why i am quitting rent the runway after 2 months, again

it's all about discoverability

A little different of a post from me today, but this has been top of mind these past few weeks and I couldn’t seem to stop writing! I appreciate you taking the time to read if you’re interested :)

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Entering June, I had a number of events for which I needed wanted to rent dresses. I had gotten emails for MONTHS from Rent the Runway, encouraging me to return with 50% off my first month back and had ignored them easily. However, knowing that a membership also offers 25% off event rentals, I seized the opportunity to return to the platform. My hope was that, in addition to renting black tie dresses for myself and my sisters, I would be able to find some pants and skirts to fit my growing bump until my maternity leave started.

I chose the 10 items/2 shipments offer. $87 for my first month, $144 for my second and last month.

Spoiler alert: after one month, I will be cancelling at the end of my second.

In theory, RTR is a great concept.

Devon Rule

did an incredible deep dive on the original unlimited subscription structure, of which I was a member and took incredible advantage.

How Rent the Runway Lost the Plot

It used to be that NYC members could return items in store and immediately rent something new, which meant that things were more readily available and you weren’t stuck with options that didn’t fit well. It was a true rotating closet, and as a new professional who wanted to wear nicer clothes than she could afford, it was really enticing. I would pause for months at a time and then return back when I was in need of a few pieces during an event heavy month. But after COVID, it wasn’t necessary for me anymore. I have dipped my toes back in once since, only to cancel after 2 disappointing months. I should’ve known better, but this time was no exception.

I will note that my event rental experience this month was wonderful. I love that RTR gives you a free back up size, and they ship the items early if they’re available (which can give you the option to swap if you really hate what you got). I rented 3 dresses and a bag, and rented my sister 2 dresses. Aside from the zippers sticking, all of them were in great shape and fit really nicely - we both looked fabulous all weekend long and we didn’t have to worry about sweat ruining our own clothes in the Virginia heat. Between the both of us, we rented $2,393 worth of merchandise for ~$275. That’s a steal.

Now, back to the monthly membership.

The start of Devon’s post highlights RTR’s 2025 goals, which all seem to revolve around inventory. The main focus in general is having more clothes on the platform - new inventory from both old and new brands so people have more options to rent.

But my argument is that it’s not only about availability, but also discoverability. There are 13,372 items on RTR’s website, 8,158 would be available for me to rent in my designated sizes (4/6) right now. That doesn’t sound like an inventory problem to me. It sounds like a black hole.

My main issues during my first month stem from navigational challenges and gaps that can be fixed by the UX/UI team at RTR. I can’t pretend to know how the back end technology works, but all of the features I want are features I have seen elsewhere, which makes me believe they are not farfetched ideas.

So, with that, please see below issues I take with the RTR app, and suggestions I have for not only its enhancement, but the enhancement of the user experience overall.

A Sea of Reviews, No Guiding Light

As

Kelly Williams

once wrote, RTR is a treasure trove of clothing reviews from real women. You can see clothes on real bodies, at real events, with detailed descriptions of what worked and what didn’t for each of the renters. Users are doing the Lord’s work taking time to leave the in-depth reviews that they do. This community aspect of RTR is what could make it shine. Except for the fact that the reviews are not filterable AT ALL.

No Height Filters

RTR attaches biometrics like height, weight, bust size, body type, typical size and size rented to most of the reviews left on the platform. I pretty much solely rely on this information when selecting items for events and monthly subscriptions. But all of those details are buried without a filter option. Sure, the algorithm tries to present you with girls whose measurements match yours, but it doesn’t always work. Specifically for me, there is no height filter - so if you’re quite tall (I’m 5’9”), a quick snapshot of how many of the reviews are 5’5” and under would be an easy way to rule out an item. Especially when said items don’t include size charts and regularly do not include inseam measurements!

No Rating Filters

Learning the rating system, you can immediately predict issues that renters had with a product should, say, it have a 2/5 star rating. But RTR doesn’t enable you to filter by rating, ostensibly because they know everyone would just filter out the crap and then they would have a ton of sitting inventory that no one wants.¹ But people aren’t going to rent the poorly rated pieces ANYWAYS. RTR is just making users waste more time searching for stuff they want. It’s a complete time suck, when users are going out of their way to spend time up front doing these reviews in the first place.

No Keyword Search

On top of that, you can’t search reviews by keyword. Maybe this is specific to the time of life I’m in right now, but I want to be able to quickly search if someone wore a piece when pregnant. The information is there for the taking, by the way. All of the pregnant women on this platform are leaving reviews with photos and how far along they are in pregnancy when they wore the piece. But to find these reviews, I have to scroll through photos, hope to see a bump, click into that review and continue the cycle. It’s such a missed opportunity.

Aimless AI Enhanced Search

RTR also has the below icon on its website search bar. The little stars, to me, indicate that it should be a smart search. Very modern for RTR, good for them.

It prompts me to use natural language to find items on the platform. I search for “smocked dress” and get 3 pages of options. But it doesn’t work every time.

I tried searching for “elastic waistband” and got the below:

I know this is incorrect, because I have rented multiple pieces with elastic waistbands. When I search “elastic waist” I get one pair of trousers with a zip fly and hook-and-bar closure??? This is an infuriating, lackluster attempt at a feature that would really enhance the experience on the platform, making items 10x more discoverable. And therefore making the lack of inventory feel less oppressive.

I sense a theme here?

It’s all there, as long as you’ve got 6 hours to spare… Everyone is spending too much time on the app, and not enough time wearing the clothes. RTR is sitting on a goldmine of hyper-personalized community reviews and user data, but fails to make it usable or searchable. The absence of basic filters and the underwhelming search functionality makes uncovering things you love (or even like) extremely time consuming and mentally draining.

Furthermore, RTR is concerned with the cost and sustainability of swaps. If users were able to more accurately predict whether or not a piece would work for them based on this data, I can bet there would be less requested swaps. Being able to discover the best options for your needs and your body leads to more successful monthly rentals. Sure, duds are inevitable, but giving users the data to do better research ahead of time (without hitting the point of frustration where they just give up and pick random sh*t) will help them avoid unnecessary swaps. Meaning RTR avoids unnecessary costs.

@ RTR if you’re listening

• Use AI to generate summaries of all of the reviews, similar to many other online retailers right now: generative AI could pull recurring pros/cons out of these community reviews and summarize them at the top, making it easy to see the highlights and lowlights of the products before delving in deeper.

• Give option to hide products you aren’t interested in: if I’ve clicked into a product page and know that it isn’t for me, give me the option to hide it from future searches and scrolls.

• The sections for “bump friendly, tall friendly and petite friendly” are great, but allow users to designate them as such: you’re already asking for reviews and your users are delivering. Offer buttons, like

  Indyx
  , where users can say whether they believe something is body type friendly or not. I’m sick of seeing items with side zippers in the bump friendly category.

• Focus on standardizing product details: this is a big one. Use product details to improve the enhanced search feature. The “size and fit” section of Product Details is different for each product. Some have key words and labels, some don’t. Some have size measurements, some don’t. Some indicate TTS, some don’t. etc. etc. Having a standard template for this type of information should be a no brainer. You have so much data at RTR, not using it to your advantage to enhance the users’ experience is actually criminal.

Like I said, RTR is good for some things. My other pregnant friends are singing its praises for being able to rent Hatch maternity clothes without paying full price.

Emily Grady Dodge

used it to test drive all of her favorite denim before making the purchase, which is genius! I also love the event rental option for black tie dresses and expensive matching bags.

Sure, it is nice when there is a winner in your monthly bag and it helps unlock something about your taste you didn’t know was there. But for the most part, the experience is overwhelming. I found it impacting how I reach for the things I actually own. While on the app, I feel like I’m drowning in options that aren’t actually available, and on top of that I’m drowning in dry cleaning plastic when my eventual third round picks do show up on my doorstep.

I’m curious about your experiences with the platform? Are you a renter now or were you ever? Do you ever think about the user experience of these apps like I apparently do?! You know who else I want to hear from? UX designers who do this for a living - please chime in with yours thoughts and feedback on whether or not my requests are lunacy.

OK BYE!!!!

- Meigs

1. and yes, I know that RTR wants you in the app as much as possible, even my husband who does not use this app said this to me. It is app 101. But I would spend more money with them if the user experience was more pleasurable, so it’s a good trade off for them to make.