1. Powered by Clothing Rental Service Sunday, May 03, 2015

2. Powered by Date Created: Sunday, April 26, 2015 51 Total Responses Complete Responses: 51

3. Introduction Clothing can be expensive and often for special events is only worn a few times. Men have had the option of renting tuxedos for years but for women there are very few places to go that have rental outfits that can be worn on special occasions. Women are under pressure to have new looks not just on special occasions anymore but also on weekends and throughout the week in the workplace. An entrepreneur is interested to understand if a market exists for a home delivered clothing rental service with an online website that is used to pick outfits.

4. Background Information Clothing rental is not a new concept. Boutiques have been in business for decades that offer formal menswear rentals for events such as weddings and black tie dinners. There are now also boutiques that cater to women needing upscale dresses to rent for fancy events. In today’s fast paced world of Facebook and selfies people are constantly changing outfits and trying new clothing trends. The concept for a clothing rental business caters to the need a consumer might have to stay on top of the trends and the need to always look their best. This service could be utilized by a woman going on a job interview who may need a power suit for the day but after will return to a more casual look. Renting clothing items is a way for people to try a trend without committing to keeping the piece forever. 4

5. Why is the information being sought? An entrepreneur is considering starting an online clothing rental business for women carrying clothing items ranging from everyday wear to formal clothing. She would like to conduct a market research study among women to: (1) gauge their interest level in the service, (2) determine what type of clothing they would most likely want to rent, (3) the price flexibility they have in their budget to spend on rental clothing, (4) how much they would be willing to spend on rental clothing per month. 5

6. Does the information already exist? Can the questions be answered? After performing an online search for secondary data related to women’s online clothing rental the viewed results centered on formal wear. This information was not relevant to what the entrepreneur wishes to pursue and lacked sufficient data to be applicable. The entrepreneur wishes to carry items that are everyday wear and therefore primary data from consumers will need to be carried out through this market research project and survey. The survey will be given to women in the target market and the results will provide the entrepreneur with information regarding the interest in a clothing rental business for everyday wear and trendy items. If the questions cannot be answered than a suggestion will be made for further research. 6

7. Research Design The population of the survey of possible consumers will be adult women. The research will focus on women who work outside the home and need trendy outfits to wear frequently. A survey questionnaire will be provided to the respondents designed to gauge their interest level in an online clothing rental business. Demographic data will be collected to determine their income level and questions will be asked to determine price feasibility. The research will be conducted as a survey questionnaire given online and through self-administration that targets fifty adult women. The research conducted will be descriptive and designed to answer the primary questions of who, what, when where and how. A survey will be used to gather the data to meet the research objective. A questionnaire will be developed that addresses the research objective to obtain information that is relevant. To meet the survey objectives, the age of the respondents should be measured and their income level. The survey will include multiple-choice questions centered upon what type of clothing they wear most often and when they would be willing to substitute a rented piece of clothing. The survey will also use an ordinal scale to determine how interested they would be in renting clothing. Market share will be determined by determining which type of clothing pieces they would most like to rent and price feasibility will be measured by asking what they would expect to pay for the service. 7

8. Objectives The primary objective of the survey will be answered through a variety of question response formats. These will include closed-ended questions that are dichotomous, as well as multiple-choice questions, and scaled-response questions. The survey questions will be worded in a clear and concise manner to prevent the respondents from experiencing confusion. The questions will also avoid sponsor identification and leading questions that may bias the respondent. The questions will reference time periods that are short in nature and ask respondents questions covering the last month. Any sensitive questions like age and income will be presented in a non-threatening way. The survey will begin with an interesting question in order to get the respondent more interested. Then general questions regarding clothing choices and pricing will be placed in the middle of the survey. The more sensitive questions regarding income and age group will be placed at the end of the survey. The survey was pretested with five individuals online. The pretest identified some slight changes to be made with the question order and wording so respondents were not confused. See below for a copy of the survey that was modified after the pretest to include the changes. 8

9. Q1: How well, if at all, does the word “INNOVATIVE” describe this new service? Answered: 51 Skipped: 0

10. Q1: How well, if at all, does the word “INNOVATIVE” describe this new service? Answered: 51 Skipped: 0

11. Q2: Is this something you would consider signing up for? Answered: 51 Skipped: 0

12. Q2: Is this something you would consider signing up for? Answered: 51 Skipped: 0

13. Q3: What type of clothing would you like to rent if it were available? Answered: 51 Skipped: 0

14. Q3: What type of clothing would you like to rent if it were available? Answered: 51 Skipped: 0

15. Q4: If this service were available today, how likely would you be to use this service? Answered: 51 Skipped: 0

16. Q4: If this service were available today, how likely would you be to use this service? Answered: 51 Skipped: 0

17. Q5: When you’re considering new services, what are the top two things you generally consider? (Check two boxes.) Answered: 51 Skipped: 0

18. Q5: When you’re considering new services, what are the top two things you generally consider? (Check two boxes.) Answered: 51 Skipped: 0

19. Q6: About how often do you shop for clothes? Answered: 51 Skipped: 0

20. Q6: About how often do you shop for clothes? Answered: 51 Skipped: 0

21. Q7: If you wanted to rent clothing, which selection method would you most prefer? Answered: 51 Skipped: 0

22. Q7: If you wanted to rent clothing, which selection method would you most prefer? Answered: 51 Skipped: 0

23. Q8: Clothes would come monthly, what would you expect to pay for a monthly membership fee? Answered: 51 Skipped: 0

24. Q8: Clothes would come monthly, what would you expect to pay for a monthly membership fee? Answered: 51 Skipped: 0

25. Q9: What’s your first reaction to this new service idea? Answered: 51 Skipped: 0

26. Q9: What’s your first reaction to this new service idea? Answered: 51 Skipped: 0

27. Q10: How important is price to you when choosing this type of product? Answered: 51 Skipped: 0

28. Q10: How important is price to you when choosing this type of product? Answered: 51 Skipped: 0

29. Q11: If you are not likely to use our new service, why not? Answered: 51 Skipped: 0

30. Q11: If you are not likely to use our new service, why not? Answered: 51 Skipped: 0

31. Q12: How interested are you in receiving more information about our service? Answered: 51 Skipped: 0

32. Q12: How interested are you in receiving more information about our service? Answered: 51 Skipped: 0

33. Q13: What is your age? Answered: 51 Skipped: 0

34. Q13: What is your age? Answered: 51 Skipped: 0

35. Q14: What is your approximate average household income? Answered: 51 Skipped: 0

36. Q14: What is your approximate average household income? Answered: 51 Skipped: 0

37. Q15: Which of the following describes you best? Answered: 51 Skipped: 0

38. Q15: Which of the following describes you best? Answered: 51 Skipped: 0

39. Executive Summary This report was made to determine if there is a market for a woman’s clothing rental service. The survey was designed to determine what type of clothing women would want to rent and the price they would be willing to pay. The survey was also designed to gauge if they would be interested in picking the clothes online or would rather go to a rental store. The results of the survey indicated that consumers believed this was an innovative idea and only twenty three percent of people would definitely not be interested. The results of the type of clothes to carry were varied; the most popular choice was trendy pieces. The most important thing that consumers valued was the price of the clothes and the quality. More respondents preferred shopping in stores versus shopping online. As the price of the subscription went higher, less people were willing to pay and it was indicated that price was of utmost importance to all those surveyed and that if they did not want to use the service it would be due to the fact that they could not pay for it. Enough information was gathered to provide some insight but I would recommend a larger sample size to increase the accuracy of results. 39