This startup just raised $81 million to sell your used clothes

Week Beginning: 07.09.2015:




The company ThredUP was founded six years ago, but with a totally different business model. Back then their idea was to let adults swap their used shirts over the internet, but soon realized that it was more efficient to let them swap kids clothing, since they grow out of it faster. They then received the attention of few investors. In 2009 the company was probably one of the first to tackle the second hand market and therefore this idea was new. When the company switched fully to second hand the revenue increased. They have about 1.8 million visitors to their site each year. And process more than a million items a months. The business is now worth $81 million round led by Goldman Sachs, bringing its total funding to more than $125 million.
ThredUP noticed that it was better to do the selling for the customers and not have them worry about it. The sellers receive a clean out kit and customers fill it up with the clothes they want to sell. The bag already includes postage address; all the customer has to do is drop it off at their local post office. The items are then being priced and photographed by the company and for any item that is worth less than $60, the seller is instantly paid.
Any items they don't accept are sold in bulk for scraps and the money goes to charity. Any money that goes to a seller can be used instantly for store credit or be cashed out to PayPal two weeks later.

This article links to innovation of the CUEGIS, since ThredUP was one of the first, if not the first, company which focused on second hand selling/swapping online. It was something new in 2009, especially because it was easy, simple and comfortable for the customer since it works over web. Although ThredUP offers a service and not a product, it could be referred to as having a unique selling point, which made it so successful in the last 6 years. 
It also links to Change of the CUEGIS, because it is an online thrift shop. This is as already mentioned something new, since it did not exist before, but also a change for local thrift shops. They might not make enough profit anymore and might have cash flow problems. If no one buys or sells their clothes to a secondhand shop anymore, these kinds of shops will eventually disappear, because people will sell/ buy their clothes from online thrift shops, since they are more accessible. 
The article also links to Strategy of the CUEGIS, since the company has established a certain strategy to attract customers. Online when they focused on children clothes and then fully on second hand, they started to become more successful and therefore had increasing revenue. Furthmore the company uses different pricing strategies to sell the incoming clothes. 

The article also links to the current topic of break-even-analysis and costs and revenues in the finance chapter. First of all the company uses different pricing strategies, when they receive the clothes but also for the sold clothes that is worth less than 60 dollars, where the customer is paid directly. It also links to the Break-even-analysis, because the company was at their BEP when they first started. Furthermore it also links to revenue streams, since the company will receive interest earnings from selling the clothes for their customer. It could also have a revenue stream from transaction fees, for offering PayPal.