Hey, Fashion Techies, can we go thrift shopping?... at Nuuly!
Fashion Tech Newsroom: From Nuuly's new Thrift Shop to millions in new funding.
AFTER SHUTTERING AN EARLIER VERSION, NUULY IS LAUNCHING A THRIFT SHOP
By Julia Waldow via Modern Retail
Nuuly, the clothing rental platform owned by Urban Outfitters, Inc., is offering customers the chance to buy final-sale, as-is styles from brands like Maeve and Pilcro via its new Thrift Shop.
The service is limited to current subscribers and available on Nuuly.com. Subscribers can purchase up to five items at a time from the Thrift Shop. The styles ship free with people’s next Nuuly orders.
Nuuly’s new Thrift Shop is similar in name but different in structure from Nuuly Thrift, a peer-to-peer marketplace it rolled out in 2021. Nuuly Thrift, which was quietly shuttered earlier this year, operated as its own app in which shoppers could buy and sell gently-used apparel and accessories belonging to any brand. The new Thrift Shop is limited to Nuuly’s inventory only, and it does not function as a peer-to-peer model.
In one way, Nuuly’s Thrift Shop introduces a new pathway in Nuuly’s life-after-rent process. Typically, Nuuly says it upcycles items or sends them to one of its sister brands (Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters and Free People) to be “professionally cleaned and repaired” and then resold at a discount. Thrift Shop keeps this process directly in-house for Nuuly. “It’s the first stop of how we would prefer to sell a product before we go through other partners and channels,” Gallagher said. Thrift Shop also enables Nuuly to court customers from other resale platforms.
FLEEK, A MARKETPLACE FOR WHOLESALE SECONDHAND CLOTHES, SEWS UP $20.4M
Fleek (YC W22) has raised $20.4M in funding — a $14.8 million Series A and a $5.6 million seed round — to bring a very offline and fragmented industry online for the first time and enable as many resellers and retailers around the world to source vintage wholesale supply with ease.
Founded in 2021 by Abhi Arora and Sanket Agarwal, Fleek is an online platform that connects wholesalers and retailers in the second-hand clothing market. Inspired by challenges faced during the Covid-19 pandemic, the founders saw the opportunity to make the process of sourcing used clothes more efficient and accessible by creating a marketplace that enables wholesalers to sell online, while ensuring a consistent experience for both buyers and sellers.
Fleek is tapping into the growing trend of second-hand clothing, which now makes up 10% of all clothing sales. The company serves customers worldwide, focusing on large wholesalers that handle hundreds of thousands of kilograms of clothing daily. Fleek offers tools like predictive analytics to help customers forecast trends and aims to enhance logistics, quality control, and counterfeiting prevention.
The startup's growth reflects a shift in the second-hand market, where used clothing is no longer just for budget-conscious buyers, but also for those seeking unique or sustainable fashion. Fleek is expanding its tech offerings to better serve both buyers and sellers, aiming to empower entrepreneurs on both sides of the marketplace.
To date, Fleek's online marketplace has enabled:
- 10k+ resellers and retailers
- 1k+ wholesale suppliers
- Across 70+ countries
- 2.5 million items of second-hand clothes
TIKTOK AND LTK PARTNER TOGETHER, PUSHING CONTENT CREATOR COMMERCE FORWARD
By Emma Cortes Ellendt via Forbes
Creator commerce continues to evolve, with TikTok integrating with LTK, one of the top influencers and social commerce platforms that connect creators, shoppers, and brands. LTK informed a segment of their influencer community that the LTK x TikTok Alpha Program launched last week. A select group of content creators can now link their LTK affiliate links to their videos on TikTok.
LTK and TikTok also shared with their creator community that this is a test for the platforms. From now until the end of the year, content creators can publish their affiliate links with their TikTok videos. TikTok and LTK also offered webinars to their influencer community that had been accepted into the Alpha Program.
Key Insights From The LTK x TikTok Alpha Program So Far:
TikTok and LTK encourage creators to educate their audiences about the Comment Anchor. Many creators in the webinar reported having never heard of comment anchors before. The TikTok Creator Marketplace (TTCM) Comment Anchor allows creators to add and pin a clickable link in their comment section.
Creators can help shoppers here to discover, learn, and buy. TikTok has reported that 49% of TikTok users discover new brands and products on the social media commerce app.
Content creators in the LTK x TikTok Alpha Program can add their LTK affiliate links under "Content disclosure and ads".
DREST TAKES FASHION GAMING TO A NEW LEVEL WITH IMMERSIVE LUXURY EXPERIENCES
By Samantha Conti via WWD
Fashion gaming app Drest has a new look — and attitude — allowing players to style a wider variety of branded clothing and accessories on models of different body types and ethnicities; prep for and “attend” exclusive events such as the Fashion Awards in London, and engage on a more intimate level with brands and seasonal collections.
The new game launched globally (with the exception of China) with exclusive partners Versace and the Fashion Awards, presented by Pandora.
The latest version creates a more enriching experience for gamers, and allows them to work with full collections, and hair and makeup looks created by real-world talents and brands.
Drest, which is working with more than 260 brands, also wants to create an “rvr” or real-virtual-real experience, with gamers able to win prizes inside and outside the game, hone their styling skills with each play, level up and impress their magazine “editor” with looks for virtual shoots.
Additions include Alaïa, Balmain, Bottega Veneta, Burberry, Chloé, Fendi, Gucci, Loewe, Maison Margiela, Miu Miu, Prada and Valentino. Founder-led brands are also taking part, including Jacquemus, JW Anderson, Marine Serre, and Victoria Beckham.
The luxury jewelry and accessories names in the game include Alighieri, Amina Muadi, Cartier, Christian Louboutin and Jimmy Choo.
The game involves interactive journeys and the ability for gamers to share their content inside and outside the game, “becoming active participants in the broader cultural conversation,” according to Drest.
JULIE BORNSTEIN UNVEILS THE CHAT GPT OF SHOPPING AT BOF VOICES 2024
By Cathaleen Chen via BOF
Just a decade ago, retailers saw the endless aisle of e-commerce as an untapped goldmine. While stores could only stock so much product, online the possibility was infinite. But limitless options have become a burden as much as a blessing to shoppers, causing choice paralysis and leading to high cart abandonment for retailers, according to Julie Bornstein, a former executive at Nordstrom, Sephora and Stitch Fix.
“The problem is information overload,” Bornstein said at BoF VOICES 2024.
Her solution, demonstrated on stage for the first time publicly November 13th, is Daydream, an AI-powered shopping platform. Like ChatGPT or Microsoft’s Copilot, Daydream allows users to ask questions via text prompts like “what can I wear to a ‘vintage 1920s’-themed party?” and receive a feed of recommended products, with images and prices, that they can then refine further. Customers can also use images to search.
The platform allows shoppers to save items they like and builds a customer profile based on their browsing activity. The more time a user spends on the platform, the more customised Daydream’s results.
Bornstein and her co-founders, who include Matt Fisher, Dan Cary, Lisa Green and Richard Kim, are racing to create the first big consumer-facing shopping platform built on using generative AI to solve the problem of search and discovery in e-commerce.
In June Daydream announced $50 million in seed funding. Bornstein believes Daydream can prove more effective than the standard AI chatbots that have emerged, and has investors who are betting on it.
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Enkel release The Enkel Digital Product Passport (DPP) Playbook for the Fashion Industry – a practical, action-oriented guide for brands ready to lead in digital transparency.
10 fashion and textiles businesses have received funding from ReLondon’s ReWear grant programme. Each of the selected businesses is a London-based circular start-up or early-stage business that is pioneering a repair, resale and/or rental solution for textiles that helps reduce the need for making new clothes.
The Seam, 2. Vamp Sneaker Cleaning, 3. SOJO, 4. Verte, 5. Give Your Best, 6. Tern Eco, 7. Known Source, 8. Continue, 9. KIRAA , 10. Bundlee