While economic woes continue, threats of recession rumble and retail prices rise, the Back to School season is in full swing and thrifty moms are looking for ways to stretch their budgets. Collaborative consumption sites such as thredUP, where moms swap kids clothes, toys and books online, are one such alternative as seen in results from a recent survey.
As the Associated Press reported on August 4, Surveys from the National Retail Federation, Deloitte and other groups show that customers plan to buy only what the family needs, focus on fat discounts and reuse last year's items. Frugal, web-savvy moms are heading to swapping sites such as thredUP, which offer values of over $ 60 per box of clothes. Members can send boxes of used childrens items to other families for free, and choose boxes full of pre-loved clothes, toys or books for $ 5 plus flat rate shipping, currently $ 10.95. The average box holds between 15 and 20 items.
In a survey of 362 thredUP users in early August, close to 50% valued their thredUP swaps at over $ 50 per box retail, with 35% saying the items would cost $ 60 or more at a typical store. While 57% said they would continue to also shop retail, 42% said they will do the majority of their Back to School shopping on thredUP. Proving that the stigma against buying used clothing is quickly fading, a full 70% said they do not believe there is a negative stereotype to buying used clothing.
These numbers show that the sharing economy has taken hold, said James Reinhart, CEO, thredUP. We as a society simply cant afford to consume and discard at such a rapid pace. Families are banding together to save money and to do the right thing by upcycling perfectly good clothing with others.
According to the National Retail Federation, the average family will spend $ 220 on back to school clothes, but that number is out of reach for many American families. Forty-seven percent of thredUP users polled said they would spend less than $ 100 this year.
thredUP member April Becerra, from Exeter, California, said, I recently became unemployed, which has made it hard for me to purchase clothes for school this year. [thredUP] has made things a lot easier for me. It beats having a yard sale!
About Thredup:
thredUP.com is the brainchild of co-founder James Reinhart, Oliver Lubin and Chris Homer. Both Reinhart and Homer are recent graduates of the Harvard Business School and all three developed the idea in the Spring of 2009. The company is based in San Francisco, CA and is advised by current Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and former eBay CEO, Brian Swette. thredUP is backed by world-class investors including Trinity Ventures and Redpoint Ventures. For more information visit http://www.thredup.com.
Media Contact:
Jenny Heller
ink PR
(310) 860-0806
jenny(at)inkprgroup(dot)com
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