Shireen Lakdawala

Client’s Challenges

Difficulties in Scaling Operations

ThredUp experienced significant growth and faced challenges in supporting the company’s operations, which relied heavily on advanced technology and a complex tech stack that included Ruby on Rails as a primary backend technology.
The absence of a team dedicated to maintaining and refining supply chain processes led to bottlenecks, increased operational costs, and difficulties in managing higher volumes of listings and transactions.

Inefficiencies in Supplier Onboarding

Without a team focused on optimizing the supplier experience, thredUP faced inefficiencies in onboarding new suppliers, providing adequate support, and retaining them. This delayed the company’s growth rate in inventory and affected the quality and variety of items available on the platform.

Limited Supply Side Innovation

ThredUp lacked skilled hands to implement new features and processes that could enhance user satisfaction and engagement.

Our Solutions

Development and Otimization of Legacy Code

The Syndicode team updated and optimized old code and fixed technical issues. This improved the overall system’s speed and security while also helping the platform grow smoothly. Moreover, our work made it easier to add new features without major disruptions in the platform’s operation.

Improved Supplier Workflow

Syndicode made it much easier for suppliers to order clean-out kits. Originally, this process was cumbersome and presented a conversion bottleneck. Our team streamlined the procedure by redesigning the form and making it simpler and friendlier to use.
This improved user satisfaction and lowered the chances of sellers leaving the website before finishing their order.

Digital Transformation

We gave sellers the option to generate online labels for their shipments. This move allowed them to skip waiting for a physical clean-out kit, allowing brands to use their own packaging while keeping the process of sending items back to ThredUp easy.
This change not only made the selling process more convenient but also supported thredUp’s efforts to be more sustainable by cutting down on the use of extra plastic bags.

Workflow Automation

Syndicode automated the workflow for receiving, processing, and assigning parcels to specific users. This reduced the need for manual intervention in the supply chain, resulting in quicker processing, fewer mistakes, and better efficiency overall for ThredUp.

Technical Setup

Ruby on Rails

Ruby on Rails provides a strong framework for updating old code, making it easier to modify and expand the website’s functionality;

React.JS

React.js simplifies managing updates and states throughout the application, enhancing the speed and responsiveness of the thredUP platform and improving user experience;

Redis

Redis boosts website speed by managing sessions, caching frequently accessed data, and reducing database strain;

Sidekiq

Sidekiq efficiently handles background tasks such as sending emails, batch imports, and other asynchronous processes, which helps improve the platform’s performance;

RSpec

RSpec ensures the website stays bug-free and functions correctly as new features are added or the codebase is updated;

SCSS

SCSS has enhanced the visual appeal and consistency of the ThredUP website;

Amazon AWS

Amazon AWS supports the platform’s growth and boosts performance and reliability by dynamically adjusting the infrastructure based on user traffic and data load;

REST API/GraphQL

REST API/GraphQL makes the interaction between thredUP’s frontend and backend smoother, improving data retrieval and reducing bandwidth;

Postgres 11

Postgres 11 facilitates complex queries and transactions essential for managing the platform’s extensive inventory and transaction data reliably.