UGC Case Study: Rent The Runway - Response Marketing

This case study focuses on Rent The Runway, a designer clothing rental site that uses user-generated photos to help other users make informed rentals.

Contents
1. Helpful User Reviews
2. Our Runway
3. Simple Review Submission

Helpful User Reviews

Rent The Runway allows users to rent designer dresses for a fraction of their purchase cost. User-submitted photos and reviews beside each product provide real-world reviews of the dresses, and include the dimensions of the user-models and the occasions they rented it for. Other users may ask the user-models questions about their experience, and may also favorite their picture. Thus, Rent The Runway minimizes the uncertainty of online shopping, and the accompanying thought of Well of course it looks good on the professional model, but what about me?

Fashion blogs have praised this user-review functionality because it helps women get a clearer picture of how the dresses will look on them.

“What really helped me make my decision was reading the customer reviews. You can see pictures of the gowns on woman who have actually rented them and hear what they thought about the dress! … I was really reading these reviews to understand how true to size they were, to see pictures of other women who were about my size (models aren’t a good comparison to how something will look on my hips) and to understand how long these bad boys were going to be.” — No Thanks To Cake

“My favorite part about the site is the customer reviews. Women who have rented the dress before can go on and review the dress, discussing how it fit them on their own body type (many give their height and weight), and include photos of themselves in the dress.” — Peace, Love And Oats

“The most helpful feature to me, by far, is the “Our Runway” tab where you can browse dresses based on member photos filtered by height, bust size, age, and more.” — Extra Petite

“Worried about the fit? RTR’s community is amazing and there are a ton of photos of real girls in the dresses — not just models!” — Style Me Thrifty

Our Runway

Our Runway is a section of Rent The Runway where women can input their size and age to find looks and reviews from similar women. This feature places maximum attention on real-world applications of the dresses, instead of idealized versions with professional models and photographers. It also turns each user into that dress’s model, which will be seen by all women searching within similar size and age filters, and which may further motivate users to submit a photo and review.

Simple Review Submission

Users may submit reviews through the Rent The Runway website or mobile app, and are notified to do so after their rental. Photo upload functionality within the app facilitates selfie-uploads, and aligns with the pre-existing user urge to document themselves looking their best.

Sam Blau contributed research.

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