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URBN to Launch Nuuly Thrift, A Resale Marketplace to Buy and Sell Women’s, Men’s and Kids’ Apparel and Accessories

PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 24, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Urban Outfitters, Inc. (NASDAQ: URBN), a leading global lifestyle retailer, today introduces Nuuly Thrift, a resale marketplace launching in Fall 2021 where anyone can buy or sell women's, men's and kids' apparel and accessories. Nuuly Thrift will be a sister platform to Nuuly Rent, the subscription rental service for women’s apparel, and both platforms will support the Nuuly brand's mission to be a curated destination for anyone who loves fashion and is exploring how to wear, buy and sell it in ways that are gentler on the planet – and on their wallets.

Nuuly Thrift isn't only a marketplace for the URBN brands – customers will have the opportunity to resell products from any brand, and these products will be merchandised on the platform using the best-in-class creative edit that sets URBN apart. When customers sell an item on Nuuly Thrift, they will have two options: transfer their earnings directly into their bank account, or redeem them for Nuuly Cash, which is worth 10% more at Nuuly Thrift and the URBN family of brands. For example: if a customer is paid $100 for a dress on Nuuly Thrift, that customer will have the option to convert it to $110 in Nuuly Cash, which can be spent back on Nuuly Thrift, or at Anthropologie, Free People, Urban Outfitters, BHLDN or Terrain – online and in stores.

“URBN has been in the vintage renewal business since our founding in 1970,” said Richard A. Hayne, CEO and Chairman, Urban Outfitters, Inc. “With the launch of Nuuly Thrift, we’re excited for URBN to capitalize on shifting customer behavior and gain market share in the rapidly expanding online resale market.”

The resale market is growing quickly and is a natural partner to rental. Nuuly's end-of-life rental inventory will be sold through Nuuly Thrift, Nuuly Thrift will introduce new customers to Nuuly Rent and vice versa, and Nuuly Cash will incentivize customers from both platforms to continue to spend within the secondhand space, extending the lifespan of their clothing.

URBN and resale are also natural partners. URBN customers are very active in the resale market, with three-quarters having made secondhand purchases and nearly half having sold secondhand items in the past year. Products from Anthropologie, Free People and Urban Outfitters are consistently the top performing brands in resale markets. URBN will be able to encourage an active customer database of millions of customers across its brands to sell on Nuuly Thrift, and proceeds from sales on Nuuly Thrift will be redeemable as Nuuly Cash, which can drive incremental full-price sales back into the URBN family of brands.

“With URBN’s millions of existing customers, our merchandising and creative expertise, our deep technical capability, and the potential for Nuuly Cash to drive incremental purchases at our family of brands, we believe the stage is set to capitalize on a very large resale market opportunity,” says David Hayne, Chief Technology Officer, URBN, and Nuuly President. “Our goal at Nuuly is to build a creative marketplace community – built around a best-in-class technology platform – where customers can be fashion-conscious, eco-conscious and financially-conscious, all in one place.”

ABOUT NUULY
Nuuly is a curated destination for anyone who loves fashion and is exploring how to wear, buy and sell it in ways that are gentler on the planet – and their wallets. Customers can choose to engage with the Nuuly brand in multiple ways – by buying or selling secondhand through Nuuly Thrift, a peer-to-peer resale marketplace launching Fall 2021; through a monthly rental subscription with Nuuly Rent, which offers 1000s of styles from more than 300 designer and contemporary brands, including Free People, Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie; or both. For more information, visit www.nuuly.com and follow @nuuly on Instagram. Press inquiries should be directed to press@nuuly.com.  

ABOUT URBN
Urban Outfitters Inc. (URBN) is a leading lifestyle products and services company which operates a portfolio of global consumer brands comprised of Anthropologie, BHLDN, Free People, FP Movement, Terrain, Urban Outfitters, Nuuly and Menus & Venues brands. The Company’s brands offer lifestyle-oriented general merchandise and consumer products through 644 stores in the United States, Canada and Europe, global websites, and catalogs. Free People, FP Movement and Urban Outfitters wholesale sell their products through department and specialty stores worldwide, digital businesses and the Company’s Retail segment.

This news release is being made pursuant to the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Certain matters contained in this release may contain forward-looking statements. When used in this release, the words “project,” “believe,” “plan,” “will,” “anticipate,” “expect” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Any one, or all, of the following factors could cause actual financial results to differ materially from those financial results mentioned in the forward-looking statements: the impacts of public health crises such as the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the difficulty in predicting and responding to shifts in fashion trends, changes in the level of competitive pricing and promotional activity and other industry factors, overall economic and market conditions and worldwide political events and the resultant impact on consumer spending patterns, the effects of the implementation of the United Kingdom's withdrawal from membership in the European Union (commonly referred to as “Brexit”), including currency fluctuations, economic conditions and legal or regulatory changes, any effects of war, terrorism and civil unrest, natural disasters, severe or unseasonable weather conditions or public health crises, increases in labor costs, increases in raw material costs, availability of suitable retail space for expansion, timing of store openings, risks associated with international expansion, seasonal fluctuations in gross sales, the departure of one or more key senior executives, import risks, changes to U.S. and foreign trade policies, including the enactment of tariffs, border adjustment taxes or increases in duties or quotas, the closing or disruption of, or any damage to, any of our distribution centers, our ability to protect our intellectual property rights, risks associated with digital sales, our ability to maintain and expand our digital sales channels, response to new store concepts, our ability to integrate acquisitions, any material disruptions or security breaches with respect to our technology systems, failure of our manufacturers and third-party vendors to comply with our social compliance program, changes in our effective income tax rate (including the uncertainties associated with the U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act), changes in accounting standards and subjective assumptions, regulatory changes and legal matters and other risks identified in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update forward-looking statements even if experience or future changes make it clear that actual results may differ materially from any projected results expressed or implied therein.

Contact: Oona McCullough
  Director of Investor Relations
  (215) 454-4806


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Source: Urban Outfitters, Inc.