"ThredUp’s business model depends on selling large quantities of low-priced used clothing and giving sellers a commission."

"It all comes down to ThredUp’s complex, custom-designed warehouses, which use machinery and algorithms to automate almost every part of its logistics."

"2021 is shaping up to be a big year for resale businesses. In January, Poshmark, an app that connects buyers with sellers, also had a successful IPO."

"Twelve years on, the company operates distribution centers in three locations—including one in Atlanta that is the size of three football fields."

"Reinhart’s idea was to send people prepaid “clean out bags” that they could pack with old clothes and send to ThredUp."

"If items sold, sellers would get a payout, which they could receive in cash or shopping credit."

"Initially, Reinhart himself—along with a few employees—processed the clothes, but as more clothes started pouring in, they realized they would need to automate the process."

"When bags of clothes arrive at the warehouse, the company uses visual recognition technology to identify and inspect each garment, to figure out what it is and whether it is in sellable condition."

"Then algorithms predict the demand and pricing for each item, along with the optimal payout to a seller."

"The pricing department also studies the prices of popular objects at common brands to better make sense of how much to charge for items on the site."

"The goal is to sell products as quickly as possible, so they don’t take up valuable space in the warehouse."

"Reinhart also built custom machinery to physically process all of the clothes."

"“Every item processed is unique, came from or belongs to an individual seller and is individually tracked using its own stock keeping unit, or SKU,” it reads."

"Since it can be overwhelming to weed through the millions of items, ThredUp offers each shopper a personalized experience based on a quiz they can take, as well as their previous shopping behavior on the site."

"Cleverly, the company first directs them to items that are located in the warehouse closest to them, to ensure products get to them as quickly as possible—while also cutting down on the carbon footprint of the item."

"Since 2000, the amount of time consumers wear garments before throwing them away has fallen by 40%, and once garments are discarded, 73% will be burned or landfilled."

"ThredUp currently has 1.24 million active buyers and 428,000 active sellers, which is a tiny fraction of the U.S. population."