6 ms·

What It Takes to Build a Marketplace: The Poshmark Story

56 points by prostoalex 7y ago

0898 7y ago
I'm a third the way through and still don't know what Poshmark is.
- arthurcolle 7y ago
  Poshmark is apparently the "#1 way to buy and sell fashion," presumably a competitor to StitchFix, RentTheRunway, among a few others in the space.
  - giggles_giggles 7y ago
    No, those are rental services. Poshmark is an online upscale thrift store similar to the brick and mortar store Buffalo Exchange.
  - elliekelly 7y ago
    It's more like Amazon Seller/eBay for high-end used clothing. StitchFix and Rent the Runway focus on short-term rentals of super high-end clothing. You can also buy SF/RtR used inventory a season or two later it's still really expensive for a well-worn piece and not really their primary business.
    - arthurcolle 7y ago
      Gotcha, thanks for the clarification!
marcus_holmes 7y ago
is it just me, or does the language used in the introduction make the whole thing feel like a huge scam? I couldn't make it past the first transcript paragraph before my scam-sense was screaming at me to walk away.
- dna_polymerase 7y ago
  It's not just you. Reminds me of this fluff piece about superhuman [0]. It appears to be an article written by the investors, so yeah obviously they are super hyped. I never heard of Poshmark and I'd like to believe I am not alone with this here either. Looks like fancy ebay with an app to me. [0]: https://a16z.com/2019/06/27/superhuman/ https://a16z.com/2019/06/27/superhuman/
  - petard 7y ago
    Poshmark is very well know in the fashion space, which probably has very different demographics to the HN crowd.
  - JimboOmega 7y ago
    (Disclaimer: Former Employee) Poshmark is quite well known in fashion (especially women's fashion). Not quite HN's target market.... but if you're a woman who shops for clothes online you've probably seen the ads at a bare minimum. I myself was pretty surprised to see how it had succeeded despite being "fancy ebay with an app". (It is almost exclusively fashion, btw). This does seem entirely like a puff piece; there's talk of an IPO at some point soon[0] so it doesn't surprise me that they'd be starting the hype engine going. [0]: https://news.crunchbase.com/news/fashion-resale-marketplace-poshmark-reportedly-eyeing-ipo/ https://news.crunchbase.com/news/fashion-resale-marketplace-...
    - marcus_holmes 7y ago
      > there's talk of an IPO at some point soon[0] so it doesn't surprise me that they'd be starting the hype engine going. that totally explains it, thanks :)
bencollier49 7y ago
This company is completely new to me, but they appear to be in North America only. Also, is it normal to call yourself 'posh' over there? If someone did it in the UK it would be in the same category as someone with a business called "Honest John's Used Cars".
- zrobotics 7y ago
  I can't speak authoritatively for Canada, but in the USA 'posh' is a uncommon word, I associate its use with UK English. I have also never heard of this company, so I'm somewhat skeptical of the claims in the article. I'm guessing that although the company was founded in NA, the use of 'posh' is related to the founder being Indian, thus acquiring UK English word associations.
Wonnk13 7y ago
My girlfriend loves Poshmark. You can buy/sell lightly used clothing for pennies on the dollar. Think of it as Ebay meets slightly upscale Goodwill.
reeddavid 7y ago
The praise here is over the top. Poshmark is a peer-to-peer clothing marketplace – think eBay, but focused mostly on used or one-off pieces of clothing. Poshmark has incredible potential given the huge amount of quality clothing inventory, but in my opinion their product and marketing optimize for all the wrong things and make it hard to actually buy things. What I want from Poshmark is to find and buy clothes I like that fit me. That's it. What I get from Poshmark: - They ignore "My Sizes" and show me a feed of women's clothes and incorrect sizes every time I login. I cannot understand how this is still a problem. Why would I buy clothes that are not in my size? - No way to filter out "One Size" items. Good luck finding your size when shopping a brand that has accessories; you'll be drowning in watches, ties and hats - Constant notifications for some type of event. Example: 'pm_editor has invited you to "Street Style Chic Party" Today at 7:00 PM' – I get multiple of these daily. I don't want to join a party, I just want to find clothes that fit on my own time and buy them. - No way to set notifications when items that match my criteria are listed - Constant promotional emails that are not relevant to me. Example: "Login to to get discounted shipping on your active offers, 4 hours only!" – when I have no active offers. - Until recently, comments on items (e.g. questions and answers between buyer and seller) did not trigger notifications. So sellers would have no idea that potential buyers were asking questions on their items. I skipped many purchases because I couldn't confirm an important detail - No option for returns. If I'm buying high-end used clothing, I want the ability to return it if it doesn't fit as expected. I'm happy to pay for return shipping, I just don't want to be stuck with something. I've skipped many many purchases because it was too expensive to commit to without trying it on. - Disempowered support team. Each time I raise an issue with support, I get the sense they are measured entirely on how little they escalate to teams that can actually change things. In summary: Poshmark has an incredible inventory of quality used clothing, but they focus on all sorts of features and activities that don't do anything to help me find and buy more items in their marketplace.
- dawnerd 7y ago
  I signed up thinking it would be A good idea to diversify outside of eBay. The barrage of notification spam made me uninstall right away.
- JimboOmega 7y ago
leovander 7y ago
Someone described Poshmark as competitor to StitchFix or Rent the Runway, and that completely missed the mark on all the products. Comparing StitchFix to Rent the Runway doesn't seem right either, as StitchFix doesn't loan you the clothes, you buy them. I have purchased three fixes from them so far. From what we can tell, its their own brands they sell. Agreed, Poshmark doesn't have a clear statement of what it actually is on the landing page. My wife sells her old clothes on there, so I liken it to eBay as some have mentioned. TL;DR - Poshmark: eBay/Craigslist/OfferUp/LetGo for used clothes - StitchFix: curated clothes (hand picked), subscription based - Rent the Runway: rent clothes, allows for clothes to not collect dust in a closet
- wayoutthere 7y ago
  StitchFix doesn’t have a “house” brand; much of their clothing is easily found in smaller mid-range boutique stores. It’s usually a bit overpriced for what it is, but they also opened me up to a lot of things I wouldn’t ordinarily have worn but ended up liking. I look at Stitch Fix as a styling service more than clothes shopping. I can make a request like “something fun and summery I can wear to work in an office” and get something generally appropriate. I also don’t use it as a subscription service; if you buy one box at a time they generally run “no styling fee” promotions often enough there’s not much reason to do the subscription.
jbob2000 7y ago
I flagged this because there's nothing interesting here, it's just a promotion piece for the CEO of Poshmark (not even Poshmark itself!)

56 points by prostoalex 7y ago

0898 7y ago

I'm a third the way through and still don't know what Poshmark is.

arthurcolle 7y ago
Poshmark is apparently the "#1 way to buy and sell fashion," presumably a competitor to StitchFix, RentTheRunway, among a few others in the space.
- giggles_giggles 7y ago
  No, those are rental services. Poshmark is an online upscale thrift store similar to the brick and mortar store Buffalo Exchange.
- elliekelly 7y ago
  It's more like Amazon Seller/eBay for high-end used clothing. StitchFix and Rent the Runway focus on short-term rentals of super high-end clothing. You can also buy SF/RtR used inventory a season or two later it's still really expensive for a well-worn piece and not really their primary business.
  - arthurcolle 7y ago
    Gotcha, thanks for the clarification!

marcus_holmes 7y ago

is it just me, or does the language used in the introduction make the whole thing feel like a huge scam? I couldn't make it past the first transcript paragraph before my scam-sense was screaming at me to walk away.

dna_polymerase 7y ago
It's not just you. Reminds me of this fluff piece about superhuman [0]. It appears to be an article written by the investors, so yeah obviously they are super hyped. I never heard of Poshmark and I'd like to believe I am not alone with this here either. Looks like fancy ebay with an app to me. [0]: https://a16z.com/2019/06/27/superhuman/ https://a16z.com/2019/06/27/superhuman/
- petard 7y ago
  Poshmark is very well know in the fashion space, which probably has very different demographics to the HN crowd.
- JimboOmega 7y ago
  (Disclaimer: Former Employee) Poshmark is quite well known in fashion (especially women's fashion). Not quite HN's target market.... but if you're a woman who shops for clothes online you've probably seen the ads at a bare minimum. I myself was pretty surprised to see how it had succeeded despite being "fancy ebay with an app". (It is almost exclusively fashion, btw). This does seem entirely like a puff piece; there's talk of an IPO at some point soon[0] so it doesn't surprise me that they'd be starting the hype engine going. [0]: https://news.crunchbase.com/news/fashion-resale-marketplace-poshmark-reportedly-eyeing-ipo/ https://news.crunchbase.com/news/fashion-resale-marketplace-...
  - marcus_holmes 7y ago
    > there's talk of an IPO at some point soon[0] so it doesn't surprise me that they'd be starting the hype engine going. that totally explains it, thanks :)

bencollier49 7y ago

This company is completely new to me, but they appear to be in North America only. Also, is it normal to call yourself 'posh' over there? If someone did it in the UK it would be in the same category as someone with a business called "Honest John's Used Cars".

zrobotics 7y ago
I can't speak authoritatively for Canada, but in the USA 'posh' is a uncommon word, I associate its use with UK English. I have also never heard of this company, so I'm somewhat skeptical of the claims in the article. I'm guessing that although the company was founded in NA, the use of 'posh' is related to the founder being Indian, thus acquiring UK English word associations.

Wonnk13 7y ago

My girlfriend loves Poshmark. You can buy/sell lightly used clothing for pennies on the dollar. Think of it as Ebay meets slightly upscale Goodwill.

reeddavid 7y ago

The praise here is over the top. Poshmark is a peer-to-peer clothing marketplace – think eBay, but focused mostly on used or one-off pieces of clothing. Poshmark has incredible potential given the huge amount of quality clothing inventory, but in my opinion their product and marketing optimize for all the wrong things and make it hard to actually buy things. What I want from Poshmark is to find and buy clothes I like that fit me. That's it. What I get from Poshmark: - They ignore "My Sizes" and show me a feed of women's clothes and incorrect sizes every time I login. I cannot understand how this is still a problem. Why would I buy clothes that are not in my size? - No way to filter out "One Size" items. Good luck finding your size when shopping a brand that has accessories; you'll be drowning in watches, ties and hats - Constant notifications for some type of event. Example: 'pm_editor has invited you to "Street Style Chic Party" Today at 7:00 PM' – I get multiple of these daily. I don't want to join a party, I just want to find clothes that fit on my own time and buy them. - No way to set notifications when items that match my criteria are listed - Constant promotional emails that are not relevant to me. Example: "Login to to get discounted shipping on your active offers, 4 hours only!" – when I have no active offers. - Until recently, comments on items (e.g. questions and answers between buyer and seller) did not trigger notifications. So sellers would have no idea that potential buyers were asking questions on their items. I skipped many purchases because I couldn't confirm an important detail - No option for returns. If I'm buying high-end used clothing, I want the ability to return it if it doesn't fit as expected. I'm happy to pay for return shipping, I just don't want to be stuck with something. I've skipped many many purchases because it was too expensive to commit to without trying it on. - Disempowered support team. Each time I raise an issue with support, I get the sense they are measured entirely on how little they escalate to teams that can actually change things. In summary: Poshmark has an incredible inventory of quality used clothing, but they focus on all sorts of features and activities that don't do anything to help me find and buy more items in their marketplace.

dawnerd 7y ago
I signed up thinking it would be A good idea to diversify outside of eBay. The barrage of notification spam made me uninstall right away.
JimboOmega 7y ago

leovander 7y ago

Someone described Poshmark as competitor to StitchFix or Rent the Runway, and that completely missed the mark on all the products. Comparing StitchFix to Rent the Runway doesn't seem right either, as StitchFix doesn't loan you the clothes, you buy them. I have purchased three fixes from them so far. From what we can tell, its their own brands they sell. Agreed, Poshmark doesn't have a clear statement of what it actually is on the landing page. My wife sells her old clothes on there, so I liken it to eBay as some have mentioned. TL;DR - Poshmark: eBay/Craigslist/OfferUp/LetGo for used clothes - StitchFix: curated clothes (hand picked), subscription based - Rent the Runway: rent clothes, allows for clothes to not collect dust in a closet

wayoutthere 7y ago
StitchFix doesn’t have a “house” brand; much of their clothing is easily found in smaller mid-range boutique stores. It’s usually a bit overpriced for what it is, but they also opened me up to a lot of things I wouldn’t ordinarily have worn but ended up liking. I look at Stitch Fix as a styling service more than clothes shopping. I can make a request like “something fun and summery I can wear to work in an office” and get something generally appropriate. I also don’t use it as a subscription service; if you buy one box at a time they generally run “no styling fee” promotions often enough there’s not much reason to do the subscription.

jbob2000 7y ago

I flagged this because there's nothing interesting here, it's just a promotion piece for the CEO of Poshmark (not even Poshmark itself!)