ThredUp makes a major move as holiday shopping heats up

Secondhand shopping is booming. 

Some 76% of consumers say they’ve bought secondhand within the last year, and one in three say that more than one-quarter of all their purchases are secondhand, according to a 2026 study from The Consumer Collective. 

For retailers in the resale space, that growing appetite presents an opportunity for significant growth. But capitalizing on that demand may require more than simply listing used clothing and accessories online.

Ahead of the holiday season, ThredUp, one of the country’s largest online resale platforms, is testing a new way to sell used clothes, hoping the strategy will help it attract new shoppers and capitalize on seasonal spending.

ThredUp is expanding live selling

During ThredUp’s third-quarter 2026 earnings call, CEO James Reinhart said the company was experimenting in “multiple areas we believe will define resale in 2027 and beyond.”

One of these areas is live selling.

“We are all in on live selling and broadcasting directly from studios within our distribution centers,” Reinhart told investors. “Our goal is to become the dominant enterprise reseller of secondhand live.”

Read more: Target doubles down on strategy Costco specifically avoids

The retailer cited external research as well as its own preliminary findings as the primary reasons behind the push.

“The live selling industry in the U.S. is growing rapidly, four times faster than the resale industry, according to eMarketer,” Reinhart said.

“A few early data points have increased our ambition,” he continued. “First, 75% of those customers who shopped ThredUp Live on Whatnot [a digital live streaming shopping platform] have never purchased on ThredUp. Second, comparing similar aged items sold between our core marketplace and Whatnot, the median live selling ASP runs 52% higher on Whatnot.”

“Also, buyers pay for shipping, there are fewer returns, and items can be fulfilled efficiently through our distribution infrastructure,” he said. “All of this leads to superior unit economics.”

Unlike traditional online resale shopping, live selling gives consumers an opportunity to see items showcased in real time, ask questions, and interact with hosts before making a purchase.

Reinhart said that ThredUp plans to have up to 10 studios, where dozens of hosts can spend up to 18 hours a day selling items across multiple platforms. 

The CEO also noted that the retailer’s live selling would ramp up during Q4, just in time for the holidays, a period that was shaping up to be “more competitive than we anticipated.”

ThredUp is betting on a new kind of holiday shopper

Capturing holiday spend this season is shaping up to be a tough task for retailers of all types.

While total spend is projected to grow in 2026 — Deloitte is forecasting a 4% to 4.8% increase — consumers are also expected to be increasingly value conscious.

“Consumers continue to place importance on making the holidays special for their friends and families, while also making deliberate choices about how they spend,” Deloitte Vice Chair of U.S. Retail Natalie Martini said in a statement accompanying the company’s 2026 Holiday Retail report. 

“As they look to get more out of their dollars, we continue to see value-seeking behaviors across income levels, including switching among brands and retailers and using promotions to manage spending,” she continued. “These behaviors are expected to shape how consumers approach holiday shopping this season.”

More Holiday Shopping News:

• JCPenney makes big move to win back holiday shoppers after store closures
• Home Depot brings back viral Christmas tree with major holiday upgrade
• Target brings back a holiday benefit that protects shoppers

One way shoppers are looking to stretch their holiday budgets is by turning to secondhand marketplaces.

“Americans are looking beyond traditional retailers to get the holiday gifts they want at better prices,” OfferUp’s 2026 Recommerce Report: Holiday Special Release found. “When a specific gift is outside their budget, 1 in 2 Americans (51%) say they would be willing to look for the exact item at a lower price on a secondhand marketplace.”

That impulse is especially strong among Gen Z shoppers, with 50% reporting they’d prefer to gift a higher-end, name-brand item from a secondhand marketplace over a lower-cost alternative from a traditional retailer. 

But across generations, a total of 80% of shoppers say they expect to spend at least some of their holiday gift budget on secondhand items this year.

Live selling has a particularly cross-generational appeal.

Younger generations tend to be the demographic that is most engaged with live selling, with Millennials, Gen Z, and Gen X making up about 67% of live shoppers, according to a 2025 report from Savings.com. However, Baby Boomers made around 31% of purchases last year, accounting for a significant portion of spend.

With all of this in mind, ThredUp is betting that its fourth-quarter live selling push will help it reach a wider audience of shoppers looking for more affordable ways to approach holiday gifting.

Related: Starbucks’ Bearista comeback sparks a surprising resale mystery