thredUP.com’s Fourth Annual Fashion Resale Report Unveils Resale as Fastest Growing Retail Sector

Resale market value estimated to reach $25 billion by 2025

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–thredUP,
the nation’s leading online marketplace to buy and sell like-new women’s
and kids’ clothing, has published its Fourth
Annual Resale Report. The Report reveals exciting new data about the
scale of the resale industry, as well as some surprising facts about
what cities, brands, and consumer behaviors are fueling its breakout
growth.

“thredUP is a pioneer in the online fashion resale industry and we are
in a unique position to put the growth of the industry in context,” said
James Reinhart, CEO and co-founder of thredUP. “Online resale is now
firmly integrated into people’s lives, transcending demographics. It’s a
mindset around smarter living, and as a company whose mission is to
inspire a new generation of shoppers to think secondhand first, we love
the story the data is telling.”

The average American woman’s closet is a goldmine. With more than 70% of
items in a woman’s closet on average going unworn, some estimates place
the value of unused and ignored clothing in American closets at over $8
billion. As the success of online resellers continues, a growing portion
of this hidden treasure will be unlocked.

With the emergence of online and mobile players, mobile adoption
continues to accelerate as 68% of online resale activity takes place on
a mobile device. At every income and fashion level, it is a natural part
of the social conversation around smart and conscientious living.

If 1 in 100 American Households shopped resale, they would collectively
save over $1.4 billion every year. In a survey conducted by thredUP this
past year, 87% of individuals who bought secondhand clothing online
reported shifting their spend from off-price retailers to online resale.
In the same survey, more than 50% of respondents reported making their
first secondhand purchase online. We expect this trend to accelerate and
for resale to capture wallet share from traditional retailers and
discounters.

“It is no longer a question of if but when hundreds of millions of
people all over the world make resale a habit,” said Paula Sutter, past
President of Diane von Furstenberg and thredUP board member.

Brand highlights from thredUP’s Fourth Annual
Resale Report

As online resale continues to grow, many well-known brands continue to
thrive in the resale world while others have seen a huge increase in
their resale popularity in the past year. A brand with strong resale
value is a winning consumer brand.

Most popular brands bought
J.Crew, Ann
Taylor, Theory, Banana Republic, Gap, Coach, Free People, Express

Most popular brands sold
J.Crew,
Forever 21, Free People, Mossimo, H&M, Nike, White House Black Market,
MICHAEL Michael Kors

Resale Across America

Fashion capitals New York, San Francisco, Miami, Chicago, and Dallas are
leading growth in resale, but consumers are shopping resale across the
country from big cities to small towns and everywhere in between.

Most Active Resale Cities: New York City,
NY; Washington D.C.; Los Angeles, CA; San Francisco, CA; Boston, MA;
Philadelphia, PA; Chicago, IL; Seattle, WA; Atlanta, GA; Houston, TX

Fastest Growing Resale Cities: Harrisburg,
PA; Denver, CO; Columbus, OH; Durham, NC; Washington D.C.; Hartford, CT;
Austin, TX; New Orleans, LA; Minneapolis, MN; Atlanta, GA

To read the complete Annual Resale Report visit thredUP.com/resalereport.
Last year’s report can be found at thredup.com/resalereport/2015.

About thredUP

thredUP
is the leading online marketplace to buy and sell like-new women’s and
kids’ clothing. The company publishes the Annual
Resale Report, and pioneered the Clean
Out Bag, the most convenient way for consumers to sell clothes
they’re no longer wearing. It accepts clothing from more than 25,000
women’s and kids’ brands, and resells the items for up to 90 percent off
the original retail price. Headquartered in downtown San Francisco,
thredUP is backed by world-class investors and a team that includes
investors and executives from Netflix, Virgin, Diane von Furstenberg,
GAP, Macy’s, and other powerful brands. thredUP is reinventing the
secondhand clothing industry and inspiring a new generation of consumers
to think secondhand first. Learn more at www.thredUP.com.

Contacts

thredUP
Jen Bennett, 415-596-6770
jen.bennett@thredup.com