Rent Your Look: An Online Fashion Website

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The package deals of $30 will not be offered for the designer items. These items will be offered at a specific rental price and will have the option of adding accessories and shoes for $15 in addition to the rental price for the designer garment chosen. The prices for these items have been chosen after extensively researching our biggest competitor Rent The Runway and after looking at the prices of the clothes from the retail stores we will be having on our site (Forbes, 2013).

Sizes for both retail and designer brands will vary with the specific article of clothing. All sizes may not be available on the website at all times, depending on what is being rented out and what the inventory is at that time. This also occurs with shopping in stores, as some sizes may be sold out or unavailable. Most items will be first come first serve especially with the designer items as only a few of each garment will be available at the same time.

Shoppers will have the items they have rented for a one-week period, with options for extended rental time. This time frame allows the shopper to wear the items if not once, multiple times and get the good use out of the items. Shoppers will also have the option to rent their order for a longer amount of time. However, after a month if the order is not returned, shoppers will be charged retail price for the items they did not send back in the correct time frame. We will put a hold on the credit card used until the items are returned and then the shopper will be charged the rental price for their shipment. This hold will be released after a month if the clothes are not returned and the shopper will be charged full price for the shipment. Disclaimers will be very visible on the website and each shopper will be notified of this policy throughout their entire checkout. Shoppers will also have the option to choose a dry cleaning service that Rent Your Look will cover at check out as well. Rent Your Look offers to cover any dry cleaning fee with a receipt attached to the order upon return, proving the use of the service. The fee for the dry cleaning will be taken off the bill and refunded to the shopper. If clothes are returned and are damaged in any way, and the shopper did not choose the dry cleaning service, they will be charged retail price for the item that is damaged. Rent Your Look also sends a prepaid, preaddressed envelope or box, depending on the size of the order, for the shopper to easily send back the clothes. Delivery is free with every purchase as well. If a shopper is renting for a special occasion, there is an option on the website to write any specific requirements, such as fashion tape or spanx needed for the garment. These specified extras would be included with rental, free of charge.

Rent Your Look will be a sole proprietor at its start, as Jacquelyn Beaulieu will own the company and domain name. Depending on popularity and successfulness of the company, partnerships may be considered when the time comes. Rent Your Look will employ a small number or people who will help with sending out orders, and pulling orders from the inventory. Jacquelyn Beaulieu will be the owner and the stylist for the featured looks on the website. The small number of employees will also act as hands on customer service that is available by email or personal phone to answer questions between 9am and 6pm Monday through Friday.

At the start of the company, retail stores will be offered to put their clothes on the site and whatever the store gives will be on the site for rent and purchase. Designers will also be approached to give their garments from past seasons to put on the site for rent and purchase as well. Designers in the fashion industry are always looking for ways to support up and coming companies and ideas that will give their collections the most exposure possible. The support from high-end designers will be achieved easily as they will be eager to help and put their name out in the market to new demographics. This is the only “partnership” that will exist for the company at its start. The retail stores and designers who support our business will give the clothes to us without making any profit on our sales.

Implementation

Rent Your Look, RYL as a company we intend to be the bridge between wanting and having, even if it’s only for a little while. RYL will feature the latest trends and styling in the industry for more than half of the retail price. Selling clothes for rental purposes gives consumers the chance to own something they might have not been able to afford, for a time period for a special occasion or event and feel amazing (Talukar, 2012). We have clothes and accessories from the biggest retail stores in the world, including H&M, Zara, TopShop, TopMan, and Mango. We also have an impressive collection of designer garments for both men and women from a range of well-known designers from the US and from Europe. We believe that every person should have the opportunity to look and more importantly feel their best and we want to be the place people can finally have that opportunity.

As a small company with a tight knit employee group, business will run smoothly and efficiently. Our employees not only love the fashion industry, they also love making people happy. Working from their personal phones they will have set hours just like an office job and tasks to do to ensure the best costumer service to our customers possible. Tasks will include keeping inventory of shipping tools up to date, having meetings with designers we work with and discussing upcoming collections for the site, window shopping at the retail stores we pull from to keep the clothes and accessory inventory as trendy as possible, and answers emails from and taking phone calls from customers will questions they may have. Jacquelyn Beaulieu the CEO of the company will have a showroom in her apartment in Manhattan for designers to come and look at our inventory if requested and for daily meeting with the employees to discuss finished daily tasks and daily reports in order to keep everyone up to date. As we have seen with our competitor Rent The Runway, having a large business with many employees loses the intimate customer employee relationship. Customer service and feedback is affected negatively due to company being large. Smaller details customers look for in a website are lost.

One employee will be the website manager and will keep the site clean and organized with new inventory and make the site easy to use and astatically pleasing for the customers. Jacquelyn will also be the head designer for the complete looks that will be featured of the website and will discuss styling opinions for the upcoming week at each daily meeting with the rest of the team in order for each persons opinion