website builder tools like the GoDaddy Website Builder have made creating a basic website extremely simple. You don’t need to hire a web developer or designer to create a website that you can be proud of.

Recommended : Get started today using our recommended website builder or check out our review of the Best Website Builders .

Other popular website builders are: WordPress , WIX , Weebly , Squarespace , and Shopify .

STEP 10: Set up your business phone system

Getting a phone set up for your business is one of the best ways to help keep your personal life and business life separate and private. That’s not the only benefit; it also helps you make your business more automated, gives your business legitimacy, and makes it easier for potential customers to find and contact you.

There are many services available to entrepreneurs who want to set up a business phone system. We’ve reviewed the top companies and rated them based on price, features, and ease of use. Check out our review of the Best Business Phone Systems 2023 to find the best phone service for your small business.

Recommended Business Phone Service: Phone.com

Phone.com is our top choice for small business phone numbers because of all the features it offers for small businesses and it's fair pricing.

Is this Business Right For You?

This business is best suited for individuals who are creative and passionate about the entertainment industry. Due to the nature of this business, owners should enjoy working with people. Many customers will enter your store feeling self-conscious; your passion for putting together costumes should be infectious, helping ease their apprehension.

Want to know if you are cut out to be an entrepreneur?

Take our Entrepreneurship Quiz to find out!

Entrepreneurship Quiz

What happens during a typical day at a costume rental business?

Many consider the costume industry a seasonal business. If you build a proper marketing strategy, however, there are a number of ways to minimize downtime and ensure a profitable business year round. A typical day will look something like this:

• Check and answer emails and phone messages
• Set up and attend meetings with clients who need assistance putting outfits together for a special event
• Checking in and inspecting returned costumes
• Cleaning returned costumes before re-stocking on shelf
• Placing orders to replenish inventory
• Researching the latest trends

Additionally, there are a number of administrative duties you’ll be tasked with. As revenue increases, consider hiring a trusted team member to handle the day-to-day office tasks.

What are some skills and experiences that will help you build a successful costume rental business?

Owning a costume rental shop is exciting, as it appeals to one’s artistic side. Many artists find it easy to get caught up in their passion, forgetting there is a business to run. It takes a disciplined individual with strong business and marketing acumen to ensure the business is set up for success. Strong interpersonal skills are a must, as you’ll spend much of your day catering to the needs of customers.

Your client base will consist of individuals from every demographic. Many will have an idea in their head of what they’re looking for, yet unable to express it clearly. The ability to listen, ask the right questions, and draw answers out of customers will help you consistently deliver excellent service. As mentioned, a creative mind will serve you well in this industry. Perhaps even more important, however, is having an eye for detail and a passion for research. If a theater group needs you to furnish the costumes for their newest play, set in Ireland in 1926, you don’t want to deliver items modeled after 1926 London.

As part of your research, make sure you stay abreast of the latest trends. Organizational skills are also beneficial in this industry. Starting out, you might only have twenty or thirty costumes. As your business grows, however, you’ll find yourself with hundreds of costumes. Implementing a strategy for keeping things organized from the onset will ensure inventory is properly managed and easy to find.

What is the growth potential for a costume rental business?

Just the Halloween retail and rental industry alone is worth over $7 billion annually, and is still rising. Stocking inventory that caters to niches previously mentioned will help achieve your business goals. Some costume shop owners prefer to remain small, limiting their service to members of their community, while others strive for a multi-million dollar business. With commitment and a strong business plan, your shop has the potential to grow on a national level.

TRUiC's YouTube Channel

For fun informative videos about starting a business visit the TRUiC YouTube Channel or subscribe to view later.

Take the Next Step

Find a business mentor.

One of the greatest resources an entrepreneur can have is quality mentorship. As you start planning your business, connect with a free business resource near you to get the help you need.

Having a support network in place to turn to during tough times is a major factor of success for new business owners.

Learn from other business owners

Want to learn more about starting a business from entrepreneurs themselves? Visit Startup Savant’s startup founder series to gain entrepreneurial insights, lessons, and advice from founders themselves.

Resources to Help Women in Business

There are many resources out there specifically for women entrepreneurs. We’ve gathered necessary and useful information to help you succeed both professionally and personally:

If you’re a woman looking for some guidance in entrepreneurship, check out this great new series Women in Business created by the women of our partner Startup Savant.

What are some insider tips for jump starting a costume rental business?

The following are some tips from successful costume rental shop owners:

• Before committing, research and visit the local competition. Identify their strengths and weaknesses Their weaknesses offer an opportunity to bring something unique to the community.
• As part of your initial and ongoing investment, start a library of period and present-day costume books. This will serve as a great reference when a question pops up.
• Include a section for fancy dresses. Themed parties have gained popularity in recent years and will increase your profits year round.
• If possible, choose a location in an area where people are well off.
• Don’t try to do everything at once. When building your collection, focus on purchasing costumes that represent the latest trends, as well as the staples every costume shop should have. Stock up on the most popular sizes first; you can always add more sizes later.
• If your initial budget is slim, invest in a little lower quality costumes, at least until you have the essentials. Once you’ve built up a collection and more capital, you can start replacing them with better quality pieces.
• Those with a larger budget should invest in high quality costumes from the start. The pieces will last longer and you’ll build a reputation for quality goods and services.
• Remember to carry an ample supply of plus size pieces.

How and when to build a team

To save on overhead expenses, running the business yourself is a viable option. Once business starts to pick up, or the busy season starts, you can start building a team. Many costume shops hire temporary employees to get them through the busy season. High school and college students are a great option, as they understand the latest trends and often attract friends and family who might otherwise not have visited your establishment.

Once you’ve built a trusted team, you’ll have more opportunities to focus on the aspects of the business you’re most passionate about. Just be sure you have a knowledgeable and well-rounded team, so all your clients needs are met.

Useful Links

Industry opportunities.

• Costume store directory

Real World Examples

• Costume Rental Agency for Not for Profit Theatre
• Profile on costume shop owner
• Small theater costume rental shop
• Independent costume shop
• One of the largest theater costume rental facilities

Further Reading

• Information on Halloween costume pop-up-shops
• Tips on starting a costume business

Have a Question? Leave a Comment!

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Top 5 Bridesmaid Dress Rental Websites

Bridesmaid dresses are gorgeous gowns, but unfortunately most women only wear them once. That’s why more and more bridal parties are opting to rent bridesmaids dresses and return them after the big day. 

Renting bridesmaid dresses makes a lot of sense, since you’ll likely only wear them once and it’s cheaper to rent. The only barrier is where to find bridesmaid dress rentals. 

We’ve done the research for you, so you can search for the perfect bridal party dresses on these rental sites.

Can you rent bridesmaid dresses? 

Yes! Renting bridesmaid dresses is a popular option to save some money and save a dress from wasting away in your closet after the wedding. Not all bridesmaid dress companies offer rentals, however, so you’ll have to seek out dresses available to rent. 

Check out these popular bridesmaid dress rental websites! 

Rent the Runway

Rent the Runway is the most well-known website for renting formalwear, making it a great site for both wedding guests and members of the wedding party. They even rent wedding gowns! 

Because Rent the Runway has been established for quite some time, there are lots of great options to find on this website. Whether you want long or short gowns, specific colors, varying sizes, or even designer names, you can find something here. 

Rentals typically last for a four day window, although you can inquire about keeping a dress for longer if necessary. They also allow you to pick two sizes for no additional charge, so you can make sure you get the right size for the big day if you’re not sure which is right for you. 

Rentals start at $30 and while some are more expensive, you can rent a high fashion gown for a small fraction of the original price with Rent the RunWay. 

Style Lend makes it easy to rent bridesmaid gowns, and you can even lend your old dresses from past weddings on here to make a quick buck! This site features lots of different items, including designer gowns that could be perfect for your bridal party.

While Rent the Runway has its own collection of items, on Style Lend you’re renting directly from other people who lend on the site. It’s safe to use, however, so you can rest assured that the dress you order will come as pictured. 

Style Lend rentals typically last 7 days, although you can negotiate a longer period with your lender if necessary. If you get the dress and it doesn’t fit or you just don’t like it, you can return it and get a full refund. They offer a wide range of dress sizes and styles, so there are plenty of options on Style Lend. 

Another great feature that Style Lend offers is insurance for only $5. That way, if you spill something on your dress, you won’t be charged the full price of the gown. 

Poshare is another online clothing rental website that has plenty of options for bridesmaids! Much like Style Lend, Poshare lets you browse other users’ wardrobes and rent their gently used dresses. You can also sign up to lend your used gowns on this site too! 

Poshare has a large selection of bridesmaids dresses and other formalwear, including designers like Adrianna Pappell, Clarisse, and more. You can filter by size, length, color, price, and more. Rentals typically start at around $50, a bargain for a designer gown that cost a lot more to buy. 

It may be difficult (though not impossible) to find matching bridesmaid dresses on this type of site, but if you’re going for the mismatched bridesmaid look , there are plenty of gorgeous options. You can also find dresses for the mother of the bride or groom, wedding guest dresses, and more! 

You can choose to rent your gown for 4, 7, or 14 days with Poshare.

BridesMade is an online store for buying and renting bridesmaid dresses. This site makes it easy to find the right dress for your occasion, with a style quiz, fit finder survey, and a home try-on kit so that you can test the dress out in person.

BridesMade has several options for any budget: buy a new dress, buy your dress used for a lesser cost, or rent the dress and return it after the wedding day. 

Their home try-on kit lets you order 4 dresses and sends a color swatch ring so that you can see the color of the fabric in person. For only $40, you can get a test run of your dress so that you know that the size and style are perfect for you. 

BridesMade offers a large selection of styles and colors, so you can find the perfect dress for each of your bridesmaids on this site and ensure that they all match in color and even style. Rentals range from $75 to $99, and some of the used gowns are available to buy for even cheaper!

Lending Luxury

Lending Luxury is another high end dress rental option with plenty of big designer names. With this website, bridesmaids can rent dresses for the wedding and look fabulous while saving money. 

Lending Luxury rentals start at about $50 depending on the dress you’re looking for, and they offer longer rental times – you can rent your gown for 5, 10, or even 15 days. That way, you have plenty of time to get ready for the wedding, enjoy the celebration, and return your gown. 

It’s easy to browse dresses on Lending Luxury, as you can search by occasion, designer, color, length, and more. There’s even a section called “As Seen on Celebs” so that you can emulate your favorite celebrity! 

Why Rent Bridesmaid Dresses? 

Renting bridesmaid dresses is a relatively new concept, so you may wonder why some bridal parties choose this option. There are several reasons to rent instead of buying, so if you don’t want to hold onto your bridesmaid dress forever, consider these benefits!

Buying a bridesmaid dress is often one of the most expensive responsibilities of being in a bridal party . Formal dresses are expensive, so consider renting a gown to save money! If you’re on a tight budget, renting is definitely the cheaper option.

More Sustainable 

Manufacturing dresses and other garments is bad for the environment , so if you’re looking for an eco-friendly option for your wedding , renting is a great option! Buying used or secondhand dresses is another way to sustainably dress for the wedding. 

Since the dress has already been made, there is less environmental impact to renting. Plus, that one garment can be used again and again when rented out to different people! 

Save Room in Your Closet 

Even if you love your bridesmaid dress, there’s a good chance that you’ll never have an occasion to wear it again. Many former bridesmaids have lovely gowns collecting dust in their closets.

By renting, you can save that space in your closet for something else, instead of holding onto a dress that you won’t use but keep for sentimental reasons.

When Should Bridesmaids Rent their Gowns? 

It’s common to have your bridesmaids gowns picked out and ordered at least 6 months prior to the wedding. When renting, you may want to book your dress earlier so that there are more options available for your wedding date. 

Check the website that you plan to use to see when they recommend renting your bridesmaid dress. Most rentals last between 4 days and 15 days, so you’ll want to make sure that you have time to get it before the wedding and enough time to send it back afterwards.

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