After years of trial and error, rental platforms have found new ways to improve margins and acquire customers, such as focussing on niche categories. Profitability remains elusive, however.

The rental platform’s revenue is up from last year — with the number of active subscribers more than doubling — but figures still remain below pre-pandemic levels.

This week, shares in the loss-making rental platform fell on their first day of trading. Can the platform convince enough women to try rental fast enough to please investors?

Session 3 of VOICES 2020 addressed how the pandemic spiked e-commerce activity and time spent online by consumers, escalating the importance of authentic, engaging online platforms and raising more questions about the value of physical products and spaces.

Post-election, industry executives sound off on what they need to focus on next.

This week, Swarovski announces its first global creative director, while Holt Renfrew taps Lane Crawford’s deputy president to lead the department store group.

The fashion rental company is said to be seeking at least $25 million in a funding round, which would value the startup at about $750 million.

Online luxury retail is now 20 years old. But after two decades of innovation, once-groundbreaking multi-brand giants face significant changes in consumer behaviour — and a growing, diverse stable of competitors — just as the coronavirus epidemic turns the world upside down. What happens now?