Starting a maternity occasion dress rental

ElliotJ

As the title suggests, I'm hoping to start up a rental company for maternity occasion wear. Dresses with accessories. I'm hoping to kick off in time for the Christmas season. Its something that I've sat on for a while but am now in a position to get started. It's my first step into entrepreneurship and I'm just wondering if there is any one that has any experience that would be willing to share with me?? Is there a forum for this? Thanks in advance.

pedroeibar1

ElliotJ wrote: »

As the title suggests, I'm hoping to start up a rental company for maternity occasion wear. Dresses with accessories. I......

It’s an interesting idea but I think it is not a runner. Can you change my mind?


Pricing – both of stock and rental – will be the key to success or failure. Men’s dress suits are plain black unfashionable items. The design is basically the same, year after year. The ‘ladies attire’ segment you intend to target is very different because dresses have a much shorter lifespan due to fashion changes. Because they are ‘formal’ they are less open to seasonality, so would have a lifespan of a year.

How far are you going to go with accessories? Hats? (already people out there for that). Shoes & what size range? Bags? Given the wide range of colours and sizes required why add the cost of accessories?

Assume the dress + basic accessories ‘unit’ costs you three thousand. (You will need each style in three sizes 14, 16 and 18.) Assume the style/colour remains in fashion for one year. That means twelve rentals at €250 each just to recover your unit cost. Is that achievable? Would a pregnant woman pay €250 for a rented dress or spend another couple of hundred on something new? I’d guess the latter option!

What capital have you got? What costings have you done?

Post some figures and others will appraise the idea.

pedroeibar1

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

It’s an interesting idea but I think it is not a runner. Can you change my mind?


Pricing – both of stock and rental – will be the key to success or failure. Men’s dress suits are plain black unfashionable items. The design is basically the same, year after year. The ‘ladies attire’ segment you intend to target is very different because dresses have a much shorter lifespan due to fashion changes. Because they are ‘formal’ they are less open to seasonality, so would have a lifespan of a year.

How far are you going to go with accessories? Hats? (already people out there for that). Shoes & what size range? Bags? Given the wide range of colours and sizes required why add the cost of accessories?

Assume the dress + basic accessories ‘unit’ costs you three thousand. (You will need each style in three sizes 14, 16 and 18.) Assume the style/colour remains in fashion for one year. That means twelve rentals at €250 each just to recover your unit cost. Is that achievable? Would a pregnant woman pay €250 for a rented dress or spend another couple of hundred on something new? I’d guess the latter option!

What capital have you got? What costings have you done?

Post some figures and others will appraise the idea.

You must have been in a good mood writing this Pedro, unusually kind

To me this sounds like a near impossible business to pull off, unless the OP is planning to stock very high end fashionable clothes and shoes, that otherwise could not be afforded but would be perfect for special occasions. I would imagine there are plenty of shops catering for maternity wear on the lower to medium end of things that a shopper with a good eye could pick up something at a satisfactory price.

Unless there was a marketing angle for this business that is going to have dozens of pregnant women through the doors every day, and that was well preplanned and sure to deliver, I can see the difficulty factor of keeping something like this afloat never mind making back the initial investment of which I'd expect to be pretty high to get decent stock, being extremely high - especially for a first time entrepreneur. Not saying it can't be done by the right person, but very far from easy. Can't see how it could work at all if the stock was at the cheaper end of the scale.

scamalert

id agree with posters above, no clue about fashion trends specially with women but numbers would crush you, way i see you could have nice audience on facebook hell even here or boards that forum is booming, but think yourself could you pickup something of that nature for the price youd be renting, also for me its something that puts me off of clothing that was worn before by someone else (i know youd use clean dries etc), now i know its done and it works, but just my opinion here.
which is quite hard to sustain long term.

ElliotJ

Many thanks for your responses to date, and for giving me an opportunity to further clarify my madhat idea.

The maternity fashion trends (IMO) go relatively unchanged over a number of years. I have seen dresses today for sale, that were on sale a number of years ago, that still look good. Yes, we are talking the more higher end but not by much 200-300 euro. So because when it was my time to be looking for these dresses, i wanted to look (and most importantly feel) amazing and be comfortable doing so. There is a particular brand of maternity dress that ticks this box. But it's hard to justify parting with that kind of money when you know for def you won't get anymore wears out of it. And that's where rental comes in.

There are a couple of companies doing it but based in Dublin, and this was terribly off putting as I'm based in the south east. And there are currently no other options.

So my intention is to buy up second hand dresses (they are going to be worn anyway so it makes sense). I could source these from the likes of Adverts, buy and sell etc. If I was to test the waters initially and just put up 1k upfront to buy stock, I could get roughly 10 dresses. I would then need to rent each dress (or just one!) 26 time over the calendar year in order to break even. The dresses would be rented for 60-70euro a pop.

Dry cleaning would be included in my price, and I would hope to come to some sort of a deal with a local dry cleaners, but haven't factored a reduction in my pricing.

As for the accessories, it would be jewelery only, but saying that, it depends on whether the dress needs it or not, so I wouldn't be depending on that revenue.

From the money I take in over the year, I would buy new stock based on enquiries (again second hand but same label)

In answer to the sizes query, I would not necessarily need to have all sizes in stock straight away. I could see what the demand was like initially but intend on having from 10-12, 12-14, 14-16 in stock, initially I would buy up 12-14 sizes. I could also use just in time purchasing whereby specific dress sizes are purchased after they are rented rather than buying all the dress sizes at once.

Its an online based business based from home, so initially ladies could come to me at home. I could also post but that price isn't included in any of the above, and would be extra charge to the customer.

So that's my plan, please don't crush me all in one go...!! Its a slow starter but have I managed to persuade you all it's a goer??

scamalert

well as someone said if you wont try you will never know, 1k euro just to see if you get anywhere isnt massive investment and well worth a try, thou i would think about postage since as you said you didnt like service being far away you will encounter same with customers who wont be hassled to travel, so depending on area maybe offer delivery service, but definitely dont expect people be willing to travel to you.Also consider someone to get as model as you will need quality pictures that pop image of dresses, since that will be main selling point between customer seeing one they like on amazon ebay whatever and picking yours.

Those numbers don't work if you ask me unless your customers are going to be a bit dizzy. Paying 60 euro for a dress to rent when its costing €100, you are not adding enough value in your service. These customers are going to know about second hand places and they are going to also be able to buy from Amazon and the likes too and whatever else is online, and get it to their door instead of going to you.
You gotta add proper value to your service, the upside is tiny for the customer as you state the plan right now.

But at least by doing it from home if things go wrong it wont hurt too much.

pedroeibar1

ElliotJ wrote: »

....when it was my time to be looking for these dresses, i wanted to look (and most importantly feel) amazing and be comfortable doing so. .......

So my intention is to buy up second hand dresses ....I could source these from the likes of Adverts, buy and sell etc..... just put up 1k upfront to buy stock, I could get roughly 10 dresses. I would then need to rent each dress (or just one!) 26 time over the calendar year in order to break even. The dresses would be rented for 60-70euro a pop.

In answer to the sizes query, I ..... intend on having from 10-12, 12-14, 14-16 in stock, initially I would buy up 12-14 sizes. I could also use just in time purchasing whereby specific dress sizes are purchased after they are rented rather than buying all the dress sizes at once.

... but have I managed to persuade you all it's a goer??

That is a recipe for total failure.

You have not shown any figures other than a ‘back of envelope’ costing on your purchase costs. I also query your size bracket (12-14).

You are going onto Donedeal, etc., to buy second-hand dresses at a price of c€100 (so you are competing with your potential customers) and then you expect to hire out at two thirds of that price?

That is – honestly – total rubbish. Do some online market research (e.g. stylemamastore.ie) and see what the market is doing in the sector. Your pricing/business model is not viable. You might occupy some time but you have no hope of making any money.

FWIW I also hope there would be few men out there who would expect a pregnant wife to appear in a rented dress that initially was bought second-hand on Donedeal!