Posted by Social commerce leader empowers sellers to become the next generation sales force for fashion brands by introducing new wholesale portal and funding program to support entrepreneurs on the platform
MENLO PARK, Calif., – Oct. 28, 2015 – Today Poshmark, the largest community- driven marketplace for fashion where any woman can buy, sell and share her personal style, announces its retail expansion, unveiling a new private wholesale portal connecting fashion brands directly to its massive network of sellers who are using their social influence to drive sales. By offering new retail inventory to be sold through Poshmark’s sellers, brands can now leverage the country’s largest and most diverse sales force to effectively reach today’s consumers. Poshmark is also launching an entrepreneurship grant program, providing women with the initial financing needed to build their own businesses in the marketplace.
Through its mobile app, Poshmark makes it easy for any woman to turn her personal style into significant sales. From millennials to moms, Poshmark has enabled over one million women to open a virtual boutique on the platform – that’s roughly ten times as many physical fashion boutiques that exist in the U.S. Poshmark sellers are part of today’s social media generation – active, engaged and influential – inspiring their peers by creatively merchandising what they are selling and sharing what they love. But unlike traditional social media, everything on Poshmark is immediately available for sale. Because of Poshmark’s unique social commerce architecture, women are building substantial influence on the platform and have the capacity to market and sell merchandise to the thousands of followers who shop their style, leading to a sale being made every 5 seconds.
With today’s announcement, the company is extending its shopping platform into the retail industry, giving both big and independent fashion brands the opportunity to sell merchandise to influential sellers on Poshmark. Through its private wholesale portal, Poshmark will connect pre-qualified sellers to brands, allowing them to buy new inventory at wholesale prices to sell in the marketplace. The portal will leverage Poshmark’s seamless backend payment system, logistics and customer service platform, enabling retail sellers to make a purchase, and brands will receive pre-paid, pre-addressed labels to ship the wholesale inventory to sellers. By adding these influential sellers as a new retail force, brands can reach a huge mobile shopping audience of millions of women already spending 25 minutes per day in the app and opening it 7-8 times daily. At launch, over a dozen brands have signed on to take part in the wholesale portal ranging from millennial favorite Style Mafia to fashion blogger must- have handbag and accessory line Snob Essentials.
“With this launch, we are redefining what it means to be a retailer in today’s world,” said Manish Chandra, founder and CEO of Poshmark. “Poshmark sellers are a new generation of women growing fashion businesses by applying their social media skills and marketing their style in an authentic way. We’ve seen how our approach to peer-to- peer commerce drives sales for some time and we believe this retail expansion will give brands unprecedented access to consumers while we support our community’s growth, both with a new source for inventory and the initial funding to get started selling retail. We’re excited to unify brands and sellers, to give buyers on Poshmark the ultimate personal shopping experience.”
The key to Poshmark’s growth has been its vibrant community where women help each other discover new items. When users curate the best items to their followers they help match supply and demand – leading to better discovery for buyers and more sales for sellers. Women are curating over two million items daily, creating an addictive community-driven shopping experience. With the current business growing rapidly and a significant percent of its sales already coming from new inventory, the company expects its retail expansion to accelerate growth even further.
With this latest development, Poshmark becomes a place where anyone can build a substantial fashion business without having to worry about the overhead and costs associated with opening a storefront. To supercharge its mission for every woman in the country to become an entrepreneur, the company is introducing the “Poshmark Fashion Entrepreneurs Fund” where it will offer financial grants of $500 to 50 Poshmark sellers as seed investment, to help women purchase their first batch of retail inventory in the wholesale portal. Poshmark’s panel of judges will select recipients of the grants based on the most compelling vision for their retail stores in the platform. Sellers can apply for a grant by visiting https://poshmark.com/FashionEntrepreneursFund.
For fashion brands interested in getting access to thePoshmark wholesale portal, contact retail@poshmark.com. For more information about Poshmark, please visit Poshmark.com and to download the app for iOS and Android, visit the App Store or Google Play.
About Poshmark
Founded in 2011, Poshmark is the largest community marketplace for fashion where anyone can buy, sell and share their personal style. With millions of shoppers and over one million sellers, Poshmark brings together a vibrant community everyday to express themselves and share their love of fashion. The company has made it so simple to sell your style that the Poshmark community uploads over two million dollars worth of inventory into the marketplace every day – right from their phones. Poshmark recently raised a $25 million Series C funding round led by Mayfield, Menlo Ventures, Inventus Capital, Union Grove Venture Partners, Shea Ventures,and SoftTechVC. For more information, please visit www.poshmark.com.