Building off of Black Friday, recent years have seen many new “shopping holidays” emerge, including Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday. In 2022, Poshmark, the resale site, introduced Secondhand Sunday to draw attention to circular fashion and sustainability during the holiday shopping season. This Sunday marks the third year of the program.
Poshmark’s CMO on live shopping and recent seller backlash
“Our goal is to get people to think about secondhand purchasing as sustainable gifting,” said Steven Tristan Young, chief marketing officer of Poshmark, speaking on the latest episode of the Marketer’s Brief podcast. This year, the brand will run numerous live shopping shows to support Secondhand Sunday, while also providing gift guides and trend reports for consumers with limited budgets who might be more inclined to buy secondhand, Young said. Poshmark will also run social media challenges and giveaways to raise awareness, he said, noting that the brand is seeing interest not only from Gen Z and millennials but other demographics as well.
On the podcast, Young also discusses the rise of live shopping on the Poshmark platform as user interest has grown. Since April of 2023, Poshmark has aired almost one million live shows.
“It makes selling an item feel more like you’re talking to someone at a mall, like a sales clerk, and it feels more experiential, but also gives you a lot of information and confidence in the purchasing,” he said.
Part of Poshmark’s strategy for growth involves staying close to its community of sellers. This came into play last month when the company rolled out new seller and buyer fees, immediately leading to backlash as buyers stopped shopping. The company quickly reversed course three weeks later and apologized to users.
“For us, a learning was, there’s things that maybe the different other marketplaces might do, but whether or not it’s the right thing for our business and our business model is something that we have to take into consideration,” Young said. “What we have to do is focus on how to make the experience simpler and easier for our sellers and also for our buyers.”