FedEx now delivers Rent the Runway to New York in less than 24 hours

Rent the Runway's rental and clothing subscription service offers hundreds of thousands of designer pieces that its nine million subscribers can view and ship to their homes.

The process of sending these items – especially to subscribers with "unlimited" membership – at the customer's door and at the warehouse to arrive at another door later is logistically complicated. That's why Jennifer Hyman, co-founder and CEO of Rent the Runway, said the company was just as much a logistics company as a retailer.

Read more: It is becoming increasingly clear that Amazon is developing a third party logistics service to overtake FedEx and UPS now that Stamps.com has emptied the USPS

"We are working in the field of incoming logistics," Hyman told Business of Fashion. "Most e-commerce companies focus on outbound logistics, how fast can I get this product from the customer?" In our industry, we focus on how quickly I can recover this product with the customer, make sure it's perfect and ship it to the next customer. "

The logistical operations of Rent the Runway are so solid that Mr. Hyman stated that other retailers had contacted her to set their own clothing subscription services.

Rent the Runway has another logistic tool in New York

Rent the Runway now uses the latest FedEx service offer, FedEx Extra Hours.

The service, several months old, pushes the closing hours of evening orders from five to eight o'clock. Online orders placed until 2 am may be delivered the next day in certain metropolitan areas or within two days to addresses in the continental United States.

"Retailers love it," Kevin Sterling, chief executive of Seaport Global Securities, told Business Insider earlier. "They used Extra Hours in high season and managed to sell it under the name" Hey, look, we're better than Amazon Prime. "

Read more: The new FedEx service makes it possible to place orders online a few hours after purchase – and this shows that Amazon Prime is no longer unique

Now customers of New York and New Jersey subways can place an order in the afternoon and receive their subscription the next day, in the middle of the afternoon or earlier. Orders have already arrived at the end of the next day.

Shaving a few hours of delivery time may seem like little. But this shows how difficult the race for e-commerce has become, especially as more and more people are relying on subscription clothing as their main wardrobe offering.

"Our subscription business has continued to grow, we serve more and more women every day and our most committed members by subscription now wear clothes rented 120 days a year," Marpp Cunningham told Business Insider. , Purchasing Manager at RTR.