Poshmark
Poshmark's mobile shopping marketplace lets women buy and sell from each other's closets. The company keeps 20 percent of each sale. "We think that mobile is much more monetizable than the web. It's easier and safer to integrate payment and consumption into the mobile platform," said CEO Manish Chandra. Poshmark makes almost all its revenues through mobile.
Nov. 12 - 13, 2013
San Francisco, CA
Tickets On Sale Now
Poshmark, an app that lets you sell your fashion, finally released its Android app Tuesday opening its already popular iOS marketplace to a huge segment of potential “closet entrepreneurs.”
Before we get ahead of ourselves thinking about what this means for the company’s growth, chief executive Manish Chandra explained that there’s more to come before we see an exit out of Poshmark.
Poshmark
Poshmark on Android
“I think there’s going to be more funding before we IPO for sure,” said Chandra said in an interview with VentureBeat. “Am I thinking of IPO? No. We’re thinking of building the business out to the next level.”
Poshmark, which lets anyone buy and sell clothing, shoes, and accessories through its app, has seemingly been booming in popularity, though the startup doesn’t release user numbers. It seems so much so that the company threw its first ever Vegas conference called “Posh Fest” for these sellers.
But the app has up until this point only been available on iOS and the web. The company, which has raised $15.5 million and launched in 2011, waited a considerable amount of time before tapping into the Android userbase.
“I started to feel that this year a lot — Android pressure build up,” said Chandra. “We’re excited with this whole massive market that is opening up.”
And a massive market it is indeed. Android currently holds around 80 percent of the global mobile market share, which could open the doors for accelerated growth that could lead to something, like, well, an exit. The company is one of the few that rely on revenue sources other than advertising or in-app purchases of the games variety. There’s real commerce happening on the app. Poshmark says it is on track to have over $350 million worth of inventory run through the app this year. Of course, Chandra says there’s a bit more work to do before we see Poshmark on the trading floor.
Android opens the doors for huge international expansion, that Chandra admits is on Poshmark’s mind.
“With Android shipping, international is definitely something that opens up for us,” Chandra said. “We’re really thinking what is the next stage of growth for us? Is it international? Is it different kinds of people we can integrate? Is it different kinds of merchandise?”
The app currently focuses on fashion listings, which are fairly easy to do from the seller’s point of view. You take a few pictures of it, write a description, and input a price, all of which can be done from within the app. Buyers can peruse listings at any time or pop in to one of Poshmark’s many “Posh Parties” or in-app events where people post items based on a theme.
Chandra explained that he spotted an increasing number of Android smartphones walking around Poshmark’s in-person events. And when users invited their friends to the app via text message, 40 to 60 percent of those referrals landed on Android phones, which, at the time, made them useless referrals.
Before international expansion happens, however, Chandra has a couple more things on his plate. He’s exploring new shipping improvements, including a partnership with USPS. There’s also Poshmark’s lacking web experience, which Chandra says he’s “not that proud of right now.” Though he sees big potential for the web property.