thredUP Launches Online Concierge Service to Compete with Children's Consignment
New service is first kids clothing recycling program online; simplest way to clear out outgrown clothes and share with others
January 25, 2012 08:03 AM Eastern Time
SAN FRANCISCO-- the leading online marketplace for secondhand children’s clothes, announced the launch of their new service, Concierge, today. thredUP Concierge is the first recycling program for children’s clothing on the Internet, finally remedying a dilemma that every parent faces: what to do with your child’s outgrown, yet hardly worn, clothing.
Using Concierge is simple: Upon signing up online at www.concierge.thredup.com customers request a pre-paid, ready-to-ship recycling bag. They then fill the bag with their children’s outgrown items, put the bag on their doorstep, and thredUP handles the rest.
At thredUP’s processing facility, expert consignors inspect items and reward senders based on the quality and quantity of clothes returned. Similar to consignment, the amount paid to the sender varies by item type, brand, size and season - up to $5 per piece. All items that meet quality standards are then resold via thredUP’s online secondhand marketplace. This is consignment at Internet scale – truly massive.
During Concierge’s invite-only beta phase, thredUP inspected, processed and recycled roughly 40,000 items. With the service’s public launch, the company expects to begin recycling more than 10,000 items per day.
“With Concierge, we aim to bridge the convenience gap families see between recycling and rewards,” said James Reinhart, CEO and Chief Knitwit at thredUP. “Turns out when recycling is easy and rewarding, parents do it, and they get their kids involved because it’s the right thing to do. We believe that Concierge will help find new homes for 3.5 million items annually, keeping 1 million pounds of children’s clothing out of U.S. landfills.”
In addition, for each bag returned, thredUP makes a cash donation to Coats for Kids, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing winter coats for kids in need. “thredUP is a community of families helping families by sharing,” said Reinhart. “It’s only fitting that we provide our community another way to give back beyond just recycling clothes.”
Early adopters praise the service. Amanda Villaveses, a Concierge beta tester from Oakland, California, said, “thredUP sends you the bag, you pack it and put it on the doorstep. I never thought it could be easier than giving it away, but it actually is. I don’t even have to get in my car!”
Concierge will bolster the already thriving thredUP mom-to-mom marketplace, which has more than a quarter million members who have exchanged two million kids clothing items online since April 2010. The service is part of the company’s larger vision of giving every single children’s clothing item a second chance – thus coming to dominate the $3B secondhand kids clothing market.
”With Concierge and other upcoming product launches, we aim to truly change the way families perceive used clothing. The Internet has revolutionized a lot of industries. Why not secondhand clothing?” noted Reinhart.
To sign up or for more information, please visit http://concierge.thredUP.com.
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