To our OfferUp community,
First, I want to thank you all for the support you showed in 2022. Last year, millions of you turned to OfferUp to purchase everything from cars to electronics to appliances. The impact you’re making is remarkable, and I’m proud to say that you made OfferUp the 10th most downloaded shopping app in the United States for 2022.
I also recognize how challenging last year was for households all over America. With inflation hitting record highs, our 2022 Recommerce Report found that many of you relied on resale platforms like OfferUp to save money on everyday essentials, while others leaned on us as a source of primary or secondary income. With recommerce projected to grow substantially in the years ahead, consumer shopping habits and trends will continue to evolve, with more and more people turning to resale. Our report found that 58% of Americans plan to increase buying and selling secondhand in the next 12 months, and we’re putting our attention and resources toward offering an industry best shopping experience to meet those needs.
In last year’s letter, I indicated that my team and I would make investments to improve our product and enhance your time spent with OfferUp. I'm proud to say we achieved a great deal of what we set out to do; for example, we made significant improvements to the safety and security of our marketplace - with user exposure to scams and fraudulent activity continuing to drop since 2021 - and launched OfferUp Jobs to help people easily find jobs in their local communities that match their aspirations and interests.
However, I also want to acknowledge that some areas I touched on last year still require more attention. I recognize how important it is for us to stay ahead of the curve and continue to innovate by modernizing our app functionality so buyers can find what they need more quickly, and at great prices. We still have work to do to deliver better personalization tools and improved recommendation functionality that simplifies your shopping experience. And while we’ve made improvements to the safety and security of our marketplace, that job is never done and we’re committed to continued investments to eliminate scams and bad actors.
With that, here are the areas we’ll focus most on in 2023:
1. Continue to invest and improve the safety and security of our marketplace.
At OfferUp, we are committed to providing a secure marketplace for all users. We understand that safety is paramount when it comes to online transactions, which is why these efforts will remain a top priority for us in 2023. To achieve this, we will continue to invest in several measures to continue improving our marketplace, delivering transaction experiences consistent with our Community Guidelines, and keeping our users safe from recalled products, prohibited items, and scams.
2. Expand marketplace offerings.
We have been working hard to expand our marketplace offerings and provide more value to our users. In 2022, we made OfferUp Jobs available to all users, and thus far more than one million of you have tried it out. As we move into 2023, we’ve been hard at work to continue improving the scope and functionality of this offering as well as exploring additional marketplace expansions. These efforts will help us bring even greater value to all our users and further strengthen the connection within our community.
3. Deliver premium experiences for buyers and sellers.
This year we are exploring premium offerings designed to enhance your shopping experience. For buyers, this includes exploring new benefits like ads-free browsing, first-look access, and preferential user experiences such as badging. We’re also looking into ways to prevent your feed from being dominated by a large number of posts from the same sellers, ensuring you’re getting a full variety of items to check out when you’re exploring the app. On the seller's side of things, we are taking a fresh look at ways to improve our Promote Plus product to help items sell even faster while also launching new tools for higher-volume sellers to help their businesses thrive on our platform.
To both OfferUp veterans and new users, thank you for your support and for being part of the OfferUp community. I see 2023 as a tremendous year of innovation and growth for our platform, and I couldn’t be more excited to share updates as we get closer to reaching our goals for this year and beyond.
Todd