You know that whole “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” thing? Well, that’s the concept behind clothing swaps, a type of gathering that’s recently become popular, where people (mainly women) get together and exchange used clothes. If you’ve ever been to a clothing swap — and of course you have, tech blog reader — you know that they’re high energy, giving everyone the feeling like they just got something for nothing.
Poshmark is an app that wants to bring the experience of clothing swapping to your phone. The app allows sellers to seamlessly upload an image of an item they want to sell, make it look fancy with a filter and fill out details like Original price, Listing price, Category and Size. After they press send, the item gets posted to the Poshmark feed and other users can bid on it.
To even further the sense that you’re experiencing a real live clothing swap, Poshmark lets users to hold themed Posh Partys, where users can upload and buy across themes in realtime, anything from “leather and sparkles” to warm winter coats. Right now the Posh Partys are being held twice a week, with around 40-50 women logged at a time, founder Tracy Sun tells me.
Users can purchase items they’re interested in by selecting the big “buy” button on an item and paying with a credit card. Poshmark takes care of the rest of the transaction and even shipping, earning a 20% transaction fee. Eventually the company wants to offer services like including fancy packing materials with the shipping labels and add a search functionality — as currently the app is a bit difficult to navigate.
Along with the launch, the company is also announcing $3.5 million in funding, from the Mayfield Fund, Jeff Clavier’s SoftTechVC, Ron Conway’s SV Angel and Kanwal Rekhi. The company, founded by former Kaboodle founders Manish Chandra, Gautam Golwala, Chetan Pungaliya in addition to Sun, wants to take advantage of the shifting landscape of eCommerce, “The confluence of everything that is happening, like having an awesome phone, means that the time is right for this thing to happen,” said Chandra.
“Where else can you go to shop another woman’s closet?” founder Sun, who is pretty fashionable herself, asked.
You can find Poshmark in the App Store here.
Poshmark is a mobile fashion marketplace built around real-time social experiences. Posh Parties are themed, real-time shopping events where people gather to shop, share, and sell fashion right from their phones. Poshmark’s vibrant community brings fashion lovers together to share their individual style, turning every closet into a unique shopping experience. Founded in February 2011, Poshmark is headquartered in Menlo Park, CA. For more information, please visit http://www.poshmark.com. Poshmark’s free iPhone App can be downloaded from bit.ly/poshmark.
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