eCommerce ThredUP to Open Brick-and-Mortar Stores

While many big box retailers like Macy’s and Sears have shut the doors of hundreds of locations over the past year, eCommerce sites have jumped at the opportunity to open physical stores.

From Warby Parker to Amazon’s bookstores, the eCommerce arena seems to be doing a 180-degree turn into the physical retail world.

The latest eCommerce site to join the brick-and-mortar fray is online consignment store ThredUP. The startup announced its plans to open five physical locations by the end of 2017 following $130 million in raised funds.

In this venture, ThredUP is hoping to enhance the in-store consumer experience using the data it as collected over the past few years. Rather than choosing large cities because of their shopper density, ThredUP has selected areas where they already have a lot of customers. This removes the friction involved in attracting new consumers.

ThreadUP is also integrating technology into the brick-and-mortar locations, allowing customers to find similar items of clothing to those that may not be available — or available in their size — at a particular location.