ThredUp's Record Buyer Growth Fuels Optimism Amid Profitability Push

OAKLAND, CA – May 04, 2026 – ThredUp Inc. today showcased robust growth in the burgeoning secondhand market, announcing first-quarter financial results that beat expectations and led the company to raise its full-year outlook. The online resale giant reported a 15% year-over-year revenue increase to $81.7 million, propelled by a record surge in customer acquisition and engagement.

The company's ability to attract and retain shoppers was the standout story of the quarter, with its active buyer base swelling by 25% year-over-year to a record 1.71 million. This influx of consumers drove a 19% increase in orders, signaling strong and growing demand for secondhand apparel, shoes, and accessories.

“We are proud to deliver Q1 out-performance, including a record month for new buyer acquisition,” said ThredUp CEO and co-founder James Reinhart in the company's press release. “As we look ahead, we remain focused on executing our growth plan amidst an ever-changing consumer environment, and building a marketplace that delivers clear value to buyers and convenience for sellers.”

Buoyed by the strong start to the year, ThredUp issued a revised financial outlook for 2026, raising its expectations for full-year revenue, gross margin, and a key profitability metric, Adjusted EBITDA margin. However, the impressive top-line growth and user metrics were tempered by a wider net loss, highlighting the significant investments the company is making to capture market share and solidify its leadership position.

The Secondhand Surge: A Record Wave of Buyers

ThredUp's record-breaking quarter for new buyer acquisition is not an accident but the result of a multi-pronged strategy focused on enhancing the user experience and aggressively marketing its platform. The 25% jump in active buyers is a powerful indicator of the accelerating consumer shift towards more sustainable and value-conscious shopping habits, a trend ThredUp is capitalizing on.

This growth appears to be fueled by significant investments in technology and marketing. Recent quarters have seen the company launch a fully rebranded experience with new AI-driven features designed to create a more personalized and engaging shopping journey. By embedding artificial intelligence across discovery, search, and customer service, ThredUp aims to reduce friction and improve the lifetime value of its customers. This technological push is supported by a substantial marketing effort; reports indicate the company's advertising spend on platforms like Meta's Facebook and Instagram was up 100% year-over-year in the first quarter.

Furthermore, the company is innovating its supply acquisition strategy. A recent campaign on TikTok Shop to sell its signature “Clean-Out Kits” resulted in 100,000 bags sold in a single month, with an estimated 97% of those purchasers being new to the ThredUp platform. This demonstrates a scalable and effective new channel for bringing fresh inventory and new sellers into its ecosystem, which is critical for satisfying the growing buyer demand.

The Price of Growth: Analyzing the Bottom Line

While ThredUp's revenue and user growth paint a picture of a thriving marketplace, the company's bottom line reveals the cost of this rapid expansion. The company reported a net loss of $6.5 million for the quarter, an increase from the $5.2 million loss reported in the same period last year. As a percentage of revenue, the net loss margin ticked up slightly from 7.3% to 7.9%.

Similarly, Adjusted EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization), a non-GAAP measure of profitability that the company uses to track performance, came in at $2.7 million. This represents a 3.4% margin, down from $3.8 million, or a 5.3% margin, in the first quarter of 2025. This decline in near-term profitability, despite a 15% increase in gross profit to $64.7 million, underscores a conscious strategy of reinvesting in the business.

These figures point directly to the increased operating expenses associated with technology development, platform innovation, and the aggressive marketing spend required to achieve record buyer growth. The company is in a high-stakes race to build scale and a durable competitive advantage in the rapidly expanding resale market, which is projected to outpace the broader retail apparel market significantly in the coming years. This strategy prioritizes long-term market leadership over short-term profitability, a common approach for high-growth technology platforms.

A Confident Outlook and Strategic Path Forward

Despite the pressure on near-term profits, ThredUp's management expressed strong confidence in its strategy by raising its financial guidance for the full fiscal year 2026. The company now expects revenue to land between $351.2 million and $356.2 million, which would represent a healthy 14% year-over-year growth at the midpoint. The full-year gross margin is projected to remain robust, between 78.5% and 79.5%.

Most notably, the company raised its outlook for full-year Adjusted EBITDA margin to approximately 6.1%. This is a significant increase from the 4.4% achieved in 2025 and suggests that management expects the investments made in the first quarter to begin yielding greater operational leverage and efficiency as the year progresses. The guidance for the second quarter anticipates this trend, with an expected Adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 5.2%, a sequential improvement from Q1.

This forward-looking optimism suggests a belief that the company is successfully balancing aggressive growth with a clear path toward sustained profitability. By capturing new users and expanding its operational footprint now, ThredUp is betting it can achieve greater economies of scale in the future, ultimately leading to the significant margin expansion outlined in its long-term financial targets. The company's ability to navigate what its CEO called an “ever-changing consumer environment” while continuing this dual focus on growth and efficiency will be a key storyline for investors to watch throughout the remainder of 2026.