Before You Build
Mobile AppShut Down

99dresses

99dresses was a clothing-swap marketplace where women listed unused fashion items, earned virtual currency, and used it to claim other items.

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Product snapshot

What it was

99dresses let users list unwanted fashion items, earn virtual currency, and use that currency to claim other listed items.

Who it was for

women with unused clothingfashion marketplace userssecondhand clothing swappers

Problem / value

Refresh a wardrobe through swaps instead of buying every replacement item with cash.

Core workflow

  • list unwanted clothing
  • earn virtual currency from listings
  • claim other listed items
  • refresh a wardrobe through swaps

Product form

web marketplaceiOS appvirtual-currency marketplace

Pricing model

TechCrunch reported that extra virtual buttons could be bought for $1 each; complete take-rate and revenue data were not disclosed.

What happened

Summary

99dresses shut down after early traction, a U.S. move, a mobile relaunch, marketplace-retention issues, business-model gaps, and funding pressure.

Outcome

The company shut down; public sources still leave revenue, cohort retention, and final active-user counts incomplete.

Demand signal

The product had users and press, but the founder later described weak product-market fit, activation that hurt retention, falling item quality, and business-model holes.

Distribution issue

Marketplace activity depended partly on seeded supply and community tactics, while the move from Australia to the United States changed user behavior and weakened the original mechanics.

Timeline

  • Started in Australia around a personal wardrobe-clearout insight.
  • Gained early traction before moving focus to the United States.
  • Relaunched as a mobile-first iOS app with changed virtual-currency mechanics in 2013.
  • Founder Nikki Durkin publicly wrote in June 2014 that the startup had failed.

Before you build

Why it matters

Two-sided products can show signups, listings, press, and early trades while still failing on repeat usage, supply quality, and contribution margin.

Primary check

Test whether real users will list quality supply, complete repeat trades, and tolerate the marketplace economics without founder-seeded activity or artificial liquidity.

Checklist

  • Track completed repeat transactions, not just listings or signups.
  • Measure supply quality over time.
  • Separate real user activity from founder-seeded or artificial activity.
  • Model marketplace economics before adding geography or rebuilding the app.

Relevant if

  • You are building a two-sided marketplace.
  • You plan to use credits, points, or virtual currency to create activity.
  • You need to seed supply manually at launch.
  • You are expanding a marketplace from one geography or community into another.

Less relevant if

  • You sell a single-player tool with no supply-demand matching.
  • Your product has already proven repeat paid usage without manual liquidity support.

If you build this today

Start with one narrow wardrobe segment and one city or community, measure repeat completed swaps and supply quality, and prove paid economics before expanding geography or rebuilding the app.