Nuuly Thrift Is Officially Up and Running
● With the app officially on the scene, resellers will have their pick between peer-topeer resale.
Thrifters can now score pre-owned men’s, women’s and kids’ clothing and accessories on Urban Outfitters Inc.’s Nuuly iOS app starting Tuesday.
Announced in August, Nuuly Thrift is a peer-to-peer app for customers to resell products from any brand — not just Urbn’s portfolio of brands (Anthropologie, Free People, Urban Outfitters, BHLDN and Terrain).
The resale idea sprouted from Urbn brands’ consistently strong performance on resale sites. Products from Anthropologie and Free People trended in Poshmark’s winter 2021 trend report. Meanwhile, a June report from U.K.-based utilities firm SaveOnEnergy found Urban Outfitters among the most resold Depop brands.
Taking a 20 percent transaction fee for sales (compared to Depop’s 10 percent fee or 20 percent for Poshmark on sales of $15 or more), Nuuly Thrift does offer undue benefits for keeping things in the Urbn loop.
When customers sell an item on Nuuly Thrift, they have two options: transfer their earnings directly into their bank account or redeem them for Nuuly Cash. Nuuly Cash is worth 10 percent more at Nuuly Thrift and Urbn brands. Say a customer is paid $100 for a dress sold on Nuuly Thrift, that customer will have the option to convert payout to $110 in Nuuly Cash to be spent on the Nuuly Thrift app or online/in-store at Urbn brands.
With the advent of Nuuly Thrift, the retailer formalized its moves in circular fashion. Both its proprietary rental, which launched two years ago, and resale platforms will support Nuuly’s mission to be a “curated destination for anyone who loves fashion and is exploring how to wear, buy and sell it in ways that are gentler on the planet — and on their wallets,” a company statement noted.
“They’re both really appealing to the customer that wants value and wants sustainability, but we’re also a company where retail happens, with Anthro,
Urban, Free People — it’s really all about the customer and she’s not shopping one way,” Kim Gallagher, director of marketing at Nuuly, said in a press preview held virtually last week. “We want to hear [from customers], change what’s not working and keep what’s working.”
As an additional environmental effort, Nuuly will also be partnering with Stripe Climate to donate 1 percent of Nuuly Thrift’s revenue to carbon removal initiatives.
While the Nuuly Thrift iOS app is the launchpad, Gallagher maintained the company is “excited about stores in the future.” Whether stand-alone or shopsin-shop within existing Urbn stores, the company has not specified, but Gallagher did stress that “we’re not quite there yet.”