Exclusive: Myntra launches clothing rental service with Flyrobe

Sharing economy in India has gradually been gaining grounds as millennials tend to believe more in renting than owning. Right from furniture to cars, apparels, and home appliances - almost everything is available on rent.

Sensing an opportunity in apparel sharing space, Myntra has begun offering special occasion outfits including wedding and parties for men and women. The service called Myntra X Flyrobe is powered by Mumbai-based online fashion rental platform - Flyrobe.

Currently, the service is live in four cities - Delhi (NCR), Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. Apparels can be rented across categories such as occasion, designers and collections. Flyrobe also has several offline stores in Mumbai and Delhi while Myntra also has stores in Bengaluru.

At the moment, it’s not clear how the partnership would work in offline format. Presently, the service is live for select customers. Entrackr has used it over multiple mobile devices.

Since Myntra has emerged as by default online store for fashion, offering high ticket size special occasion outfits on rent makes absolute sense for the Walmart owned company.

“Over the years, Myntra has built unfathomable dominance in online fashion space. Many existing customers are likely to rent clothes for occasions such as wedding or mehndi. Hence, the partnership with Flyrobe seems rational one,” said Satish Meena, Senior Forecast Analyst, Forrester.Research.

Unlike China, the online clothing rental is growing at a rather slow pace in India. It’s expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 11.4 per cent by 2023.

Myntra X Flyrobe is the second major feature from the Bengaluru-based firm. Four months ago, it launched a loyalty programme - Myntra Insider. It lets users early access to sales or points to purchase products among several others.

Besides Flyrobe,  The Clothing Rental, Liberent, Wrap’d are other startups in online clothing rental space.

Going forward, it would be interesting to see how customers respond to this sensible partnership.