Dive Brief:
- Rent the Runway’s net promoter score has risen 43% year over year and 100% since Q3 2022, Jennifer Hyman, co-founder and CEO, said on a Q3 2025 earnings call Friday. She attributed the growth to “a multiyear rebuild of customer trust.”
- Customer retention and retention both improved despite price hikes in August, according to Hyman. Customers are responding to improvements to the app experience, product discovery, personalization and better access to inventory.
- “We are focused on building a larger, healthier and more durable business, one that grows through exceptional customer experience and passionate community advocacy,” Hyman said.
Dive Insight:
Rent the Runway saw revenue and CX metrics each improve, and the company’s gross profit improved quarter-over-quarter despite remaining negative year over year.
Revenue was up 15.4% year over year to $87.6 million in the third quarter of 2025, according to an earnings release. Gross profit declined 1.5% year over year to $25.9 million, but net income for the quarter was $76.5 million.
Average active subscribers grew 12.9% year over year to nearly 148,000 for the third quarter of 2025. Ending active subscriber growth was positive as well, up 12.4% year over year to nearly 149,900.
“I'm confident that this is what it looks like when the Rent the Runway experience gets better and when the fundamentals of the model begin to reaccelerate,” Hyman said.
The financials are an improvement over the second quarter of 2025, when Rent the Runway’s revenue grew 2.5% year over year and gross profit dropped 25% year over year to $24.3 million. The company reported a net loss of $26.4 million for the second quarter.
In the third quarter, the company redesigned its homepage to emphasize personalization and discovery, Hyman said. Since launch, engagement with the homepage is up 57% compared to the legacy version.
Rent the Runway revamped its discovery process as well, using machine learning to improve similar style recommendations, resulting in a 70% increase in click-through rates, according to Hyman.
The company started clearly displaying that its pricing is prorated based on the billing cycle, and added an “instant gratification feature” that lets customers place one-off orders when they are out of shipments, Hyman said.
“We believe that our subscriber base is willing to pay more for immediate access to the inventory she wants when she wants it,” Hyman said.
The company is setting its sights on subscriber acquisition to maintain its current trajectory, according to Hyman.
Marketing and CX will each have a role to play in this goal. Historically, more than 80% of Rent the Runway’s acquisition has come from word of mouth — a strategy it will embrace going forward.
“Exceptional customer experience fuels advocacy,” Hyman said. “Our depth and breadth of inventory on moments worth sharing. Community behaviors like reviews, photos, events and referrals scale organically, and our brand identity reflects her aspirations.”
