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Tete-a-Rent – India’s 1st Online Hybrid Fashion Rental Marketplace

By Mithun Chandra on 18 Comments / 2358 views

Seasons wishes to all fellow Rodinhooders,

It, takes a lot of courage to share an idea with a group of entrepreneurs, especially a group as versatile as this.

No matter how small, stupid or crazy it is, your idea is like the ring, and you, Gollum. So after a lot of deliberation, here goes… eyes clenched, fingers crossed and throat dry. My preccciiiooousss

We are launching February 2015. We celebrate Collaborative Consumption. And in this case, Collaborative Fashion.

Tete-a-Rent (pronounced Tet-ah-Rent)

Coined from the french phrase Tête-à-Tête, which means, “a face to face or private conversation between two people”, Tete-a-Rent (rebranded to Duffl) is India’s 1st online hybrid fashion rental marketplace that allows you to rent designer wear to your door step. Buy only what you absolutely love, rent everything else.

The whole idea is,

Supply side

Branded fashion unused, valuable and in mint condition? —> Sell or Rent out —> Earn from the comfort of your couch

Demand Side

Want to flaunt designer wear without burning a hole in your pocket? —> Rent —>  Buy only if you love it

As simple as that. We handle all the other headaches for you.

Sell or rent out, fashion wear that you don’t use anymore. How? Simple

tete1

How rental works
tete2
Some of our self proclaimed, USPs are;

– Dry Cleaning services
– Variety of rentals for Men & Women
– Western & Ethnic wear
– Doorstep pick up and drop
– Brands you have longed to wear
– Online and COD payment
– Celebrity fashion
– 3 hour express delivery within Bangalore
– Free replacement in case of fit concerns (based on availability)

Soon to launch

– Luxury brands Gucci, Armani, Prada, LV etc
– On demand styling assistance

and many more…

Would be fabulous if we could have some constructive feedback and suggestions.

Follow us and show your support on

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Looking forward to whatever you guys have to say. Good or bad, we take advise and feedback from this family very seriously and with a pinch of salt, where its needed.

Tete-a-Rent (rebranded to Duffl) – What is it all about?

——————————————————–
Cheers,
Mithun Chandra

@mithchandra @TheDuffl

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18 Comments

  1. hey mithun,

    i love the name + logo and find the concept interesting – primarily coz i used to live in the hostel where girls faced this issue EVERY WEEKEND!!! party to go to and they don’t know what to wear – so borrow from their roomys or friends!

    i think this will do well with college kids and young professionals in their 20s. 

    in india we aren’t open to the idea of “wearing kissika pehna hua” so you really really need to target this smartly!

    all the best!!

    ps: where are you based and which cities will you be targetting first?

    pps: check what these guys are doing – https://www.therodinhoods.com/forum/topics/sharing-economy-startup-irentshare-com-1

  2. Hey Asha,

    Thank you for the kind words and glad you can relate to it. Coming to your concerns;

    1) “Kissika pehna hua” – True, this is an attitude that exists. But we have seen it evolve tremendously over the past 2.5 years, when we initially commenced ground work.

    We are focusing only on gently worn, fashion forward clothing, footwear and accessories. For example, an expensive wedding ensemble that has been worn once, fairly expensive or designer handbags & footwear and outfits.

    It would be a challenge initially, but the Sharing Economy in India is growing and we hope to be one of the initial players in this space, who can successfully spread awareness and bring people together.

    2) We are based in Bangalore and we will be targeting (pick up and drop services) all the metros in India (Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Delhi & Kolkata).

    3) Irentshare is one of the ventures we vouch for. In fact all ventures in the sharing economy. We keep suggesting irentshare to our F&F.

    Thank you

  3. Very interesting concept. Absolutely revolutionary.. You have not mentioned about your revenue model? Is it subscription based or per transaction? 

    You can evolve to offer a service like Gwynnie Bee in the USA.. 

  4. Hey Karthik,

    Appreciate the encouragement and the suggestion.

    Tête-à-Rent being a peer to peer business, we feel a per-transaction model would work to keep it simple, initially at least. At a later point, we might introduce a subscription model. We also offer to and fro shipping services.

    India is a fairly challenging market for our venture being a fairly new concept, but not a hard one at all.

    We will evolve and adopt several processes and models as we move forward. Yes, the GB model is something we hope to adopt as we move forward. There are so many players in this field and we hope to introduce the same in India.

    Thank you once again.

  5. Mithun:

    Very interesting. You won’t believe few days back only I was discussing with a fashion enthusiast and concept of an online portal for used cloths came in and she was very up beat about the idea :-). So there you go. 

    Good luck!! 

  6. Hey Mahesh,

    That’s really encouraging. We have been fortunate to meet a lot of enthusiasts who feel its high time something of this sort comes to India.

    Appreciate the kind words.

    Mihtun

  7. Hey Mithun,

    Congratulations! Sounds interesting.

    Let me know if you need any help or assistance. I would be happy to share my experience. 

    Vardhman,

    IRentShare

  8. Hi Mithun,

    This is an interesting concept. Good luck.

    How are you managing packaging for pick up and delivery? From what I know, current logistics companies only pick up pre-packaged products.

    Regards,

    Sudhir

  9. Hey Sudhir,

    Quite on the contrary. I have spoken to Delhivery and they have agreed to provide both forward and reverse services. Here, they create invoices, pick up, bring it to their central dispatch unit, pack it, deliver it and vice versa.

    In our model, the lender will be bearing the shipping costs and ensure it is dry cleaned and ready to wear before pick up. The shipping costs will only be a fraction of the rental amount they earn.

    But all said and done, we’re yet to step into the field. We hope for things to be smooth sailing. If not, we will have to mould our processes accordingly.

    Thank you

  10. Hey Vardhman,

    Appreciate the offer and will be dropping you a mail shortly with a few questions.

    Do respond it at your convenience.

    Thank you

  11. I am sceptical about the concept. I wud never want to wear a used cloth. Unless its from a friend or a friend of a friend, i will stay away. Try to restrict to this friends and friends of friends part initially by incorporating Facebook.

  12. Hey Manjunath,

    Thank you for the honest opinion. Coming to your concerns and suggestions;

    Used Cloth – That is pretty much the mentality we are trying to overcome. How we look at it, if it can happen over half a decade in various countries, why not India? And we are focusing on gently worn items such as bridal ensembles, fashion forward/designer footwear, accessories and outfits. Regular and everyday clothing is not something we even encourage on the site.

    Friends of Friends – Keeping the above mentality and quality aspect in mind, we have made this portal invite only. So when a lender registers & uploads an item, it will be checked, verified and if it does not meet our standards, it will not be approved to display on the site. Post that, if an item is not as described, on delivery, it will be shipped back to the lender, and the lender receives a negative rating and review. This being a user driven portal, we hope the users will respect each others trust and belongings.

    We are keeping a Facebook login to bring in the community (F&F) perspective as well.

    But coming down to reality, this might or might not work. But so far, we have got a lot of encouragement. So keeping a positive mindset and going forward with it. Its a joint decision to see this project through regardless of the outcome. It has been an idea close to our hearts for a very long time to abandon it now.

    Thank you once again.
    Mithun

  13. waiting for launch!

    Splash site looks good!

    Boom Boom!!

  14. hey mithun,

    many congrats!! just saw the update!! let me re-share this over social!!!

  15. Thanks Alok, 

    We have launched now. Do spare a couple of minutes to go through our site and give us your feedback. Would love to hear from you

  16. Thank you Asha, you da rockstar as always for all the support.

    Now please fish through that wardrobe and find at least one item and upload it and check out our service. Need candid feedback from you. 🙂

  17. hey mithun,

    long time no word. your site seems to be down… all well?

    do update us on your journey!!

  18. Hey Asha,

    Thank you for checking in. Tete-a-Rent was re-branded to Duffl (http://www.TheDuffl.com) a couple of months ago.

    We have some good news to share with fellow Rodinhooders, which will be announced shortly. 2015 has been a generous and an exciting year indeed.

    Cheers,
    Mithun
    @mithchandra

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