When I was a little girl growing up in Stamford, Connecticut, there were several good-quality, independently owned clothing stores and small department stores located “downtown.” When my mother would bring my sister and me shopping, we were sure to get a warm greeting, not an insincere greeter. The stores were mainly on Bedford Street, the Fifth Avenue of Stamford. The shops I remember best are: Millers Lilliputian, Mantel and Martin, and The Bedford Shop.
Although I continue to enjoy in-person shopping where I can touch the merchandise and try things on before I buy, it is clear that at least for now, ordering online has become the norm. Therefore, we pay first and wait to touch and try on. It follows that we are more likely to need to return our purchases. The past few years we have seen new, out-of-the-box ways to return merchandise such as drop-off locations, and return kiosks set up inside of stores. The speed and ease of making a return actually works against us, as we feel no rush to get the package out—until we realize we have missed the deadline. People may accept the loss or try to resell the garment.
Did you know you must be knowledgeable when selling gently used clothes or never-worn clothes with tags? Even if you merely want to make some of your money back, you need directions on what platform to choose and how to navigate each platform. Enter two intelligent, entrepreneurial, frum women, Ayala Gewirtz and Naama Rosenbaum, who have been close as sisters since they were 10, growing up together in Baltimore. Both women separately began conceptualizing ways to create a platform for Jewish women to resell modest clothes in excellent condition.
About two years ago, during their many conversations, the pair discovered they had the same vision and realized that together they could become partners and bring this niche resale platform to life. Naama has been a web developer for e-commerce sites for 10 years and has extensive knowledge to build a platform. Plus, as Ayala pointed out, Naama’s patience and attention to detail are two additional reasons Naama was up to the task.
Ayala’s eloquence and passion makes her great at marketing. She explained: “In the frum world, finding tznius clothing can be an overwhelming pursuit. It takes talent and patience to sift through racks of clothing to find garments that align with our modest dress code. In terms of our [life] stages, our changing sizes, our [growing] kids. We go through a lot of clothes! Baruch Hashem … We saw the need.”
“Our vision grew as the need grew,” added Naama. “We are proud to present Swapify, the one-and-only, frum, targeted resale clothing marketplace.”
Jewish WhatsApp groups are being used as a vehicle to sell or give away a flood of clothing in an unplanned, unorganized manner. Naama’s and Ayala’s platform, Swapify, “offers a marketplace that potentially attracts the people who would want your clothing, presents fashionable clothing in an organized manner, and also attracts our out-of-town population who do not have access to stores that sell modest clothing,” explained Ayala.
Swapify offers an antidote to our overwhelmed closets. The average closet of a frum woman goes through many phases in a short time. The high school girl graduates and typically spends a year at a seminary in Israel where she has a dress code. When she comes home, she needs a college/work wardrobe. She is attending many weddings during this time and must buy very dressy dresses that she may wear once or twice. She will likely marry and at some time need to buy maternity clothes and special clothes for nursing, which she uses for a relatively short time. After this, her dress size may be different than before the pregnancy, so she may have to buy several new items. Add to that the clothes she buys for the changing seasons. Now consider that she has children who are constantly growing out of their clothes. A Jewish woman’s closet could. be bursting with clothes that don’t work for her.
Using the Swapify platform can be very empowering because, as Ayala explained, “Perhaps an expensive piece of clothing doesn’t work for you anymore and you don’t want it to sit in your closet. We are all sisters here. So, imagine selling your dress, and learning it will be the next sister’s engagement dress, and now you can use the cash to buy your next dress! I visualize a great, glowing recycling symbol connecting all the Jewish sisters’ closets. This creates a sense of joy.”
A benefit of buying clothes on Swapify is the reduced prices compared with what we pay at the frum stores. They are essentially mom-and-pop stores that cannot buy in the same volumes as large retailers. Once offered on Swapify, these same clothes, which may be gently worn or new with tags, will be more affordable. When considering purchasing anything on Swapify, the buyer has the ability to ask questions of the seller, similar to Poshmark. In fact, when planning their new platform, Ayala Gewirtz and Naama had in mind a Poshmark-type vibe with a strictly modest dress inventory all in excellent condition. Naama has observed that some women cannot shake the impression that resale is akin to thrift shops. “We want to shift this perspective so women see resale as an opportunity to get what you are looking for at a better price with ease of access,” said Ayala.
The two women have worked hard to create extremely clear instructions for both buying and selling on Swapify. They named it “the guide to getting started.” In addition, their website has a FAQ page on the footer. They also encourage people to reach out to either of them on the Swapify WhatsApp to ask questions.
What’s in the future for Swapify? Maybe in-person events. Sometimes it could be a sale and other times a swap. “The message we are sending is ‘we are all sisters here, and we all share one closet’.” Swapify would also like to work with the women who have created a side hustle of selling large amounts of valued clothing online.
It’s a challenge to get the word out to as many Jewish women as possible, but Naama is confident. “The frum world is vast. There are so many people to bring in. We continuously look for the best way to share this opportunity and spread the word.”
Ayala added: “The more people who know about us, the more people who post, the more people who shop, the more clothes options we can offer. We need to keep figuring out the best way of passing along our beautiful message.”
To contact Ayala Gewirtz and Naama Rosenbaum head over to the “contact us” page on their website, Swapify.com.
If you need to do a closet cleanse to identify what you would like to sell on Swapify, I can help you make it a painless process. Call me for a 20-minute, complimentary phone consultation.
Ellen Smith of iDeclutter, LLC of Central Jersey is a residential organizer and a member of NAPO, the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals. For over 16 years, Ellen has helped people restore order and create calm in their homes and souls. See Ellen’s work on Instagram @ideclutterbyEllen. Contact Ellen for a complimentary phone consultation at [email protected]
