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Poshmark Reframes Resale with Loop Returns
Alexandra Harrell
5 min read
Resale? For returns? Groundbreaking, Poshmark hopes.
The online marketplace for shopping secondhand teamed with Loop Returns, an e-commerce operations platform for Shopify brands, in an effort to help the world of returns get close and comfortable with the resale space—considering the sheer recapturable value that returns pose.
“I think we saw rather slow merchant adoption of resale channels; it’s been talked about for some time as a way to increase sustainability but merchants were not, like, running at the opportunity with the same pace that they have been in recent months,” Loop CEO Hannah Bravo told Sourcing Journal. “Overall, resale is a much hotter topic than it was, even, 12 months ago.”
The National Retail Federation (NRF) recently estimated that retailers saw nearly $900 billion in returns, equivalent to roughly 17 percent of last year’s total annual sales. Brands have made various adjustments to their return policies and procedures to fight back, according to Blue Yonder, including stricter return windows and more merchandise marked as non-returnable. Most retailers surveyed by the digital supply chain provider (89 percent) enacted such efforts. But 59 percent said returns rose regardless.
“We actually discovered this unmet customer need very organically,” Alison Lyness, Poshmark’s head of business development, told Sourcing Journal, noting that the peer-to-peer marketplace saw return-related listings double, between Dec. 26-30, year-over-year. In proper Poshmark form, this initiative was born from the platform’s community of 130 million registered users.
“Retailers are really in this juggling act between tightening up their return windows and balancing customer satisfaction; we saw a great opportunity to make their lives easier,” Lyness continued. “What’s special about this model is that it’s zero work, zero cost for the merchant—it just allows them to offer better customer experience and earn some incremental revenue in the process.”
The resulting “ultralight” integration is Loop’s first peer-to-peer experience, which Bravo said has taken off “much faster” than previous, branded efforts. Tangentially, the returns software solution recently acquired Wonderment, Shopify’s top customer experience (CX) and advanced order tracking platform, though the terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“Loop’s collaboration with Poshmark exemplifies the future of returns, where ease of use meets sustainability,” Bravo said in a statement. “Together, we’re helping brands and consumers embrace resale as a simple, single-click experience—supporting a thriving circular economy while driving meaningful engagement and value for all.”
The partnership attempts to address the headache of non-returnable items by offering U.S. consumers the option to resell their final sale pieces on Poshmark with minimal effort.
It works like this: The integration prefills a given item’s listing form with relevant product information and imagery pulled from Loop, as provided by the merchant. All those details are then automatically transferred to the Poshmark listing, shortening the seller’s workload. As the merchant has already uploaded its return policies to the exchange-first returns platform, “non-returnable items” are defined at the brand’s discretion. Ideally, it will simply slide into the existing returns process.
“It should work rather seamlessly, in the sense that it is only eligible for ineligible returns,” Bravo said. “It’s really that simple.”
This feature, which went live in early September, is available to Loop’s 3,600 U.S.-based merchants for all Poshmark-supported categories. As it stands, over a third of Loop’s top 150 merchants enabled the integration, creating a new revenue stream for those merchants through a revenue-sharing model, Bravo said, in addition to fostering customer retention.
“There’s revshare involved in this partnership agreement,” Bravo said. “We won’t speak about the details of the split, but the long and short of it is that it’s split between Poshmark, Loop and the merchant—even the merchant is getting a financial benefit from this, in addition to the customer lifetime value impact of giving their customer another path to monetization.”
Poshmarkers, too, benefit by way of having access to desirable inventory (aka new) from the participating Loop merchants, including Rothy’s.
“In partnership with Loop and Poshmark, we are redefining sustainable shopping,” Dayna Quanbeck, Rothy’s president, said in a statement. “Washable and remarkably durable, Rothy’s products are designed to stay in the loop as long as possible. Now with our Poshmark x Loop integration, we’re taking a step toward a truly circular fashion economy. By transforming non-returnable items into resale opportunities with just one click, we’re empowering our customers to reduce waste and extend the life of their Rothy’s.”
While the Poshmark integration is currently only available for Loop’s U.S.-based merchant partners using Shopify, the Authentic Brands Group partner plans on expanding to additional commerce platforms in due time. In the meantime, the duo “will continue to monitor adoption rates and refine the experience.”
“Setting aside the notion of resale or even sustainability, this is an opportunity to provide better customer satisfaction and earn extra revenue with no cost and no work,” Lyness said. “That’s a really compelling value proposition.”
