The Sloth
In 2019, I started The Sloth to rethink how we buy and sell secondhand clothing online. The internet was built for businesses to sell for consumers to purchase. While shopping takes one-click, selling peer-to-peer was a hassle. Even with popular resale platforms like Poshmark, tools that helped individuals to sell remained limited. Users still handled most of the work – setting up shops, creating listings, and managing shipping.
Resale is a $26 billion market growing at 23% yoy, and according to our survey of online shoppers, 58% of shoppers gave up creating a resale listing because they found the process too complicated. Of all the respondents who initiated creating a listing, the completion time was about 16 minutes and completion rate was below 50%. The number one reason for abandoning the process was inconvenience.
I ended up reselling over 100 articles of clothing for 13 women in New York where I made on average ~$106 for them, and averted 120 pounds of textile waste from going to the landfill. I identified the most challenging process of reselling, found opportunities for automation, and learned that shoppers value clear product information, original photos, and detailed descriptions.
I built a Chrome Extension that functioned like Pinterest but specifically for clothing, capturing key product data like photos, descriptions, measurements, and materials. Within a month, I grew the user base by unlocking the niche group of professional stylists and aggregated over ~$1M in GMV and facilitated 100+ in resale transactions. A few weeks after launch, I raised from angels like Sahil Lavingia (Gumroad) and Shrug Capital.
Resale & Shopping Automation Tool
Discovery for Resale P2P Marketplace
Navigating discovery feeds on secondhand resale marketplaces can be frustrating. Poor photos and unclear product details make it hard for shoppers seeking quality items. To address this, I streamlined the feed design, removing the usual promotional clutter found on e-commerce platforms. I envisioned a space where fashion-forward consumers can connect over what truly inspires them: fashion and design.
Resale listing process
By pulling in details about the item from the PDP, a high quality resale listing can be created in minutes.
I built a lot – a newsletter, a community, a Shopify plug-in, a Chrome extension, an Instagram account, a closet app using no-code tools, and a mobile app. I had a hypothesis and used a variety of approach to test it. I learned that resale is a challenging market, and my hypothesis required a more fundamental approach on data.
Building a business from scratch was no easy feat – I learned what it means to fail, persevere, face rejections, pivot, and still find a courage and focus to build again. I realized that I am passionate about building tools that make it easy for people to be kind and responsible. I wanted be a small part of the force that would contribute to making internet more equitable and sustainable, and decided to deepen my practice in design.