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Rent the Runway announced today that it acquired one of retail's more popular social sharing apps, Go Try It On. This marks the second attempt by RTR to inject more social sharing on the site.
For the unfamiliar, Go Try It On was formerly a mobile application that allows users to take pictures, add filters, and share on Instagram and Twitter, as well as comment on and collect style inspiration from other users. Now, Go Try It On will no longer exist as a company, and RTR will own its customer lists, or rather over "400,000 iPhone app users and over 20 million opinions within the community," according to the press release that has replaced the GTIO site.
Likewise, the apps founder and CEO Melissa Evans will join the team as the head of radical innovation, which, aside from being the best job title of all time, means that she'll act as a startup CEO within RTR. She's tasked with testing new projects on RTR's customer base because, as co-founder Jennifer Hyman told WWD, "RTR is at a very different stage now. I can't do some of the experimentation that we did three years ago. The ideas [from Evans] can be crazy or zany [...] It's the testing of diversity of projects that lead to habit formation within Rent the Runway."
· Rent the Runway Acquires Go Try It On [WWD]
· Rent the Runway's Jennifer Hyman Talks the Rising Cost of Prom [Racked]
· Rent the Runway Allows Users to Choose Dresses Based on Awkward Prom Pictures (And Some Really Cute Ones Too) [Racked]