The resale platform ThredUp is diving into social commerce with a new hire this week. Danielle Vermeer, who headed Amazon Fashion’s luxury resale division before founding the social commerce resale app Teleport in 2023, is joining ThredUp as its new head of social commerce.
ThredUp CEO James Reinhart told Glossy that Vermeer’s remit is to establish ThredUp’s social commerce business and to anticipate where consumers are headed. She will focus not just on social commerce but also on ThredUp’s use of generative AI. ThredUp already has four AI products in the market, including a visual search product, an AI stylist, a search using AI-generated images and a “complete the outfit” program.
“We are keeping a broad view of social commerce, whether it’s selling through TikTok Shop or Instagram, live shopping or influencer programs,” Reinhart said. “Vermeer will be looking at where consumers are spending their time and helping us evolve to meet them.”
Part of ThredUp’s approach to social commerce will be viewing its products as content, Reinhart said. He likened the 4.5 million products listed on ThredUp to the tens of thousands of movies and shows available on Netflix and the millions of user-generated posts on a social platform. Netflix and Instagram have leveraged the content on their platform in engaging ways, and shopping apps like ThredUp can do something similar, he said.
“People shop ThredUp in a traditional way — but imagine a world where we have a New York stylist put together a list of some of her top Manhattan finds, use our AI tools to supplement them [with more products] and cut it together as a curated storefront? That’s the kind of thing we’re looking at.”
ThredUp is not acquiring Vermeer’s startup Teleport. Instead, Teleport will wind down operations by the end of the year, and all Teleport users will receive a discount to use at ThredUp to encourage a transition. Teleport was built on principles similar to what Reinhart is aiming for, allowing users to buy and sell secondhand goods through a TikTok-like vertical scrolling feed.
Reinhart said ThredUp has been focused on growing its profits in the last 18 months. The company just posted its fifth consecutive quarter of profitability at a time when many companies are struggling to reach net-positive results. Revenue last quarter was $73 million, which was down 11% year-over-year. At the same time, ThredUp has raised its revenue expectation for the full year from $300 million to $302 million.
Reinhart said ThredUp’s recently launched AI tools in August have been a boon to the company. While he declined to disclose exact numbers around the usage of AI tools beyond saying there were “tens of thousands of uses per day,” the company has disclosed that more than 60% of product searches through AI have led to further item exploration.
“We’ve grown a little slower than I’d like recently,” Reinhart said. “So what I’m really focused on next year is growth.”
