INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
ThredUp, the 10-year-old fashion resale marketplace, has a lot of big news to boast about lately
For starters, the company just closed on $100 million in fresh funding from an investor syndicate that includes Park West Asset Management,
Irving Investors and earlier backers Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, Upfront Ventures, Highland Capital Partners and Redpoint
are beginning to test out, wherein ThedUp will be sending the stores clothing that they will process through their own point-of-sale
systems, while trying to up-sell customers on jewelry, shoes, and other accessories.It says a lot that traditional retailers are coming to
see gently used items as a potential revenue stream for themselves, and little wonder given the size of the resale market, estimated to be a
$24 billion market currently and projected to become a $51 billion market by 2023.We talked yesterday with ThredUp founder and CEO James
Did they approach you or is ThredUp out there pitching traditional retailers?JR: I think [the two companies] have been thinking about resale
could scale to 300 or 400 stores if we wanted.TC: How is this going to work, exactly, with these partners?JR: We have the [software and
logistics] architecture and the selection to put together carefully curated selections of clothing for particular stores, including the
everyone.JR: It is everyone
We serve lots of luxury customers with brands like Louis Vuitton, but we also sell Old Navy
full price, would have been too much, so Old Navy shoppers are [buying] Gap [whose shopper are buying] J
Crew and Theory and all the way up
Consistently, what we hear is [our marketplace] allows customers to swap out their wardrobes at higher rates than would be possible
standards? What goes into the reject pile?JR: We have high standards
Items have to be in like-new or gently used condition, and we reject more than half of what people send us
distribution centers to process more clothing
I think for every great e-commerce business, there are incredible logistics [challenges to overcome] behind the scenes
