The Apple Watch has another app to make it a bit more fashionable — at least from an online shopper’s experience.
Poshmark, the fashion marketplace, has expanded from its iOS and Android app offerings to an Apple Watch app that will make the online marketplace shoppable from the watch itself. Poshmark has millions of registered users and is expected to hit $200 million in annual revenue, TechCrunch reported. What separates Poshmark from sites like eBay or other online shopping sites is that it allows buyers and sellers to directly communicate; the site also offers a range of secure payment transfers and a specialized method to buy and sell high end goods. Poshmark is said to have 10 million items for sale on its marketplace, CEO Manish Chandra told TechCrunch.
Now, with the addition of its Apple Watch app, Poshmark can extend its “mobile-first” approach that started when the site began as an app prior to actually being a full website. Poshmark said 90 percent of its users are mobile-based, and that same amount of revenue comes from mobile devices as well. And the company hopes the Apple Watch app can help extend its commerce reach.
“It’s a smaller, fast factor platform,” Chandra told The Wall Street Journal. “On the watch, users can like items and follow designers.”
Chandra is a big believer in the Apple Watch, as he said he was giving all of his employees an Apple Watch to help drive better communication among the team. The app, he noted, will allow consumers to monitor their sales, and keep track of their purchases. If Apple Watch becomes the next big thing, Chandra said he wants to be “ahead of the curve” and be part of the wearable platform. After all, mobile shopping is already the company’s forte.
The eCommerce marketplace, which hit its $100 million annual revenue milestone at the end of 2014, also recently raised another $25 million to continue its mission, according to the report, which noted that it has raised $47.2 million since its inception. At the same time it raised more capital, it started offering a new service called Posh Concierge, a free feature that allows the company to authenticate the purchases of luxury goods.
Previously, items sold through the marketplace were done so directly from seller to buyer like eBay, but the new service allows items to be authorized by the Poshmark team before they’re shipped. This added an extra layer of security from the buyer’s perspective and could attract that professional audience.