Women Only: This Texas Resale Market Wants To Make Sales Safe

Austin (KXAN) – Allersthe Austin, Texas-based online platform says it’s dedicated to providing a safe place for women to buy and resell goods.By keeping men out.

Becca Butler, one of Allhers’ founders, says she moved frequently throughout her childhood and adulthood. When she moved to Austin from Los Angeles, she decided to join her women-only discussion group and list the furniture she had for sale.

“It sold quickly,” she said.

Additionally, her selling experience with this group was much more pleasant than her previous instances of selling items on other platforms such as Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace.

“Everybody pissed me off upfront… nobody haggled me down, nobody bargained me down,” she said. “The conversation was very friendly and I found it very enjoyable.

Her brother — another Allhers founder — was thinking about how to innovate the buying and selling space around the same time Becca had this experience. Becca interviewed a number of female consumers about her experiences on these platforms and noted that many had negative experiences with men when buying or reselling household items. I was.

Becca said some women may be hesitant to go shopping at strangers’ homes, especially men’s. Additionally, she said some people want to avoid providing personal information so they don’t receive inappropriate (or “spooky”) messages after the transaction is complete.

“[We thought:]”What if men don’t get involved?” said Becca. “That’s how it all started. It was really a safety mission in the first place.”

And people resonated with this business model. Allhers has nearly 28,000 verified members since its launch in 2020, and the company only serves female-identifying nonbinary people in the Austin metropolitan area. Currently only in Austin, Becca hopes to expand the platform to other parts of the country.

“When you take men out of the equation, women relate to each other in a completely different way,” Becca said. “They can feel vulnerable at will…and communication is much better.”

To join the Allhers community, You have to sign up on the website. There, prospective members are asked to upload a photo ID, add a profile picture, and pledge not to spam or bully. Moderators cross-reference photo and ID submissions to engage users in the community.

Becca said she was surprised that Allhers didn’t exist before starting her own company.

“I feel like it resonates very well with women,” she said. “It’s important for everyone to have a space to exist, a safe space to exist in,” she said.