What’s Next on Whatnot: A Letter from our CEO
Sellers,
In 2024, you transformed Whatnot into more than a marketplace—you built a global stage where every show tells a story. Our buyers around the world spent over 80 minutes daily immersed in your worlds, and our European community grew 400% as you brought fashion, luxury bags, electronics, coins, and more to eager new markets. Your innovation drove Whatnot to new heights: $3 billion in livestream sales (CAD $4.3 billion), explosive growth in unexpected categories, and a doubling of first-time buyers. From vintage sneakers to rare collectibles, you've created something extraordinary: a place where passion meets possibility.
As we enter 2025, we're investing in tools and experiences to amplify your success. Here's what we've built together and where we're heading next:
Building Tools to Help You Do What You Love
Our approach to building features is simple: we don't chase trends or add complexity—instead, we focus on tools that make a real difference for your business. Every tool is tested with sellers and refined based on your feedback to ensure it helps you sell more, save time, or connect with buyers. This focused approach guided our key improvements in 2024.
Helping You Reach More Buyers
The discovery of your content is crucial for growth. Our enhanced recommendation algorithms in Categories and the For You feed doubled new seller visibility in their first five shows, ensuring your business gets the attention it deserves. Our tools for seller growth extend beyond discovery. The launch of our Rewards Club loyalty program has helped drive a 35% increase in orders for participating sellers, while buyers have contributed over $1M (CAD $1.44M) through Community Boost to amplify their favorite sellers' shows. It’s amazing to see how our community actively supports your growth.
Making Selling Easier and More Efficient
Your success depends on efficient tools and operations. The Seller API automatically syncs your inventory across sales channels to prevent double-selling items, while our enhanced Breaks features helped generate an additional $200M in sales. We've streamlined shipping with Bulk actions, sorting, and Mobile label printing, and for growing teams, Team Permissions lets you confidently delegate tasks while maintaining control. We've also seen how local commerce can transform your business. Free Pickup has facilitated over 1,300,000 local orders from thousands of sellers, creating new opportunities for community connection. These improvements mean less time on operations and more time connecting with buyers.
Smarter Tools for 2025
In the year ahead, you'll have smarter tools to grow your business—from flash sales that drive excitement to data-driven advertising that shows you exactly what works. Enhanced buyer referral programs and improved brand discovery will connect you with new customers, while streamlined listing tools will save you time. We're focusing on making every aspect of selling more intuitive so you can focus on what you do best: building connections and growing your business.
Driving Growth and Impact
In 2024, we focused on crafting experiences that brought joy, connection, and growth to the Whatnot community. From hosting imaginative events to driving category growth and expanding globally, we’ve worked to make Whatnot a platform where you and your buyers can thrive together everywhere.
More Categories, More Markets
Your vision for what's possible on Whatnot drove extraordinary growth in 2024. Fashion emerged as a breakout category, with sellers offering everything from handbags to cowboy boots. We built thriving spaces for emerging communities too—the Knives category grew an incredible 3,000%, Plants bloomed at a 1,000% increase, and our fastest-growing Electronics seller reached $1M in sales (CAD $1.44M) in just under six months. Our expansion into Austria, Belgium, and the Netherlands connected you with vibrant new markets, and next month we'll welcome Australia to the Whatnot community.
Creating Unforgettable Moments
Together, we elevated live commerce by bridging physical and digital experiences. At major conventions like The National, SDCC, and NYCC, we created parallel digital events that helped you extend your in-person reach to thousands of online buyers. Signature platform events like Whatnot Card Shows saw sports sellers hosting 6x more shows compared to 2023, while WhatnotCon and San Diego Live brought the energy and access of traditional conventions directly to enthusiasts everywhere. We amplified your biggest moments with fee breaks during key cultural events like Super Bowl, Labor Day, and Black Friday.
Creating joy was a hallmark of 2024. From Santabot's holiday drops for your audience to the Cyber Truck giveaway at The National, we celebrated our community. But the true spirit of Whatnot shines through you—our sellers. Your generosity, shown through over 10 million giveaways last year, has built lasting connections that define our platform.
Expanding Your Reach
This year, we're focused on scaling your reach in existing and new markets. We're investing heavily in marketing to bring more shoppers to your shows and help buyers worldwide discover your unique offerings. Through targeted campaigns, events, and enhanced discovery, we'll help you build stronger connections with buyers who share your passion.
Empowering Your Success Through Trust
Trust forms the foundation of every transaction on Whatnot. This year, we focused on creating an even more reliable and welcoming environment where your business can thrive.
Elevating the Support Experience
Your feedback is shaping our enhanced Customer Service program, currently in Beta and rolling out fully this year. This program gives you the tools to resolve issues quickly directly with buyers and build loyal communities. We also expanded our Seller-to-Seller Support Program, which brings experienced Whatnot sellers onto our support team. Their firsthand platform knowledge has delivered some of our best and fastest service, and we're excited to grow this program this year.
Expanding Global Support
As we've expanded internationally, we're making global commerce seamless. Enhanced support in French, German, and English created positive connections with our worldwide community, while partnerships with Royal Mail, Mondial Relay, and Australia Post streamlined global shipping. In the UK, free at-home package collections give you more time to focus on what matters most—your business and community.
Building Lasting Trust
We’ve made our Community Guidelines easier to understand, strengthened protections against harassment, and introduced seller review replies to help you engage directly with buyers and build stronger relationships. This year, we're investing in more tools that enhance trust and transparency platform-wide. A new Account Health dashboard will give you clear visibility into your performance metrics and policy standing. We're also adding messaging in-app and in Seller Hub that tell you if you've broken any community rules–with details on what happened, when it happened, what the consequence is, and how to appeal. Lastly, we’re continuing to bolster our fraud protection. As we grow, your feedback will continue shaping a platform where every transaction strengthens our community.
Growing Together
The year ahead promises to deliver exciting milestones for your business. We're expanding into more markets, growing new and existing categories, and investing in marketing to connect you with more buyers worldwide. Powerful new tools–from real-time advertising analytics to streamlined listings– will accelerate your growth. Improved discovery of your shows and stronger buyer and seller protections will help you scale with confidence. Every innovation, from simpler shipping to enhanced community safeguards, stems from your feedback and fuels our shared future.
Thank you for making Whatnot what it is today. Here's to redefining what's possible in live commerce, together.
— Grant LaFontaine
Co-Founder & CEO, Whatnot
