Rent the Runway Q1 sales double, profit losses unchanged

By

Benjamin Fitzgerald

Published
Jun 13, 2022

Rent the Runway announced on Friday its revenues for the first quarter doubled, on the back of record active subscriber numbers and the rollout of the luxury rental platform's at-home pickup to over 20 markets.

The New York-based company said revenues for the first quarter totalled $67.1 million. The luxury platform said active subscribers totalled 134,998, up 82% year-over-year from 74,018 last quarter.

Likewise, total subscriber numbers reached 177,213, representing an increase of 70% year-over-year from 104,138 in the prior-year quarter.

Rent the Runway said 28% of subscribers added one or more paid additional items into their subscription program; also noting continued growth in its exclusive designs segment, launching six new exclusive designs collections and one new designer, Osman.

The e-commerce portal said it expanded at-home pickup to over 20 markets covering well over one third of its subscriber base and remains on track to bring the offering to over half of our subscriber base by year-end.

Finally, the firm expanded upon automation and productivity initiatives in its fulfillment centers, leveraging RFID technology to roll out digital issue tagging software to drive greater efficiency in quality control process and generate data to enhance garment longevity.

Despite the sales progress, Rent the Runway could not chip away at its earnings loss for the quarter, revealing a net loss of $42.5 million, unchanged compared to a net loss of $42.3 million in the first quarter last year.

​“I’m excited to share that we exceeded our Q1 guidance across all key metrics both on the top and bottom lines, growing revenue 100% YoY and gross margin by 9 points YoY. Our strong performance is evidence of our firm position in the broader experience economy, which has enabled us to make significant progress on our path to profitability and achieve record ending active subscribers in the first quarter of 2022,” said Jennifer Hyman, CEO and co-founder of Rent the Runway.

“Rent the Runway has never been more relevant than it is today. Whether our customers are traveling, dining out, attending events, heading back to the office, or simply hanging out with friends, they are turning to our platform for a more affordable, convenient and sustainable way to express their joy and infuse fashion variety into virtually every use case in their lives.”

Looking ahead, the company said it is on track to launch four new designers in the second quarter, including Esteban Cortezar, Busayo, Jonathan Saunders, and Pamela Love, and to offer nearly 20 exclusive design partners for fiscal year 2022, around half of which are new.