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Photo/Shetuwang 

Oct. 16 (NBD) -- While fleets of shared bikes are being withdrawn from overseas cities, shared wardrobes start to steal the spotlight.

One of the dress rental startups, Hong Kong-based Yeechoo, made foray into the mainland Chinese market early this month, in a bid to boost the number of users and look for new investments. 

While some existing shared closet platforms in mainland China focus primarily on everyday items, Yeechoo targets a different customer group by offering clothes of international brands for rent, Yeechoo's co-founder Shan Shan noted.

The huge female clothing market supported by women's love for beautiful dresses yet high costs for designer clothes have helped create promising prospects for shared wardrobes which allow women to change their outfits every day without actually buying all these clothes.

China boasts a vast market for women's apparel, with retail sales estimated to exceed 1.08 trillion yuan (156.3 billion U.S. dollars) in 2018 and hit approximately 1.40 trillion yuan (202.5 billion U.S. dollars) in 2020, according to data released by Chinese consultancy website askci.com. Based on a female clothing market worth over 1 trillion yuan (144.7 billion U.S. dollars), some studies estimated China's garment sharing market to approach 400 billion yuan (57.9 billion U.S. dollars) and indicated there leaves huge room for future growth of the niche market.

Since 2015, over 20 wardrobe sharing companies have been set up, and some of them have won recognition and secured financing from big investors including Alibaba and Softbank. 

Founded in 2015, Beijing-based YCloset this September completed an undisclosed strategic fundraising round from Alibaba, according to media reports. Before this new financing round, the garment sharing platform raised tens of millions of U.S. dollars in a series A+ financing round led by IDG Capital in 2016, completed a series B fundraising round worth 20 million U.S. dollars in March of 2017, and raised 50 million U.S. dollars in a series C round last September from investors including Alibaba, Softbank China Venture Capital as well as IDG Capital.

Other major players MSParis and Dora's Dream raised 18 million U.S. dollars and 12 million U.S. dollars, respectively, last year.

China's clothes rental market doesn't only foster domestic startups but also appeals to foreign players. Earlier this year, Le Tote made its debut in China, becoming the first U.S. clothing rental service provider to venture into the Chinese market. However, to ensure a long-term development of the wardrobe sharing segment, enterprises need to find ways to solve sanitation problems, cater to customers' varying fashion needs, expand cooperation with apparel brands, improve service efficiency, and identify a profit model.

 

Email: gaohan@.com.cn

Editor: Gao Han