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We've been harping on the fact that resale apps are contributing to brick-and-mortar pain because we think that is an under-appreciated piece of the narrative. Well, this week LetGo, a New York-based startup marketplace for used good (that we've previously noted) raised a fresh round of $100mm in venture capital funding at a valuation of $1b.
We've also previously noted how re-sale platforms are all the rage with the millennial demographic. At the time of this writing, in fact, four resale app platforms (Letgo, Poshmark, OfferUp, and Wish) are in the top 30 free apps in the Apple App Store. Sadly, this resale model doesn't appear to translate to brick-and-mortar. 2nd Time Around, a consignment retailer, appears to have shuttered its 40 boutiques in 12 states. The CEO is now, interestingly, a senior director at Alvarez & Marsal LLC.
Hey look! The fastest rising commerce apps are all platforms. Shocker. Offerup is a local marketplace for used goods. Letgo is a, uh, local marketplace for used goods. Wish is a, hmmm, marketplace for used goods. Flipp is a platform linking brick-and-mortar ad circulars to end user consumers and Venmo is, obvi, a payment platform that you should've heard of by now (and owned by Ebay). If you're a restructuring professional and you don't yet understand the implications of platforms on retail, you might want to do some homework.
We recommend you start with: "Modern Monopolies" by Alex Moazed and Nicholas L. Johnson. You can get it here.
