Clothing Library Business Model Studies

Our business model is one of collaborative consumption. Thus it is important we ensure it meets the critera experts claim to be required in order to be successful. One of the studies identified four principles of Collaborative Consumption: critical mass, idling capacity, belief in the commons and trust between strangers (Pederson et al). 

1. Critical Mass
   Having enough participants or products in order to make the system self-sustaining. For example, we need to have enough members and a reasonable amount of clothes available to borrow in order for the system to run smoothly and be profitable. We need to work out these numbers in our costing plan.
   
2. Idling capacity
   This is the unused potential of unwanted and/or unused items. People gather items that quickly become redundant but within CC they can be redistributed and used again by someone else. Our statistics on clothing utilisation demonstrate that clothing has immense idling capacity, since actual usuage is decreasing by 36% and the average number of times per wear is only 7, way more garments are idling rather than being worn. Our system will take advantage of this, circulating garments to maximise use.
   
3. Belief in the commons
   This is basically the idea of giving in order to get. This principle is more relevent to CC systems that require the users to contribute to the pool of resources. We considered having this function in our system where users could contribute to the clothing library but ultimately we want our garments to be 100% tracable in their supply chain to curb unethical production, and it wouldn’t be possible doing it this way. However, this principle is still relevent as consumers would have to give up the concept of ownership of garments in the belief that a shared wardrobe will benefit both themselves and the environment.
   
4. Trust between strangers.
   CC requires trust, since the items are shared and/or exchanged between people who do not know each other. Clothing is viewed as a very personal artifact therefore it requires significant trust between strangers in order to encourage consumers to share. However, the authors claim that by providing the system based on references and ratings, trust can be established between users before the transaction/exchange. Since our system is B2C trust can be created through garentees such as damage insurance add ons, cleanliness garentee’s etc.

Sources:

Pedersen, Esben Rahbek Gjerdrum, and Sarah Netter. “Collaborative Consumption: Business Model Opportunities and Barriers for Fashion Libraries.” Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, vol. 19, no. 3, 2015, pp. 258–273., doi:10.1108/jfmm-05-2013-0073.