Neiman Marcus Turns to Rental Startup to Lure Younger Shoppers
- Rent the Runway getting floor space in unusual partnership
- ‘We’re going to learn a lot,’ Neiman CEO says in interview
Neiman Marcus, facing an industrywide slowdown in department-store traffic, is taking a new approach to getting customers in the door: devoting part of its floor space to e-commerce startup Rent the Runway.
The first in-store boutique will open in Neiman Marcus’s San Francisco branch Friday, with a few more to follow in 2017, the Dallas-based luxury retailer said in a statement Wednesday. The 3,000-square-foot space will showcase a rotating selection of clothes and accessories that shoppers can rent, along with items from Neiman Marcus that customers can buy to complete their looks.