PowerTalk

Fellow investors,

Thanks for joining me this week on PowerTalk. I’m your host Chris Versace, editor of the investment newsletter PowerTrend Profits. If you’ve been here before, welcome back! As you know my goal with PowerTalk is to let you listen in on some of the conversations I’m having each and every week and to take you behind the scenes and in the know.

If your a new listener to PowerTalk, this is the place where I bring you my 1-1 conversations with CEOs of public and private companies as well as other key people in business, politics and wherever else might be impacting the stock market and our investing decisions. 

One of my Great 8 PowerTrends is Always On, Always Connected. That refers to the pervasive nature of the Internet and the connected society we live in. With more time being spent online from mobile devices, the combination the smartphone and tablet along with websites and apps like Facebook (FB), Twitter, LinkedIn (LNKD), Netflix (NFLX), Path, Amazon.com (AMZN), Pinterest and others are changing how we work, stay in touch with friends and family, digest news, watch movies and TV and shop.

But there’s a new way to shop and it’s one that let’s you make money from the closet full of clothes and accessories that you’ve built up over the years and buy the fashion items you have been seeking or wish you had. I’m referring to Poshmark, a company whose mobile app allows you to buy from the closets of Americans at affordable prices. Now you may hear that and be skeptical but with more than 1 million users that are uploading the equivalent of an entire Nordstrom’s store every few days, Poshmark is company that sits at the center of my Always On, Always Connected and the Cash Strapped Consumer component of my Rise and Fall of the Middle Class  PowerTrends. 

With me this week on PowerTalk is the Manish Chandra, the founder and CEO of Poshmark. Over the last two years, Manish and his team have focused on women’s fashion and built a user friendly platform that has some women making thousands of dollars a month. Recently Poshmark received a $12 million investment from venture capital firm Menlo Park Ventures. I suspect Menlo saw that Poshmark is tracking to have $350 million in inventory uploaded this year alone -- that’s head and shoulders above the $100 million it was expecting. 

That all sounds pretty good and after talking with Manish, it’s only going to get better because there are some big things planned for Poshmark in the months ahead. If you like buying designer brands online at Amazon.com (AMZN), Macy’s (M), Saks (SKS) or Nordstrom’s (JWN), wait until you hear what’s next for Poshmark.


Some of the key takeaways from my PowerTalk with Manish are:

  • Consumers continue to embrace technologies and platforms to look for value where they can. This began years ago with eBay (EBAY) and has benefitted Amazon.com (AMZN) tremendously with its 6PM.com and other initiatives. Poshmark is the latest in a line of e-tailors and builds on the growing mobile e-tailer landscape. 
  • Poshmark’s continued success is likely to pose problems for mid-to higher end retailers such as Nordstrom (JWN), Saks (SKS), Macy’s (M) and others should women continue to embrace mobile discount shopping for premium and luxury brands.
  •   As Poshmark expands its footprint the pressure its business model could join in on the pressure that is already being put on companies like Children’s Place (PLCE), Gap Kids (GPS) and others by the likes of Costco (COST) and Target (TGT).
Direct download: 04-05-13_POSHMARKPOWERTALK.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:30am EDT