ThredUp Launches New AI Discovery Shopping Tools

ThredUp, one of the largest online resale platforms for apparel, shoes and accessories, unveiled a new suite of artificial intelligence-powered tools to aid in discovery shopping, the company announced Monday. Visitors can now search for products with what ThredUp is calling "natural language" — for example, typing in "swimsuit for a triathlon" or "tank tops for the Fourth of July" into site search. Shoppers can also upload an inspiration photo or share an Instagram post to find similar items within ThredUp's inventory.

ThredUp also launched a new AI-powered chatbot that helps customers create complete outfits. Customers can provide a prompt, such as "outfit for a fall wedding," and the chatbot will generate an entire outfit, which can be refined by adjusting parameters such as color, style and coverage.

Adweek reported that ThredUp is using technology from OpenAI.

Total Retail's Take: ThredUp, whose tagline is "Think secondhand first," is no stranger to AI-powered search tools, but the company has stepped it up in an age where shoppers want instant search results that cater to their unique styles without doing too much work. Winning on experience has become critical to a retail brand's success (or lack thereof). With these new AI advancements, ThredUp is continuing its shift from a giant online thrift store — with more than 4 million items in its inventory — to a personal styling service for customers with a propensity toward sustainability. A reliance on technology solutions such as AI to enable the personalized shopping experiences inherent in the business model that ThredUp is moving towards will be integral to its future.