RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR TOWARDS RENTAL GARMENTS AND

THEIR WILLLINGNESS TO ACCEPT IT

SUBMITTED TO:
Dr. Deepak Mehra
Assistant Professor (Dept. of Fashion
Technology) NIFT, Bhubaneswar

SUBMITTED BY:
Adarsh Murli (BFT/19/1141)
Rishabh Kumar
(BFT/19/914) Sohini Sahoo
(BFT/19/308)
ABSTRACT
Purpose: This study aims to analyse and understand the consumers behaviour towards
renting of garments over purchasing.

Design/methodology/approach: Quantitative research was conducted and empirical data

were collected from 102 people of various age groups and income levels. Later, Chi-Square
test was conducted to test the proposed hypotheses.

Findings: This study offered convincing evidence that income, and age factors are the two
main factors of consumers in the age group of 18 to 40 years in favor of clothing
subscription rental. Also, many social factors did contribute to people’s opting for renting of
garments. Moreover, findings of this study demonstrated the consumers intention to use
rental services.

Originality/value: This research determining the gap between consumer attitudes toward
rental clothing and the decisions they make to purchase them and to analyses the factors
influencing them based on the hypothesis obtained using chi square test.

Paper type: Research review

Keywords: Consumer behaviour, Apparel rental services, social media, income level,
environment consciousness.

INTRODUCTION:

Textile waste generation is a growing problem – on a global scale, clothing consumption is

dominated by a fast fashion culture, which involves less use, rapid disposal of products, and
minimal recycling. Extending the life of clothing as much as possible can reduce the total
amount of textiles consumed and delay the rate of textile disposal, reducing the negative
environmental and social impact of textile consumption.

Because of exceptionally costly pace of these clothes and extras there were still some areas
of society that couldn't bear the cost of these clothes, that is when Apparel Rental Services
came into the play. Like streaming motion pictures and music, garments are presently being
dealt with like a utility to which one can buy in. Costly garments and embellishments are no
longer dreams past the scope of the recent college grads as an ever-increasing number of
players are settling in the online garments and extras rental space. Different new companies
have thought of the plan to empowering client to lease any fabric they need. They
additionally offer client to lease the garments from plan assortment of different originators
in less cost than real rate. It is particularly for those individuals who need to look stylish
however don't have any desire to accumulate stack of garments in their closet.

One such organization that offers this support is 'Lease the Runway' which was dispatched
by Jennifer Hyman and Jennifer Fleiss in November,2009 in U.S. that gives architect dress
and embellishment rentals. Leasing garments and frill has made another market that is
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developing. While the majority of the sites that offer these administrations are new
businesses, an ever-increasing number of enormous organizations are beginning to take
advantage of the market.

A decade ago, design enterprises have developed themselves into a remarkable illicit
relationship. With new patterns, new styles, new adornments this industry has re-imagined
method of dressing as well as broke down imaginative approaches to get to it, all due to
inventive originators who investigate every possibility. There has been huge improvement in
attire styles, appealing plans and nature of clothes and adornments. Accordingly, individuals
are additionally pulled in to follow these patterns, set by different planners and VIPs.

Still a globally niche segment, fashion rentals have great potential for expansion in India with
the growing awareness of sustainability and rising internet usage. The growing appetite for
branded clothing is also driving the growth of this market in India.

It is both game-changing for the fashion industry and life-changing for all of us. Every time
there's a sangeet or mehndi invitation, keep in mind, it's all about this season's themes and
there's an increasing pressure to look good! It's all for everything we wear just once, click a
million photos, and leave to collect dust. Now, on the other hand, there are companies that
let you rent clothes online, giving you options in all categories.

Let's take a look at some of the best rental options in India -

Fly Robe, Swishlist, Wrapd, Rent an Attire, Liberent, Stage 3, The Clothing Rental.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Fashionable clothes resource suppliers are directly linked with resource consumers through
the Internet, thus replacing the traditional model. With fashionable clothes as the products
for renting, Customers who used access-based utilization had the opportunity to try out a
variety of new products without really making a purchase. “Design leasing is still in its
infancy in India as a kind of community-oriented utilization. The concept of communal use
has created new design avenues for sharing, gifting, trading, lending, renting, leasing, and
recycled purchasing” (Jui-Che Tu and Chi-Ling Hu-2018). Across the board, businesses like
Rent the Runway, Lending Luxury, and Girl Meets Dress are successful in the design leasing
industry. Among the companies that rent out fashionable clothing in India are Swishlist,
Wrapd, and Liberent.

Most of the results from the research paper show that consumers “attitudes towards
clothing rental subscriptions are positively influenced by the perceived sustainability and
perceived enjoyment of the business model, and negatively influenced by perceived
financial risk and perceived performance risk” (Ciara Gyde and Lisa S. McNeill-2021). Their
intentions to participate in clothing rental subscriptions were shown to be positively
influenced by perceived enjoyment and attitude, while negatively influenced by perceived
financial risk.
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Focusing on one clothing rental business model, we contribute to research in the field and
provide valuable implications for practitioners. The information gathered also indicates that
there is a market for renting out clothing, but this sector is immature in terms of its ability to
promote alternative consuming practices through benefit exchange. This study concludes
that, while product-service systems do have a lot of promise for pulling fashion-conscious
customers away from ownership behaviors, the current systems fall short of this objective.

The majority of client experiences that we noted from a few research papers were reported
to be negatively impacted by a contamination occurrence, and at worst, the entire rental
concept was rejected. According to the research papers, “contamination is both a
psychological and actual barrier to successful leasing” (Martos Crespí and Camino-2021). To
minimize and reduce contamination throughout the value chain, a variety of managerial
implications were raised, and matching recommendations were made. The study
emphasizes that there are compromises between product quality and economic viability.
The results point to the likelihood that renting will be a difficult business model, highlighting
the need for additional academic and practitioner research to supplement the findings.

Emotional standards emphasize the influence of other people's feelings, such as those of
family members, on one's intentions when leasing items of fashion online. The reasoning for
the maintainable utilization of design objects is the basis for several aspects of online style
leasing. As a result, the “leasing practice can have a significant effect on other
environmentally conscious individuals” (Christmann, Pasztuhov and Erika-2021). Online
fashion leasing is extremely similar to online shopping from many angles, including looking
for goods and information and using online exchange methods. All things considered;
business style is likely to increase natural maintainability as it increases the utilization of
design elements while possibly reducing clothing waste.

RESEARCH GAPS

As per the previous research papers conducted till date, always had an issue about
understanding the behaviour of various consumers buying preferences when it was coming
towards rental garment services. It lacked to cover the financial aspect of this business
which is seen to be a major issue in all the papers. And what financial issues or confusions
these consumers have was missing as well.

Considering the emotional aspects of the consumers, what kind of emotional barrier do the
consumer was facing while opting for rental garments needs to be understood to carry out
the survey. To understand why people, feel to own expensive luxury garment or if it’s
because they don’t want to wear old clothes worn by different people. Are most people able
to afford luxury?

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All these aspects mentioned above were not taken into consideration while carrying out
previous researches and needed to focus more on it. To understand the willingness of
consumers towards apparel renting services.

OBJECTIVES
The primary destinations behind leading this exploration were-

1. To understand deeper about the views people, have in mind about apparel rental
services.
2. To know about how positive or negative their attitude is towards renting business.
3. To know if people consider accessibility over ownership.
4. To know that if given the chance of wearing a designer apparel, would people buy it
or rent it.

FORMULATION OF HYPOTHESIS

H0. People with different monthly expense prefer renting of cloths of clothes over buying.

HA. People with different monthly expense prefer buying clothes over renting.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

RESEARCH DESIGN
The exploration plans to investigate the benefits and impediments of rental assistance just
as the chances and examine the meaning of utilization conduct of organization garments
rental to additionally comprehend its conceivable relationship. We further intend to acquire
the perspective of buyers, their insight and disposition towards the equivalent.

DATA COLLECTION
For our examination, we altogether researched course readings, digital books, and online
writing. A total examination likewise has been done already to seek after the goal of the
exploration paper and furthermore to get some answers concerning the predecessor
research works in a similar field. Various diaries, sites, style online journals, magazines and
so on were subsequently alluded having both subjective and quantitative information. A
writing search was in this way led. The primary watchwords we utilized in our examination
buying conduct, online rental locales, assessment on rental administrations, rental stores
and its prominence, rental help and manageability, and so on We recovered various articles
on every theme; be that as it may, we have included just companion inspected articles,
white papers, and genuine overview reports in our survey. In this investigation, by survey
strategy, the example

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information was gathered by means of online poll, targeting understanding the conduct goal
of online garments leasing.

We took a survey from a number of people around various age groups to know their views
and attitude toward apparel rental business to-

1. Know if they understand the operational status of the current apparel clothing rental.
2. Correlation model of behaviour intention.
3. Acceptability towards the business.
4. Conclusions and suggestion for future research.

SAMPLING

Limited by resources, time, narrow range of study subjects and other factors, the feasible
way of convenient sampling was adopted for survey as one of the non-random sampling
ways, convenient sampling is beneficial for collecting some preliminary data. Under certain
conditions, some useful data can be produced.

The main survey employed quota sampling to guarantee a balanced composition of the
sample according to gender, age, marital status, occupation and qualification, so that
perceptions from different demographic group could be captured. The target sample
framework was comprised of general public over age 18, and a total of 102 responses were
collected.

DATA ANALYSIS

When asked if they heard about rental service, out of 53 women, 49 said yes, while
among 49 males, more than half of them knew about it i.e., 40. The rest who did not
know about it, shows that they are eager to know about rental services.
The basic sample set is given below which consist of their demographic profile.
SAMPLE VALUE CATEGORY PERCENTAGE
Gender Male 49 48%
Female 53 52%

Age 18-22 65 63.7%

23-27 25 24.5%
28-32 8 7.8%
33-37+ 4 3.95%
Marital Status Single 86 84.3%

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 Married 14 13.7%
Widowed 1 1%
Divorced 1 1%
Heard About Rental Yes 89 87.3%
Service
No 13 12.7%

Monthly Fashion 3000-6000 69 67.6%

Expense
6000-9000 27 26.5%
9000-15000 4 3.9%
Above 15000 2 2%

QUESTIONNAIRE

From the above analysis it is clear that most of the responders are aged between 18-22

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From the above analysis it is clear that most of the responders are female.

From the above analysis it is clear that maximum responder’s highest level of education is
bachelor’s degree.

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From the above analysis it is clear that around 84.3% of responder’s are single, never
married.

From the above analysis it is clear that majority is aware of rental services.

From the above analysis it is clear that social media have a great influence in majority of
responders.

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From the above analysis it is clear that majority of the responders will go with the option
renting the designer outfit from stores.

From the above analysis it is clear that most of the responder’s monthly fashion lies between
rupees 3000-6000.

From the above analysis it is clear that most of the responder’s purchases are influenced by
their friends.

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 From the above analysis it is clear that most of the responders believe that part time
ownership of the garment is worth investing.

HYPOTHESIS TESTING

CHI SQUARE TEST

In the survey, respondents were asked their monthly fashion expense and whether they
prefer part time ownership or not. According to our null hypothesis, to test the
association between monthly expense and part time ownership, we used chi square test
of independence. We will use a= 0.05.

o Testing was done on manually. We first did the cross tabulation of both the
variables to get the frequencies.

Yes/No INCOME GROUPS TOTAL

3000- 6000- 9000- Above

6000 9000 15000 15000

Yes 59 25 4 1 89

No 10 2 0 1 13

TOTAL 69 27 4 2 102

Observed Frequency

Count of Do you think that part time ownership of the garment is worth investing
upon?
No Yes Grand
Total
3000-6000 10 59 69
6000-9000 2 25 27
9000-15000 0 4 4
above 15000 1 1 2
Grand Total 13 89 102

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 Expected Frequency

Count of Do you think that part time ownership of the garment is worth
investing upon?
Grand
No Yes Total
3000-6000 8.794117647 60.20588235 69
6000-9000 3.441176471 23.55882353 27
9000-15000 0.509803922 3.490196078 4
above 15000 0.254901961 1.745098039 2
Grand Total 13 89 102

Observed Expected (O-E) (O-E)2 / E

10 8.79 1.21 0.0143596
2 3.44 -1.44 0.0203374
0 0.5 -0.5 0.0024519
1 0.25 0.75 0.0055169
59 60.2 -1.2 0.0141232
25 23.55 1.45 0.0206208
4 3.49 0.51 0.002551
1 1.74 - 0.74 0.0053707

Total 101.96 0.0853315

Chi Square value= 0.085

D.f.= (r-1) *(c-1) = (2-1) * (4-1) = 3

The table value for Chi-square for 3 degrees of freedom at 5% Significance Level is 7.815
which is lower than the stipulated value. Hence the hypothesis that we have taken has failed
to reject.

RESULTS

From the hypothesis testing, it can be said that people who belongs to similar income
group and with monthly expense above 3000 would prefer renting of the garment as a
better option.

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LIMITATIONS
• There are some limitations that call for further investigation. At first, this study only
surveyed. The sample used in this study was not evenly distributed among
experienced people.
• Insufficient sample size for statistical measurement.
• These limitations invite opportunities for future research. Future research may look
at other potential Functional characteristics of rental platforms.
• Time constraints.

FUTURE RESEARCH SCOPE

Online fashion hires and those with no experience that can potentially lead to attitude
seeking behaviour. The current study only examined the relative benefits of online fashion
ranting, while some potential pitfalls may exist, such as hygiene issues with the clothing
used.

Renting, future research may consider examining price factors in various online rental
platforms including fashion rental services. Additionally, the sample can be expanded to
compare consumers. For those with experience in online fashion rentals, those with no
experience at all. Hence, Better insight can be gained as to the appropriate marketing and
promotional strategy to use.

Experiment design to examine the effects of specific features of rental platforms on

consumers online fashion rental behaviour.

CONCLUSION

In today ‘s world of green fashion, it was observed that most of the people these days
prefer renting over buying of apparels – no matter which income group they belong to.
Fashion is the second most pollution causing industry of the world after oil and our fast
fashion habits are ugly. Most of the people- from children to millennials to gen Z are
realizing the importance of green fashion. They do not want to add outfits to their closet
if they need it just for one occasion. Plus, renting of apparels gives them a chance to not
repeat outfits they wore in one function to another, thus, keeping up with the social
media trend. Lastly, the awareness about this is still very less in this city. In today ‘s
economy, not everyone can afford to buy and wear a Sabyasachi Lehenga to a friend ‘s
wedding. If they are aware of this service, they might be willing to rent it and flaunt the
outfit with grace.

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REFERENCES
PRIMARY DATA

 Survey Conducted

SECONDARY DATA

 Crespí, C. (2021). A study of the internationalization strategies of the new business

models in the fashion industry: second-hand, rental, subscription and interchange.
 Durgee, J. F., & Colarelli O'Connor, G. (1995). An exploration into renting as
consumption behavior. Psychology & Marketing, 12(2), 89-104.
 Dr. Seshadri Ramkumar et.al, (2021). Fashion rental booms in India as consumers
become more brand conscious and internet savvy, DFU Publications.
 Gyde C, McNeill LS. Fashion Rental: Smart Business or Ethical Folly? Sustainability.
2021; 13(16):8888.
 Jayaraman, K., Ng, C. H., Stocker, K., & Kiumarsi, S. (2016). Environmental concerns
motivate intention to utilize free bus services: An empirical study in Malaysia. Indian
Journal of Marketing, 46(1), 8-23.
 Lang, C. (2018). Perceived risks and enjoyment of access-based consumption:
Identifying barriers and motivations to fashion renting. Fashion and Textiles, 5(1), 1-
18.
 Lee, S. H., & Huang, R. (2020). Exploring the motives for online fashion renting:
Insights from social retailing to sustainability. Sustainability, 12(18), 7610.
 Myin, M. T., Su, J., Wu, H. J., & Shen, H. (2022). Investigating the determinants of using
clothing subscription rental services: a perspective from Chinese young consumers.
Young Consumers, (ahead-of-print).
 Clube, R. K., & Tennant, M. (2020). Exploring garment rental as a sustainable business
model in the fashion industry: Does contamination impact the consumption
experience? Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 19(4), 359-370.
 Tu, J. C., & Hu, C. L. (2018). A study on the factors affecting consumers’ willingness to
accept clothing rentals. Sustainability, 10(11), 4139.

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ANNEXURES
The online questionnaire that was made on google forms to get an insight about the impact
of Rental Apparels is attached below. This questionnaire covers all the important questions
necessary for the determination of the ramifications of Rental Apparel by users.

ATTACHED QUESTIONNAIRE
1. What is your gender?
o Female
o Male
o Prefer not to
say
2. What is your
age?
o 18-22 years old
o 23-27 years old
o 28-32 years old
o 33-37 + years
old
3. What is the highest degree or level of school you have completed? (If
currently enrolled, highest degree received?
o High school graduate
o Secondary school graduate
o Associate degree
o Bachelor’s degree
o Master’s degree
o Professional degree
o Doctorate degree
o Other
4 What is your marital status? •
Single, never married
o Married or domestic partnership
o Widowed
o Divorced
o Separated
5. Have you ever heard of Apparel Rental Services?
o Yes
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o No
6. Where have you come across the idea of rental garments?
o Magazine
o Newspaper
o Family
o Fashion bloggers
o Social media
o Self
7. If you need a designer outfit, would you prefer...?
o Buying it online
o Renting it from store
o Purchasing it from stores
o Borrowing it from friends
8. What is your monthly fashion item expense?
o 3000-6000 o
6000-9000 o
9000-15000 o
above 15000
9. Who influences your purchasing/renting decision?
o Celebrity
o Family
o Friends
o Mass media
o Fashion bloggers
10. Do you think that renting of the garment is worth investing upon?
o Yes
o No

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11. The price of the above sherwani is Rs.65,000/- and rental price is Rs.
4999/- for 3 days. I would-
o Rent it
o Buy it

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