Since its inception, on-line resale has been in regards to the artwork of the hunt.
For the final decade, buyers on websites like The RealReal, Poshmark or Depop didn’t thoughts scavenging limitless feeds of pre-owned merchandise if it meant doubtlessly scoring a classic Armani tuxedo blazer or a Tom Ford-era Gucci bag. The resellers, in flip, enabled this behaviour by regularly flooding their marketplaces with treasures.
“There was definitely a period where the strategy was more and more,” mentioned James Reinhart, co-founder and chief govt of on-line resale web site ThredUp. “The more stuff people put up there, even if it wasn’t great, it could drive [gross merchandise volume] growth.”
But client expectations have modified. For one, TikTok’s “For You” web page and related personalised algorithms have skilled clients to anticipate digital experiences curated to their particular style. And as tariffs and inflation-driven value will increase have pushed extra buyers to strive secondhand, on-line resale is reaching a new peak — income within the sector is predicted to develop greater than 10 % 12 months on 12 months in 2025, up from 7 % in 2024, in line with eMarketer. Those elements mixed have turned up the stress for corporations to supply a extra streamlined purchasing expertise.
Product curation, nevertheless, is vastly extra sophisticated for resale platforms than it’s for main market retailers. Resale corporations are always receiving new items, and itemizing 1000’s of particular person gadgets on their websites every day. The present growth has solely elevated stock. Luxury-focused Fashionphile has seen its variety of potential sellers greater than double to 2,000 a day within the final 5 years. During that very same interval, Grailed, the go-to resale web site for hypebeasts, has seen its variety of new product listings rise to 13 million in 2025, up from 6 million in 2020.
New expertise is making it simpler for resellers to enhance curation. Companies are investing in AI instruments to rapidly determine the gadgets which might be almost certainly to promote and entice the sellers who might need them, in addition to monitor shoppers’ looking behaviour on their websites to allow them to suggest merchandise they’re extra doubtless to purchase. They’re additionally sustaining the human ingredient of curation by introducing product alternatives from staffers, prime sellers and superstar companions.
Doing so is proving an efficient technique. ThredUp, which has steadily built-in AI-powered search instruments onto its web site, noticed income develop 13 % to $149 million within the first six months of 2025, after rising just one % in 2024. Gen-Z favorite platform Depop noticed its gross sales soar 35 % 12 months on 12 months within the second quarter of 2025; dad or mum firm Etsy cited enhancements in its advice algorithm as a contributor to the bump.
“A lot of the companies now are using data and analytics to better predict what the consumer wants to see,” mentioned Jay Sole, a managing director at funding financial institution UBS. “Every year there’s new insights around how to make the presentation better.”
Overcoming Operational Challenges
Online resale websites have traditionally regarded cluttered as a result of their promoting fashions don’t neatly lend themselves to tight curation. The two hottest are the peer-to-peer mannequin, the place folks promote on to consumers, like eBay or Poshmark, or consignment, the place sellers give platforms their gadgets and so they deal with the remainder, from figuring out what to truly listing and photographing items for his or her web sites, like The RealReal or Fashionphile.
New AI instruments, nevertheless, have allowed each varieties of sellers to sift by means of all their knowledge to make stock selections that may extra doubtless result in gross sales. Fashionphile added a instrument that may rapidly determine what merchandise are essentially the most in demand — a Louis Vuitton Speedy 35 bag in epi leather-based, for example, constantly sells on its web site in lower than ten days. The instrument will then immediate the corporate’s in-house consumers to supply a vendor a greater charge for that merchandise, mentioned Ben Hemminger, the corporate’s co-founder and chief govt.
“We have 30 different buyers, all with their own [knowledge]. But it’s easier to apply some digital tools and algorithms to help them know what’s trending,” Hemminger mentioned.
Platforms are utilizing AI to condense the steps it takes to promote with them, a technique that pulls greater high quality sellers who’ve coveted gadgets however little time. In 2021, Rebag launched Clair AI, the place sellers can rapidly add product pictures and get a quote in minutes, mentioned Elizabeth Layne, Rebag’s chief advertising officer.
Companies are additionally implementing AI search instruments to present clients a complete listing of things they’re prone to be excited about. In the final 18 months, ThredUp’s used AI to extend the variety of attributes — from model title and season to color, fabrication and silhouette — that it might apply to a person merchandise which helps customers discover extra of what they’re searching for when looking out the web site, Reinhart mentioned. If a shopper is searching for New York Knicks merchandise, the outcomes will present these gadgets together with athletic put on in the identical color palette because the well-known basketball workforce’s uniform, he added. ThredUp’s conversion charge from new clients grew 18 % 12 months on 12 months within the second quarter of 2025, and Reinhart cites the instrument as a cause why.
“Great curation means you’re able to distill down the handful of things that might be what the customer might be searching for,” Reinhart mentioned. “But great curation is also about helping customers find and reveal things that they might not intuitively even know that they’re looking for.”
Enhancing the Human Touch
While AI is enjoying a bigger position, platforms are additionally trying past expertise to refine their product curation, leaning on type recommendation and inspiration from celebrities, stylists, influencers and even prime sellers.
For Grailed, which means pushing out weekly edits of particular designers or traits curated by its staffers. Those edits typically generate greater gross sales than personalised suggestions — that are tailor-made to particular person buyers based mostly on their looking and buy historical past — particularly after they spotlight an costly designer or out-of-the-box development.
Users “want the social proof of ‘hey, someone at Grailed saw this and thinks it’s worth investing in,’” mentioned Lexi Tollefsen Eberhart, Grailed’s international model director.
In latest years, eBay’s ramped up the human contact in its curation course of by partnering with “tastemakers” like content material creator Emma Chamberlain and stylist Brie Welch to create storefronts that function private favourites or a roundup of trending gadgets, mentioned Alexis Hoopes, eBay’s vice chairman and international head of style.
“There’s a certain set of consumers who want the celebrity angle or they want a stylist to be helping them; they want something different,” Sole mentioned. “If [a company can] do that really well in a way that other people aren’t, that’s how they can attract a loyal customer base.”
Some corporations are enhancing the human ingredient of curation by encouraging shoppers to purchase from sellers of their space, which might additionally reduce the influence of tariffs. Since 2022, sneaker resale web site StockX has been displaying customers gadgets in style with buyers of their locale, based mostly on its gross sales knowledge in that area, mentioned Drew Haines, StockX’s senior director of market.
“Our customers want to be on the cutting edge of what’s going on,” Haines mentioned. “If you’re purchasing something that’s very popular in your area, you’re getting something that other forward-thinking customers are thinking about.”
However on-line resale companies method curation, they’ll must put money into the proper instruments to fulfil the trendy shoppers’ expectations of a refined purchasing expertise.
“There are tailwinds to the resale industry at a macro level, but you need the right sail to capture the tailwind,” Reinhart mentioned.