We built Thriftled, which lists inventory from local thrift stores, lets users shop online, and handles delivery.
No warehouses, no massive ops overhead — stores ship directly, and we handle the UX, payments, and logistics.
We're testing with books and clothes from Value Village and a few independents. Would love your thoughts on the model, tech stack, and growth ideas.
And then there's the problem where someone buys it online but someone has already purchased or stolen it since the listing was created.
If you can get local thrift stores to work with you, and you can have real photos of real items, that might be an option.
You're up against sites like shopgoodwill.com and ebay.com to make this worthwhile to the buyer.
You're adding a middleman, after all. What does the middleman do that we can't or won't easily do for ourselves?
My guess is that what you should focus on is giving independent thrift stores a place to advertise their hard to sell items where they're not being drowned by dropshippers and corporate greed like on ebay.
Manage shipping communications between the parties.
Find a way to handle disputes when the buyer isn't satisfied with the product, especially when the seller does not correctly list the product or hides unreasonable flaws with it, like a fur coat with a bald spot or a guitar with a broken & reglued neck.
That being said, it's not a bad idea, but you need to back it up with an excellent implementation. You need excellent communication with the stores you work with.
1% inspiration, 99% perspiration, right?
Also, consider working with antique stores as well if you can make it this far. There are dozens of them in every state that lease booths to vendors who then sit back and wait for items to sell.
Also, consider allowing scout accounts, where people who go to thrift stores and antique stores can register with your website as a seller, post photos of items and descriptions and the sellers price + a scout fee, with the reservation that there is no guarantee that the item will still be there and that all items are on a first come first served (including local sales) and that if you don't buy now you may never get the chance to buy.
If someone buys the item, the scout knows where it is and is responsible for purchasing the item and shipping it to the customer. Scout fees could be something like a flat $5 + 10% of the purchase price, so it would be a thing for stay at home moms and people who are unable to work but who enjoy window shopping could do in their spare time.
If you can add on your services with the amendments above, you can find a very strong and possibly profitable niche to work in.
rootsudo•8mo ago
Value Village I know has been on some sort of digitial revolution/ecomm change so I wonder why people would go on here vs direct to the source which also has promotions on which day you shop, etc. Salvation army also lists stuff directly on ebay now too.
and then the price of new items, can be cheaper or same as used so then you are competing wtih amazon same/next day. Then of course item condition vs stock photo.
Also no working about us page, the main contact is a hotmail address, small things here.
I get it, but I'm wondering where it fits -
The best value is someone going to the thrift store directly, wasting time to get a deal, but books are normally 2-4$ from goodwill, salvation army and the pricing is usually up to whomever is pricing when they list it on the floor.
With all of that, I wouldn't use it.
I would just do ebay because I'll have a good idea of the quality upon arrival, and it's easy to price compare to other sources online - like there are board games there, but there is no guarantee of missing pieces. Books but no idea which version or overall condition.
But I very much could be wrong and this could be a big thing - so take it as far as you can!