Why ThredUp is betting on social commerce to amplify its AI search tools
Secondhand apparel marketplace ThredUp is continuing to experiment with its business model — this time by ramping up its focus on one of the industry’s latest buzzwords: social commerce.
Last week, ThredUp appointed Danielle Vermeer, co-founder and chief executive officer of the thrifting app Teleport, to the newly created position of head of social commerce. Starting in January, Vermeer will be tasked with making thrift shopping on ThredUp more fun and engaging, the company’s CEO James Reinhart said in an interview. This comes on the heels of other players, like Poshmark, launching and pushing their own live commerce efforts.
Teleport will wind down operations by the end of the month. Billed as the “TikTok for thrifting,” Teleport features AI-powered search and a video feed similar to the wildly popular video-sharing app. Teleport also incorporates social elements into its shopping platform, allowing users to follow sellers or like and comment on listings. As such, social commerce is Vermeer’s bread and butter. Her appointment suggests ThredUp is poised to incorporate some of the social shopping features that distinguished Teleport onto its own platform.
ThredUp’s push into social commerce is the latest in a series of changes as the company figures out how to stand out in a crowded resale market. This summer, ThredUp retooled its fee structure with a new premium service as part of a strategy to offer more higher-quality items. Soon after, the resale platform — which collects and sells used clothing that it gets from either brands themselves or consumers — quietly launched a direct listing feature that appeared to take aim at competitors like Poshmark and Depop.
It remains to be seen what social commerce features ThredUp will add to its platform with Vermeer at the helm. The company declined to share specifics about what social commerce features it has in the pipeline. But Reinhart expects ThredUp’s social shopping tech will work hand in hand with its latest investments in generative artificial intelligence, another area where ThredUp is bullish, Modern Retail previously reported.
“The AI technology as we’ve designed it today is the foundation upon which we’ll build everything else,” Reinhart said. “It remains to be seen exactly how we roll it all out.”
While ThredUp is not acquiring Teleport, at one point an acquisition was on the table, Reinhart said.
“What we aligned on was that the most valuable thing at Teleport was Danielle and the community and the instincts that she had built,” Reinhart said. “We certainly talked about a straight acquisition. And just felt like this was the better and cleaner path.”
Asked to what extent ThredUp’s social commerce tools would build on the peer-to-peer feature the company quietly introduced in August, Reinhart said the company is keeping an open mind.
“Could peer-to-peer be part of social commerce? Like, sure, it falls under the big tent of social commerce, but I don’t think we’re starting social commerce saying, ‘Hey, social commerce is peer-to-peer,’” Reinhart said. “I think we have to keep an open mind around how consumers want to transact in this new environment.”
While ThredUp declined to say if the company will add Teleport’s social shopping features to its platform — such as a video feed or the ability for users to like, comment and follow — the company struck a less bullish tone when it comes to livestreaming, a social commerce trend that is gaining traction on platforms like TikTok Shop and Poshmark.
At Teleport, Vermeer intentionally decided to stick with short, pre-recorded videos rather than live streams, she said.
“I think the live streaming experience is really aligned with a more collector customer mindset,” Vermeer said, citing niche interests like Funko figurines and Pokémon cards. Livestreams often require shoppers to show up at a specific time or include an auction-style format, she added. “Not every customer is really interested in that type of experience.”
To Vermeer, it will be all about striking the right balance for ThredUp’s customers.
“We’ve seen consecutive waves of either social-first platforms layering in shopping or more shopping-focused platforms trying to layer in social,” Vermeer said. “A lot of it is like chicken or egg, trying to find where that best fit is and where their users will really align with that.”
Despite ThredUp’s penchant to experiment, not all of the company’s bets have paid off. Last year, Reinhart confirmed to Modern Retail that it shut down its 777Thrift spinoff shop, which sold value brands under $7 an item. More recently, the company revealed during its second-quarter earnings that it plans to exit the European market, as well as explore strategic alternatives for its Remix business.
ThredUp’s social commerce push comes at a time when the company and other secondhand apparel retailers have struggled with profitability. ThredUp has a more expensive model compared to some of its peers, like Poshmark, because the company has to pay for overhead costs like warehousing and fulfillment of goods.
In the latest quarter, ThredUp reported revenue of $73 million, an 11% decline year over year. Net loss at ThredUp for the third quarter widened to $24.8 billion from $18.1 million during the same period a year ago. “Though we know there is still work ahead, we have made clear progress in course-correcting in the U.S. since last quarter,” Reinhart said in a statement at the time. The company said on a call with investors that the company will roll out new social commerce features in 2025.
Juan Pellerano-Rendón, chief marketing officer at e-commerce logistics startup Swap, questioned how much adding social shopping features to ThredUp would move the needle, as customers are already trained to browse and shop on ThredUp in a particular way.
“I find it hard to believe that this will be what sets them over the top because it’s a learned behavior,” said Pellerano-Rendón. “It can take months, if not years, to adapt that behavior.”