Bag Borrow or Steal

Netflix for designer handbags: there's no stopping UBER PREMIUM rental business models.

When did the luxury-for-all craze really start? According to the Saison Research Institute of Japan, a whopping 94.3 percent of Japanese women in their 20s own Louis Vuitton goods and 92.2 percent of them own a Gucci product. Numbers for the US and the EU may be somewhat lower, but there too millions of consumers crave the latest luxury brand shoes, skirts and bags. The ‘problem’: most women can’t afford to own a large collection of all these pricey wares, let alone keep up with the new fashion styles that are introduced each season. To the rescue comes Bag Borrow Or Steal, an online based membership program that offers a broad selection of original designer handbags and other contemporary fashion handbags, for their members to ‘Borrow’. They also offer a purchase option that they call ‘Steal’. Members can borrow bags for as long as they want; when they are ready for something new, they return the bag and borrow the next one. Fashionistas are thus guaranteed that they’ll always be carrying the ‘must-have’ handbag. How do they make money? Bag Borrow or Steal’s business model resembles that of Netflix: customers can sign up for three different membership levels, with a minimum three-month commitment: Trendsetter, starting at a monthly USD 19.95 (EUR 16.25/GBP 11.20), Princess, and Diva, as well as 3 deluxe levels of membership (Trendsetter Deluxe, Princess Deluxe, and Diva Deluxe, the latter costing USD 149.95 per month). Deluxe memberships allow members to borrow 2 bags at once. There is no time limit on ‘borrowing’ needs: bags can be kept for as long as members want. There is a USD 9.95 round trip ticket charge each time a member ‘borrows’ a bag. Springwise thinks Bag Borrow or Steal makes total sense: with status anxiety-driven consumers depending on luxury more than ever before, we expect to see more and more new-style rental and shared ownership services, making strictly UBER PREMIUM goods available by limiting the actual usage time. From renting a Segway for a month to a Mercedes CLS for a day to De Beers diamonds for an hour, the luxury rental concept can be applied to virtually every business segment.