Urban Outfitters Inc. is launching the Nuuly Thrift app for secondhand goods, the company said Tuesday (Aug. 24), initiating an online resale marketplace for clothes customers no longer want.
The Nuuly Thrift iPhone app and marketplace will roll out this fall with women’s, men’s and kid’s apparel and accessories. Nuuly Thrift will allow consumers to resell products from any brand, not just those owned by Urban Outfitters.
“Our job is to grow,” said David Hayne, president of Nuuly and chief technology officer for Urban Outfitters, told The Wall Street Journal in an interview. “From a thrift standpoint, we know that if we don’t provide the platform, it’s not going to keep sellers from selling on other platforms. These secondhand experiences are happening whether we’re playing in them or not.”
About 42 percent of Gen Z shoppers bought secondhand fashion last year, according to a report from GlobalData and secondhand marketplace thredUP. Urban Outfitters and its affiliated brands, including Anthropologie and Free People, are popular on thredUP and Poshmark, among other secondhand markets.
Nuuly was launched by Urban Outfitters in 2019 as an apparel rental service and has bounced back to pre-pandemic subscriber levels recently, Hayne noted.
“Our goal at Nuuly is to build a creative marketplace community — built around a best-in-class technology platform — where customers can be fashion-conscious, eco-conscious and financially-conscious, all in one place,” he said.
Related: With Resale Booming, Platforms Get Aggressive About Attracting Consumers
Poshmark recently added notifications for when another buyer is interested in a certain item and recommendations when something of interest gets sold to its service. The platform also introduced a price suggestion tool to help sellers list items and improve sales conversion rates.
Poshmark also now has a shop within Snapchat that allows consumers to browse and buy without leaving the social media platform. The company is expanding abroad, including rolling out in Australia this year and Canada two years ago and plans to open its services in India, with possible expansion into the U.K.
CEO Manish Chandra said the company is “continuing with English-language countries and then going beyond that.”
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