While much of the retail industry was bracing for tariffs to begin taking effect earlier this year, the resale sector saw a potential silver lining.

In February resale platform ThredUp posted on its website that it expected tariffs to “provide a tailwind to the secondhand market as shoppers seek more affordable options.” A ThredUp poll cited in the post found that if tariffs drove clothing prices up, 59% of consumers would seek more affordable options including secondhand; most likely to do so were millennials, with 69% saying higher prices for new apparel would prompt them to shop resale.

For ThredUp, the prediction proved prophetic:

• Its Q3 results in November saw record quarterly revenues of $82.2 million, a YoY increase of 34%.
• Active buyers on the platform shot up 26% YoY for the quarter, totalling 1.57 million.

Other resale marketplaces also saw banner Q3s:

• Secondhand behemoth eBay reported quarterly revenues were up 9% YoY, totaling $2.8 billion.
• Luxury goods reseller The RealReal reported quarterly revenues were up 17% YoY, totalling $174 million.

But tariffs were just one of many factors that helped shape resale in 2025, so we asked some industry executives for their takeaways.

Keep reading here.—AAN

Shopify earlier this month introduced a new advertising network, called “Product Network,” for merchants to generate additional revenue using ads.

Amanda Engelman, director of advertising product at Shopify, told Retail Brew the idea behind Product Network is to help merchants grow with each other. Merchants have to do “a lot of work to drive demand to their site, which is advertising,” Engelman said. “But the other part of it is making sure that they’re getting the most of the demand that is arriving at their site.”

The Product Network tool enables merchants to meet customer demand with “instant merchandising access to Shopify’s network of merchants and our catalog,” Engelman said. Merchants can install the Product Network app within the Shopify app store and receive Shop Campaign credits as revenue on a click-by-click basis.

Product Network allows merchants to choose which surfaces their ads are shown on, including on Shopify Collections, search, the thank-you page, and order status page, Shopify said. Merchants can see earnings activity in the app and the advertising tab, and they can navigate to the Product Network app to manage their ads.

Keep reading here.—VC

Sara Kelly, executive vice president and chief partner officer for Starbucks, has been with the coffee chain her entire career.

She held a number of different HR roles with Starbucks before being appointed CPO in 2022, and says those where she worked directly with retail employees helped shape how she approaches her role today.

For about a decade, “I worked alongside our retail stores, supporting our retail stores, which was the best way to really get a full appreciation and understanding for Starbucks,” she said. Kelly described a “flywheel” between employee experience, customer experience, and shareholder returns that initially drew her to Starbucks.

“If we invest in our partners and we deliver on that in-store experience for them, they will deliver on the experience for our customers,” she explained, using the term Starbucks uses to describe employees.

Keeping this flywheel turning is perhaps more complicated than ever today as Starbucks pursues a cost-cutting strategy that’s involved layoffs and store closures, and continues to face criticism and a strike from unionized store members over working conditions.

Keep reading here on HR Brew.—CV

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