Does ThredUp Have an Opportunity Here? An Untapped Resale Market in Wedding Guest Apparel May Exist

When one thinks about the expenses tied to tying the knot, venue rentals, catering, wedding rings, and outfits for the bride and groom (and their parties) spring immediately to mind. But what about the guests in attendance, and the fancy (or not-so-fancy, as might be the case for modern weddings eschewing stuffier sartorial traditions) duds called for?

According to Modern Retail’s Julia Waldow, ThredUp is going big on the idea that wedding guests are looking for more than the simple one suit, one tie approach that might have been the expectation of days gone by. And the company has introduced a landing page (“The Wedding Guest Shop”) and AI tool (“Dress Code Decoder”) to back up this suspicion.

“Today, wedding-wear shopping goes beyond the big day itself. Guests are looking for outfits for various events along the way — like the bridal shower, the bachelorette trip, the rehearsal dinner and the welcome drinks — all while staying on a budget. As ThredUp offers peer-to-peer resale, it’s hoping its new suite of tools will help wedding guests choose secondhand over new, full-price options,” Waldow wrote, citing arguments made by Danielle Vermeer, ThredUp’s head of product.

“We can see what customers are searching for, and especially this season, it’s really all about wedding and occasion wear. Dresses are that top category right now. … This is really a full-funnel, 360 [degree] campaign to help get the word out around [the fact that], of the 4 million items on ThredUp’s site, … there is a dress for every occasion, every budget and every body,” Vermeer added.

Modern Wedding Attire May Be More Niche, But Also Ripe for Resale — Especially Among Younger Consumers

Stats offered up throughout the piece, whether internal data from ThredUp or as a result of its survey activity, included:

• Modern wedding attire requests have become more niche: A majority (58%) of the 1,400 U.S. shoppers polled said wedding dress codes had become much narrower or specific (“niche”) than in years past. Another 42% indicated that they’d cut back on dining out and entertainment expenses to afford wedding clothes, and more than one-third suggested they’d felt pressured to avoid repeating wedding outfits.
• Conversion on the two tools appears to be working: ThredUp claims that customers visiting “The Wedding Guest Shop” convert three times more often than average site visitors, with that number rising to 5X for “Dress Code Decoder” users.
• A serious rift between intention and resale could be leveraged: Company survey data underscores that 81% of Gen Zers are wearing wedding looks only a single time, while just 36% of all respondents in total had resold their wedding apparel — even after an average spend of $550-$880 collecting dust in the closet or attic afterward. That leaves a huge gulf of potential leverage, with ThredUp nudging “The Wedding Guest Shop” users in the direction of its Clean-Out kits which handhold shoppers through the process of engaging in resale via ThredUp.

It’s not just e-comm that ThredUp is targeting when it comes to the new social architecture of weddings, with the company having recently put off a wedding boutique boasting a curated assortment of secondhand ensembles — and with a mini cake display and bouquet creation station on-site as well. Vermeer indicated that a continuation of these pop-ups could be considered, moving forward.

Referring to the new paradigm of weddings as multi-faceted event (with many, many facets) conjuring the question of a “whole ecosystem” around what to wear, Vermeer expanded upon her thoughts.

“[Guests] often feel like they need to have a new dress for every occasion — not just because of the pressure of social media, where you know you’re going to be in different photos or videos on Instagram [or] TikTok, but also because one dress code may be very different from another, so it’s not easy to just rinse, repeat, rewear [outfits],” she explained. “Even if you know you don’t have to have something new for each event, there’s social pressure … and aesthetic pressure,” Vermeer concluded.