- Young adults and teens are starting side-hustles selling thrift clothing on Instagram.
- Business Insider spoke to thrift entrepreneur Julia Schum, owner of Low Tide Thrift, to find out how she sets her shop apart on Instagram.
- Schum has more than 36,000 followers and typically makes more than $1,000 per month.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Young adults are making headlines for selling thrift clothing, hacking Instagram into a modern-day eBay, and making upwards of $300 for some vintage finds.
This side hustle seems to embody much of GenZ's purpose-driven shopping habits, pragmatic values, and digital affluence. The internet-dependent generation is the largest in the US and influences $600 billion in spending globally, according to a study by Business Wire.
In an age of perfect eyebrows and Gucci belts, there's an opposing subset of customers on Instagram opting for a more natural and laid-back style. As Noa Ortiz explained in UC Berkeley's Caliber Magazine, thrifting has infiltrated Instagram "as a reaction against the high maintenance and plain expensive image of beauty that Instagram culture pumps out."
GenZ thrifters typically sell to an eco-conscious surfer/skateboarder type, the antithesis of the Jenner-Kardashian clan, the modern-day rulers of Insta-fame. These thrift shops sell faded, XL t-shirts from surf brands like O'Neill and Roxy, Levi's denim 'mom' shorts, and oversized university sweatshirts.
Business Insider spoke to thrift entrepreneur Julia Schum, owner of Low Tide Thrift, to find out how she sets her shop apart on Instagram. Her income varies depending on her finds, but most months, she makes more than $1,000.
Consistency is key to build your following
Schum, 21, is a college student in Virginia and began selling thrift clothing on Instagram last summer to earn some extra cash. "I thought I would try it out because I had some extra clothes that I didn't wear anymore and I wanted to get rid of them," she said.
She posted about six pieces the first day of her new account. As she sold through the pieces in her wardrobe, she realized her page could turn into something bigger and started thrifting for more inventory.
"I began to post more, pretty much every day just to kind of build that up and gain the following that I was trying to get," she said.
Now Schum has more than 36,000 followers and posts 12 to 24 new items every week because she sells through inventory faster than ever.
Staying active and cross-posting on other social media channels
From the start, it was key to be active and engaging to gain a following. She interacted with her followers regularly and reached out to similar accounts to get more exposure. "Staying active was really the thing that made it take off a lot faster," she said. "The main thing was really taking the time to devote to the account."
Schum posts on her story at least once a day, often posing a question for her followers to answer or giving an opportunity to interact with her. In April, she started a TikTok account for her store where she markets the clothes she's releasing that week and links back to her Instagram account. "TikTok has helped me to reach new people," she said. "That's been a big part in my growth and gaining more exposure."
She said she also plans to start a Patreon account to teach people how to start their own thrift businesses on Instagram.
Finding what Gen Z wants
Schum finds her inventory at local boutiques and thrift stores like Goodwill. Before her shopping trips, she researches current fashion trends and what's popular among her typical customer base of 13- to 24-year-olds. Then, she sifts through just about everything in a store to make sure she doesn't miss anything.
"Since I'm part of this age group, I already have an idea of that myself," she said. "I look at what's selling right now in major retailers and what people are interested in and then I look for that when I go thrifting."
Cropped tops and tie-dye are hot among Gen Zers this summer, Schum said. "I've seen a lot of people going back to vintage clothing and being more open to those sort of '80s and '90s kind of styles," she said.
Beach style has also taken off, thanks to the popularity of Netflix's "Outer Banks" teen drama series set in North Carolina, resurrecting throwback surf brands like RipCurl and Billabong.
Schum hopes to bring more of that surf style to women, who she said have been traditionally overlooked by the sport. "It's definitely a sport that is more geared, and clothing that's more geared, towards guys," she said. "So I want to bring that to the girls' side of Instagram and let them find clothes that they would like that aren't always targeted towards guys."
Setting prices and personalizing the customer experience
When it's time to take photos of each listing, Schum sets up a white sheet in her garage and mounts her phone up on a trash can. "It's definitely not something that would be a professional being in like a studio, but it works," she said.
She bases her prices on either the cost on the brand's site or what a similar style is selling for online, factoring in the apparel's condition. "I always make sure to price them fairly. I'm not going to be charging more than someone would pay new," she said.
For example, Schum recently posted several vintage Billabong, O'Neill, and La Mer t-shirts and tanks. In the caption, she includes the starting bid for the item — around $8, plus about $5 in shipping. She also includes the original price of the item, which for these ranged from $28 to $35. And she includes the following message in each caption: "Please don't bid unless you intend to use PayPal, Square, or Venmo and are ready to purchase." Followers comment on the post with their bid amount.
Once a customer buys a piece, she explains in a direct message the process from payment to shipment, so the customer knows what to expect. Schum ships every package with stickers and a thank you note for a personal touch, "so that they know that every single experience that someone has is an individual one," she said.