Marketplace Briefing: Poshmark is the latest platform to use AI to help create product listings

This is the latest installment of the Marketplace Briefing, a weekly Modern Retail+ column about the ever-changing e-commerce marketplace landscape. More from the series →
Peer–to-peer resale marketplace Poshmark is rolling out a new AI-powered listing tool for sellers as the company leans into tech upgrades to recapture secondhand apparel’s pandemic-era boom.
Unlike the traditional listing process, which involves manually entering product details, Poshmark’s new tool, dubbed “Smart List AI,” automates much of the work by generating titles, descriptions and categories based on a photo. Poshmark earns revenue by charging a flat fee of $2.95 for transactions under $15 and taking a 20% commission on sales above $15. With the AI listing tool, Poshmark is betting it can grow its seller pool and the products for sale — and, ultimately, how much money it makes. The tool will be available to all mobile app users in the U.S. and Canada in February, the company announced Thursday. The company also said it has seen, on average, a 48% reduction in time to create a listing since it started beta testing the tool about a year ago.
“One of the biggest challenges in resale is creating compelling listings that grab a buyer’s attention,” Manish Chandra, founder and CEO of Poshmark, said in an interview with Modern Retail. “By automating that process and using AI to improve the quality of listings, we’re making it easier for sellers to list more items and for buyers to find exactly what they’re looking for.”
It’s the most recent in a string of tech updates Poshmark has introduced since it was acquired in January 2023 by South Korean tech giant Naver for $1.2 billion. Colloquially known as the “Google of South Korea,” Naver operates various services, including internet search and an e-commerce marketplace called Naver Shopping.
Poshmark took off during the pandemic as stuck-at-home consumers began decluttering their closets. The demand for secondhand clothing, amid a broader e-commerce boom, became so intense that Poshmark, which was founded in 2011, went public in January 2021 with an initial valuation of $3 billion; Poshmark more than doubled its valuation to over $7 billion in the company’s stock market debut, reflecting investor optimism at the time around online shopping.
But growth slowed, with competition increasing and platforms struggling to scale profitably. Poshmark’s new listing tool is the latest sign that under Naver’s ownership, Poshmark is tapping the technological know-how of its parent company to regain its pandemic-era buzz.
Poshmark isn’t the only resale platform retooling its business strategy. ThredUp, for example, has introduced AI search tools to help users find secondhand items on its sprawling web store more easily. Similarly, luxury consignor The RealReal is heavily investing in tech upgrades like AI to save time on key tasks, such as product authentication. Resale platforms, including Poshmark, Mercari and Depop have also in recent months overhauled their fee structure in pursuit of profitability — in some cases sparking intense backlash from sellers — Modern Retail previously reported.
Like ThredUp and The RealReal, Poshmark has rolled out other AI-driven features, such as Posh Lens, an image-based search tool that allows buyers to upload photos of items they’re looking for and find similar products on the platform. Poshmark has also made tech upgrades related to live shopping with the introduction of Posh Shows and Posh Party Live, which enable auction-style livestreams on the platform. Last year, Poshmark launched an ad tool that lets sellers promote their listed items.
Naver’s acquisition of Poshmark has given the platform both the capital and the technical expertise required to execute technological changes, especially those related to search functionality and product recognition, Chandra said.
“The level of investments we are able to make is an order of magnitude different from what we were able to do as a small, standalone company,” he said. “With Naver, we’ve accelerated innovation in some of the deep tech areas — around search, around AI.”
Still, resale has a ways to go before it can recapture the boom years of the pandemic. Online resale in the U.S. was expected to reach around $80 billion in 2024, a 3.4% increase from the previous year, according to eMarketer. However, it has yet to return to its pandemic high of $85 billion in 2021.
As for what’s next, Poshmark continues to be focused on live shopping and how AI can be leveraged to enhance the experience. Chandra also said Poshmark plans to release more tech upgrades aimed at improving the selling experience.
The right direction
Jon Anthony and Brad Schwibner, known on social media as “The Posh Kings,” are top Poshmark merchants who have been selling on the platform since 2014. They’ve tested out a beta version of Poshmark’s smart listing tool and have been pleasantly surprised by how much it speeds up the listing process. For Anthony and Schwibner, who spend as much as 16 hours a day selling thousands of dollars worth of goods on Poshmark, the listing tool has helped free up their time, they told Modern Retail in an interview.
“If you want to be a full-time seller, you need to list often throughout the week to perpetuate more sales, and if you’re only a hobby seller, you a lot of times don’t have the time to invest to list even a few things,” Anthony said. “These tools that they continue to develop have been a huge help in enabling speed. Speed is very important.”
As is often the case with AI, the results aren’t always perfect. For instance, Anthony and Schwibner noticed that while it’s accurate in terms of color recognition and generating descriptions, it doesn’t always recognize brands correctly. But they said they expect the technology to improve as time goes on.
In general, Poshmark’s platform changes haven’t always resonated with its base of 130 million users. In October, Poshmark reversed changes it made to the platform’s fee structure following widespread outcry from sellers who feared the higher costs would deter buyers. Chandra admitted that the new fee structure led to a drop in sales, Modern Retail reported at the time.
“You do 10 things, and one or two will be a huge success,” Anthony said about the various changes on Poshmark. “In regards to this particular tool, I think Poshmark is going in the right direction.”
Marketplace news to know
- Amazon’s latest round of layoffs has struck its communications department, where dozens of employees have been let go, per Bloomberg.
- Amazon has been sued by consumers who are alleging that the retailing giant secretly tracks them through their cellphones and sells data it collects, per Reuters.
- The Federal Trade Commission has questioned Temu representatives about Amazon’s pricing policies, according to The Information.