The live shopping app Whatnot is in the midst of a notable growth period. After a $225 million funding round late last year, the company is now valued at over $11 billion, with 20 million buyers joining the platform in the last year, drawn in by live auctions that promise deals on items like Chanel bags. In April of this year, Whatnot was the second-most-downloaded shopping app on the Apple App Store, above Amazon and eBay. And as it grows, Whatnot is becoming even more attractive for fashion consumers, sellers and brands.
While Whatnot began with a focus on collectibles and sports trading cards, fashion has emerged over the last year as the biggest category on the platform. Fashion sales are now an order of magnitude larger than sports sales on the platform, according to Whatnot chief product officer Tom Verrilli. There are now more than 12 million fashion orders completed on the platform per month, he said.
Verrilli told Glossy that fashion is a natural fit with Whatnot’s business model. He pointed to sellers like Fashionica, a handbag seller account that has sold more than 10,000 luxury bags on the platform in the last two years.
“There’s a lot of limited edition inventory,” Verrilli said. “If you’re buying something like a luxury bag from France or Japan, you want to see someone who is really knowledgeable about the product who can show you the difference between a modern Chanel and a vintage Chanel.”
