In recent months, Nuuly — the monthly clothing rental service started in 2019 by URBN, parent company of Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Free People, and Terrain — has not only managed to keep subscribers coming back, but also increasingly convinced them to purchase rented garments.
According to Hayne, Nuuly’s purchase rate for rentals has increased by 50% since the pandemic began, and though its subscriber base has ebbed and flowed since March, the company saw an influx of paused accounts reactivate over the summer. The return of active users for the service — which costs $88 a month to rent six apparel items — was followed by a >surge in new members this fall, even as coronavirus cases rose around the country and Americans faced economic uncertainty.
“It was nice that subscribers were pausing earlier on instead of canceling. That was a really positive thing for us,” Hayne told Business Insider. “A paused subscriber is someone who’s got a much higher likelihood of coming back into the program.”