e-com plan subscription to luxury brands

[Asap_Luca]

Hello everyone! How you doing? So, I'm putting out a lot of ideas and i'm trying to get the most out from them. Basically i see that a lot of people, especially girls and boys here in Italy who have a classic 9-5 job, they 're not earning a lot to dress like they would, since everyone, almost, like to dress with big brands on their shirts because we love brands. everyone of us like brands, it only depends on what we recognize ourselves with the values of the brand itself, regardless of what they are ( Nike, adidas, Gucci, dior ecc...) and I'm thinking about open an e-commerce where you can rent your favourite clothes (only brands like Gucci, since im in italy a lot of people like it, Louis Vuitton ecc...) by paying a subscription plan. A simple pair of Gucci's shoes cost something like 500/600€, and with this plan you can pay 30€ (for instance) and have 2 PRODUCTS that every three months ( a lot of details have to be discussed) you can change. Maybe in your country already exist something like this, but here online i found only a couple of shops that have this form of renting clothes and they're only for wedding, if this idea could have a good execution our target could be everyone who like to dress like he really wants with a lot of luxury brands that he can't afford, and we can serve them to have what they want and earning money every month with the same products. let me know what you think, it's really important to me to learn a lot from you experienced guys!

 

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[Kung Fu Steve]

Hello everyone! How you doing? So, I'm putting out a lot of ideas and i'm trying to get the most out from them. Basically i see that a lot of people, especially girls and boys here in Italy who have a classic 9-5 job, they 're not earning a lot to dress like they would, since everyone, almost, like to dress with big brands on their shirts because we love brands. everyone of us like brands, it only depends on what we recognize ourselves with the values of the brand itself, regardless of what they are ( Nike, adidas, Gucci, dior ecc...) and I'm thinking about open an e-commerce where you can rent your favourite clothes (only brands like Gucci, since im in italy a lot of people like it, Louis Vuitton ecc...) by paying a subscription plan. A simple pair of Gucci's shoes cost something like 500/600€, and with this plan you can pay 30€ (for instance) and have 2 PRODUCTS that every three months ( a lot of details have to be discussed) you can change. Maybe in your country already exist something like this, but here online i found only a couple of shops that have this form of renting clothes and they're only for wedding, if this idea could have a good execution our target could be everyone who like to dress like he really wants with a lot of luxury brands that he can't afford, and we can serve them to have what they want and earning money every month with the same products. let me know what you think, it's really important to me to learn a lot from you experienced guys!

I have seen a couple of these sort of businesses work here in the U.S. but they were for wedding dresses, ball gowns, and other extremely expensive clothing items ($3,000-30,000 range) for special occasions.

I'm not so sure you want to bother with a $300 Gucci T-Shirt.

The nice thing about the internet is that you don't have to be confined to your local market -- you can sell to anyone.

If you want a successful business I can offer two bits of advice:

1. Don't sell to broke people

2. Don't sell to broke people

(I'm being silly, but serious)

You have SO many resources in Italy for high-end clothing. You could easily private label from the same factories that make these high-end brands and sell your own brand (or just sell theirs).

 

[Asap_Luca]

I have seen a couple of these sort of businesses work here in the U.S. but they were for wedding dresses, ball gowns, and other extremely expensive clothing items ($3,000-30,000 range) for special occasions.

I'm not so sure you want to bother with a $300 Gucci T-Shirt.

The nice thing about the internet is that you don't have to be confined to your local market -- you can sell to anyone.

If you want a successful business I can offer two bits of advice:

1. Don't sell to broke people

2. Don't sell to broke people

(I'm being silly, but serious)

You have SO many resources in Italy for high-end clothing. You could easily private label from the same factories that make these high-end brands and sell your own brand (or just sell theirs).

Wise words, the idea was born because i see a lot of people that are classic workers and wearing a shirt cost 1/5 of their salary and start thinking a way to give them what they want how they want by a subscription plan. So, do you think is an idea to purse and go deep into? I really appreciate your tips

 

[Kung Fu Steve]

Wise words, the idea was born because i see a lot of people that are classic workers and wearing a shirt cost 1/5 of their salary and start thinking a way to give them what they want how they want by a subscription plan. So, do you think is an idea to purse and go deep into? I really appreciate your tips

The most successful businesses in the world sell status or increased significance.

Those people you are mentioning are buying those clothes because they believe it raises their status. If someone found out it was rented they might experience decreased status.

That's a much bigger conversation.

But if you want to get into high-end clothing let me give you an example of someone who is on this forum.

She loves Italy. Goes there multiple times a year. Loves shopping in Italy. She buys silk. Goes down to the same factory that makes Kiton ties (as well as others), and has them make ties for her. She created her own name, brand, and now sells $300 hand-made 100% Italian silk blah blah blah.

It's just a side business for her but whenever she pushes it she makes tens of thousands of dollars just selling ties.

There are so many resources in Italy that if you just decided on one or two things to pursue, you could create incredible stuff. Food, clothing, shoes -- everyone loves Italian quality.

 

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[Asap_Luca]

The most successful businesses in the world sell status or increased significance.

Those people you are mentioning are buying those clothes because they believe it raises their status. If someone found out it was rented they might experience decreased status.

That's a much bigger conversation.

But if you want to get into high-end clothing let me give you an example of someone who is on this forum.

She loves Italy. Goes there multiple times a year. Loves shopping in Italy. She buys silk. Goes down to the same factory that makes Kiton ties (as well as others), and has them make ties for her. She created her own name, brand, and now sells $300 hand-made 100% Italian silk blah blah blah.

It's just a side business for her but whenever she pushes it she makes tens of thousands of dollars just selling ties.

There are so many resources in Italy that if you just decided on one or two things to pursue, you could create incredible stuff. Food, clothing, shoes -- everyone loves Italian quality.

"The most successful business in the world sell status or increased significance"
this really hit me!
thanks for your advices

 

[Makaveli7]

This sounds interesting, and there's a company called Rent The Runway that does something like this. They are publicly traded so I looked at their financials and they seem to be losing a lot of money. It would seem a lot of upfront costs are required and it would take some time before a breakeven point. (For example, a $600 shirt that costs $25/month to rent would take 24 months to breakeven, but by then the shirt would be dirty/worn/out of fashion.

How are you planning to execute this and make it financially viable?

 

[Asap_Luca]

This sounds interesting, and there's a company called Rent The Runway that does something like this. They are publicly traded so I looked at their financials and they seem to be losing a lot of money. It would seem a lot of upfront costs are required and it would take some time before a breakeven point. (For example, a $600 shirt that costs $25/month to rent would take 24 months to breakeven, but by then the shirt would be dirty/worn/out of fashion.

How are you planning to execute this and make it financially viable?

Since i do not have money to open a store or have a warehouse to put everything, i would contact the store manager of one shop and i would try to convince him to let me open a website with their products on it, because they're really the best on this because they have 98% of brands people like, and the main idea was to create a site, or app, in which you can take in rent 2 products with 40/50€ for months. Prices still to define. And i would put 3 types of subscription based on how much the total products cost. The real problem is how can i convince them to do it? in long-term we can be paid to give people the same product, because things like bags do not necessarly ruin too much. If the product is too much damaged, we can recycle to create the same product, if it doesn't we can fix it. Now i'm trying to figured it out if it's worth pursuing this or other ideas, i feel like i'm Jeff Trotmans, just finding ideas worth value lol.

 

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[Antifragile]

Luxury car rental barely works …
Wedding clothes rents for 1/3 to 1/2 of the value for first renter (because it’s “used” for the 2nd renter)
Luxury watches have second hand market - quite good.
Your idea may work… but I’m a skeptic only because you said “clothes”. Imagine trying to manage damage of scuff marks on luxury shoes etc. Execution would have to be flawless and “you damage it, you own it” must then be accepted by your customer who cannot afford it in the first place.

It’s easy to poo poo ideas on the internet. I try my best not to do that here. Only when I see clear flaws…

Have you tried creating a dummy website and seeing if there is even a market for this?

 

[Asap_Luca]

Luxury car rental barely works …
Wedding clothes rents for 1/3 to 1/2 of the value for first renter (because it’s “used” for the 2nd renter)
Luxury watches have second hand market - quite good.
Your idea may work… but I’m a skeptic only because you said “clothes”. Imagine trying to manage damage of scuff marks on luxury shoes etc. Execution would have to be flawless and “you damage it, you own it” must then be accepted by your customer who cannot afford it in the first place.

It’s easy to poo poo ideas on the internet. I try my best not to do that here. Only when I see clear flaws…

Have you tried creating a dummy website and seeing if there is even a market for this?

There is no problem man, if anyone tell me that my idea sucks I don’t give a damn because I just want to hear their feedback, I want to hear the truth not want I want to hear and if my idea sucks and is not worth pursuing I will come up with another and another one
Not yet, still trying to see if its worth pursuing, because I come up today with this idea but from what I ve seen there is no website that really have a good catalog of luxury clothes here. Imagine a Zalando but for luxury brand. Yes I perfectly understand what you’re saying, I’m trying to understand if there is a way to resolve it. Let’s say you have bought a couple of Louis Vuitton shoes for a subscription plan of 50€/m, and shoes obviously got dirty after a couple of weeks, you change the products and the shoes return to me, if the product it’s very damaged I would like to recycle them to create the same exact product from at least majority of material from the shoes, I don’t know if it even possible but it could be helpful to trying to resolve, but I will ask at people who created them since I’ve written a couple of emails.

 

[Makaveli7]

Since i do not have money to open a store or have a warehouse to put everything, i would contact the store manager of one shop and i would try to convince him to let me open a website with their products on it, because they're really the best on this because they have 98% of brands people like, and the main idea was to create a site, or app, in which you can take in rent 2 products with 40/50€ for months. Prices still to define. And i would put 3 types of subscription based on how much the total products cost. The real problem is how can i convince them to do it? in long-term we can be paid to give people the same product, because things like bags do not necessarly ruin too much. If the product is too much damaged, we can recycle to create the same product, if it doesn't we can fix it. Now i'm trying to figured it out if it's worth pursuing this or other ideas, i feel like i'm Jeff Trotmans, just finding ideas worth value lol.

The partnership idea might work, depending on the deal and the numbers. I don't think there's a way to find out if it will work just theorizing on the forum, because ultimately, the market decides. If you decide to pursue this, let us know how it goes

 

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[TheJon]

Interesting idea! There are some concepts in the US you can compare your idea to. Express (clothes) offers subscription outfits (as do many other smaller retailers). You trade the clothes back or buy them in various formats. There is a company called Vivrelle that does something around purses, shoes, etc in that format.

I imagine clothes "depreciate" at like 50% per user. So I don't know how many repeats you'd get before your item is not really worth while to keep shipping around. I wonder if you could do something like this with more lasting items. At one point I thought to have subscription gaming PCs (never put enough thought into it)