Poshmark has filed for an initial public offering on Nasdaq under the symbol POSH, according to a filing with the SEC. The reseller, which first announced the plans in late September 2020, has not issued a target price range or the number of shares to be made available.
As of February 2020, shoppers were expressing increased interest in second-hand clothing: at the time, used items took up 14% of consumers’ closet space, according to a Poshmark study. Additionally, a survey by Curalate found that 65% of U.S. consumers said a link in a social media post had led them to a product they weren’t originally interested in purchasing.
Poshmark has capitalized on both these opportunities through the April 2020 launch of Posh Stories, which further integrated the site’s social media and retail sides. Social media already was an important part of the retailer’s business model: 34% of the platform’s shoppers take their style cues from social media influencers, according to the February study.
“Many Poshmark sellers are also influencers on the platform — they use Poshmark to create their own fashion brands, engage directly with followers and develop aesthetic and rapport,” said a Poshmark spokesperson in an interview with Retail TouchPoints prior to the IPO filing process. “We’ve built and developed Poshmark with social discovery in mind. Since the beginning, Poshmark has included all of the traditional capabilities of a social media platform (liking, commenting, sharing), and we’ve continued to evolve and leverage the social experience both on and offline.”
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