Rent the Runway announced that it is setting up drop boxes at 15 WeWork locations across the U.S.
The drop boxes will be in six cities — New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami and Washington, D.C. — so that customers can return and rent items with ease. WeWork has over 268,000 members who share office space at more than 280 locations in 77 cities across the world.
“We knew there was a demand for creating these drop boxes in other convenient locations,” Rent the Runway COO Maureen Sullivan told CNBC. “There is a massive opportunity to not only grow our drop-box network … but also to grow mini stores within WeWork.”
WeWork’s customers, as well as the general public, can use the drop boxes. Rent the Runway also plans to have pop-up shops offering clothes for rent at some WeWork locations.
The drop boxes will enable Rent the Runway to expand its brick-and-mortar footprint without investing in additional stores. Currently, the company has five locations — in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
“Our long-term vision is getting our clothing as close to the customer as possible,” Sullivan said.
In August, to help fuel its growing subscription business, refinance debt and widen its operations, Rent The Runway linked up with Temasek for a credit facility of $200 million. The retailer’s subscription business, in particular, has grown 150 percent year over year since its rollout.
“We are very pleased that the company has demonstrated the kind of business model, growth prospects and financial discipline that make it possible to access a credit facility of this size with an equity-minded, long-term partner like Temasek – they have a proven track record of supporting disruptive, high-growth companies,” CFO Scarlett O’Sullivan said at the time.
The news came a few months after Blue Pool Capital, a financial company with the main role of investing for Jack Ma and Joe Tsai, the co-founders of Alibaba, invested $20 million in Rent the Runway.