E-commerce
Fashion rental service Nuuly designs deeper customer-first experience
Nuuly, a clothing subscription rental subscription service, expands partnership with Recurly to drive a more rewarding customer experience, growth and launch new markets.
August 28, 2025 by Judy Mottl — Editor, RetailCustomerExperience.com & DigitalSignageToday.com
In the competitive world of clothing rental and subscription the key to success is not only providing fashion a customer wants. Success is tied to providing everything a subscriber wants and expects — seamless purchase to smooth returns.
It is a challenging business environment — the subscription market is maturing but that maturation is leading to limited new subscriber growth. The shift, according to a report, "2025 State of Subscriptions," signals a need to pivot from mass acquisition strategies to more targeted strategies — including enhancing subscriber experience and cementing customer loyalty.
The report, conducted by Recurly, a subscription management and billing platform, involved an analysis of over 2,2000 Recurly merchants and 67 million unique subscribers over a 12-month period to gain insight on industry data. The data reveals the increasing importance of providing a seamless experience, from online store inventory offerings to the return process and everything in between.
Delivering that seamless experience is a big reason why fashion subscription rental service Nuuly has expanded its partnership with Recurly.
The technology in play
Nuuly first partnered with Recurly in 2019 with the initial focus of powering its core subscription model with managing recurring billing and building a frictionless user experience, according to Joe Stratter, executive director of technology at Nuuly.
The Recurly platform handles everything from billing and payments to subscriber retention and real-time insight. That allows brands to stay focused on scaling their business and building lasting relationships with their subscribers, according to Lina Tonk, CMO of Recurly.
"Whether a brand is launching a subscription box or scaling a global SaaS offering, Recurly gives them the tools they need to adapt quickly, boost revenue and keep customers coming back. We're here to make sure every part of the subscriber journey runs smoothly and that our services are always evolving to get ahead of what's next in the subscription economy," Tonk said in an email interview.
Recurly gives brands the capability to proactively analyze and monitor all aspects of the subscriber lifecycle, including churn management, revenue performance, product optimization and more, to discover opportunities for proactively engaging users.
"Our goal is to give customers the intelligent and proactive tools needed to make managing their business simple so they can focus on delivering the incredible products and services they're known for, and to help them always stay ahead of what's coming next," said Tonk.
Those capabilities and speed of implementation were prime reasons Nuuly deployed the platform.
"We knew we needed a subscription billing partner who could not only move fast with us but also scale as our business evolved. Recurly stood out because of its capabilities and speed of implementation," Stratter said in an email interview.
The fashion rental service now, due to the partnership expansion, offers subscribers new features including 'check my return' and 'The Thrift Shop' and has also gained operational efficiencies
"We've tapped deeper into Recurly's platform and expertise to support order management, integrate new transaction flows, and enhance personalization," said Stratter. "Our primary goals were eliminating complexity in recurring billing, improving time-to-next-shipment workflows and gaining flexibility to support new revenue models like one-time purchases. Recurly allowed us to offload operational pain points like payment orchestration, dunning and subscription lifecycle management so we could focus on delivering a seamless and innovative customer experience."
The big goals
The top quest for Nuuly, from the start, has been to transform from a subscription service into a lifestyle for customers looking for a sustainable, convenient way to shop pre-loved fashion.
Nuuly is an URBN brand — clothing products pull from Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Free People, terrain — and its ecosystem is focused on eliminating the waste of one-off purchases and giving secondhand items a new life. Members subscribe and rent any six styles, every month, for $98 and are provided with free shipping and returns. They can pause or cancel membership anytime. If they want to keep an item they can just log in to their Nuuly Account to purchase.
With Recurly's technology Nuuly has launched a feature called 'check my return' which eliminate delays in a subscriber ordering new fashion as soon as returned items are in process. This is helping to keep customer wardrobes in constant rotation and leading to customer satisfaction. The self-service features help subscribers ensure a return has been received and lets them confirm the item has been received within minutes off drop off at UPS.
Nuuly has also launched The Thrift Shop aimed at driving sustainable fashion innovation and growth. The program gives customers a channel to buy pre-loved clothing as part of their Nuuly clothing rental subscription plan, which Nuuly said enforces its commitment to individuality and environmental responsibility.
The big gains
The return on the latest technology investments is strong — Nuuly achieved over 50% year over year growth with the customer-first experience now in play.
"One of the most valuable outcomes has been our ability to unlock faster repeat engagement with tools like "check my return," said Stratter. "By integrating UPS scan data with Recurly's real-time orchestration, we can automatically trigger the next shipment as soon as a return is in motion — leading to higher customer satisfaction and reduced downtime between rentals."
Another major ROI driver has been flexibility.
"Recurly's support for hybrid models helped us expand beyond rentals into resale via The Thrift Shop, all while keeping our billing infrastructure unified. That versatility has supported our growth of over 50% year-over-year and helped us continue to innovate without needing to re-architect core systems," said Stratter.
Customer loyalty and delivering a personalized experience are at the heart of what Nuuly does, added Stratter, describing the two strategies as "absolutely essential" to creating real and meaningful value for customers.
"Our subscribers aren't just renting clothing; they're in search of an experience that is flexible and convenient for their busy lives while also aligning with their own sense of style and values," he said.
"This requires us to understand their personal preferences, needs, and wants so we can, in turn, provide them with highly personalized recommendations and services at every touchpoint to make Nuuly an exciting and essential part of their routine."
About Judy Mottl
