Using thrift-specific AI, the growing independent secondhand retailer reduced manual research, increased average sold price by 58.1%, and added 68.9% to its average quarterly revenue.
Thrift World is an expanding secondhand retailer with 10 locations in 3 states and an active e-commerce presence. To keep pace with their growth, they needed to speed up their e-commerce processes—which were being slowed by repeated and time-consuming research.
Only a year ago, a unique or unfamiliar product would have sent Thrift World’s e-commerce team through several rounds of research.
Items arrived to them with little to no information about them, leaving the rest up to manual research. Even with Google Lens, ChatGPT, and vintage product guides, employees sometimes struggled to reach their goal of 40 listings per day.
That’s where pearldive’s suite of AI tools for thrift stores came in.
After deploying pearldive Auto-Lister and Ama, the Thrift World e-commerce team:
Today, the team has reached 200 listings in a day, increased its average sold price by 58.1%, and generated 44.2% more revenue per pearldive listing over manual listing. This scalability led to a 68.9% higher average quarterly revenue for the organization.
— Morgan Goldsberry, Thrift World E-commerce Manager, on the results of adding pearldive Auto-Lister
Morgan Goldsberry is the E-Commerce Manager for Thrift World. She described what the e-commerce process looked like before pearldive was introduced:
“We would receive them [e-commerce goods from other Thrift World locations] and it would just be labeled with the store, the date and the manager sign-off. No additional information. And then each item would be taken out, looked over, and researched on the internet. We’d use Google Lens, ChatGPT, etc. to get an idea if it’s worth listing or not.
I would have to research different information to pass along to the listers, and then when the listers would photograph it, they would create their own description of it, which would include their own research. So it took a decent amount of time to do just one item.”
Thrift World listers aimed to complete 40 listings per person per day, but the amount of research entailed meant they struggled to hit that target. And since research ate into their time, the online listing descriptions tended to be short, which led to extra questions for the e-commerce team to answer from online shoppers.
And although sourcing guides were in place, there was a significant rejection rate for goods coming into e-commerce from Thrift World stores.
This created a scenario where manual research took up a large amount of listers’ time and was often duplicated later in the process. And using standard AI tools Google Lens and ChatGPT wasn’t a very efficient alternative. Morgan explains:
“Google Lens wasn’t super good with identifying, let’s say, sterling silver flatware, distinguishing the brand. It would require multiple Google searches, multiple going through vintage guides or product guides.”
This complicated workflow also meant that training employees took more time and limited the organization’s ability to pursue more online growth.
In July 2025, Morgan and her team added pearldive Ama and Auto-Lister to their existing Upright Lister workflow.
Equipped with pearldive, the process became much faster. When a unique item arrives at the e-commerce warehouse, employees photograph the product and capture important details, such as condition, labels, markings, and measurements. They can also add a short written description when needed.
From there, pearldive handles the time-consuming research in seconds. It uses the photos and item details to identify the product and generate the e-commerce listing information the team needs to review and publish through Upright Lister.
The simplified workflow looks like this:
Auto-Lister generates key listing information such as the product identification, title, description, condition details, category, item specifics, and search-relevant product information.
By removing much of the manual research and writing from the process, Thrift World’s team could dedicate more time photographing products, reviewing quality, and moving inventory online. This helped employees increase daily output and maintain production even when team members were absent.
Meanwhile, Morgan used pearldive Ama to streamline her own research and manifestation process. This allowed her to quickly find product values, create sourcing guides for stores, understand which product categories would perform well online, and provide faster pricing guidance.
Implementation required only a small adjustment to the team’s existing workflow. Employees learned how to add the pearldive tag in Upright Lister and capture photos that gave the AI enough detail to identify each item accurately.
Because the interface was easy to use, most employees became comfortable with the tool within a week. Even one experienced team member, who was initially hesitant about changing the process, ultimately saw the value.
With pearldive handling much of the upfront research and listing generation, employees could shift their focus from searching and writing to reviewing output and improving the overall listing process.
Thrift World had already tried Google Lens and ChatGPT to support product research. Even with the support of these intuitive, but not thrift-specific, tools, unique secondhand products often required additional work.
Vintage products, sterling silver markings, camera models, jewelry, and unfamiliar brands could still send employees through multiple searches and reference guides.
Because pearldive is designed and trained for secondhand inventory, it uses product photographs to generate the identification details, title, description, condition information, and marketplace fields needed for a complete listing. Employees remained responsible for reviewing the output and documenting the details that mattered.
— Morgan Goldsberry, Thrift World E-commerce Manager
Integrating pearldive into Thrift World’s everyday processes required a small lift and the impact was quickly noticed.
After adding pearldive Ama and Auto-Lister, Thrift World’s average quarterly e-commerce revenue grew by 68.9%. At the same time, the team saw a 58% increase in average sold price. This is a lift Morgan attributes in part to stronger item descriptions, fuller product details, and better guidance for stores sending items to e-commerce.
The operational gains were just as meaningful.
Before pearldive, Morgan’s goal of reaching 200 listings per day felt out of reach. As the team became faster and more confident with the tool, that target became realistic. Individual listers began averaging 50 to 70 listings per day, and one employee reached more than 90 listings in a day.
— Morgan Goldsberry, Thrift World E-commerce Manager
That increase in output changed how the team viewed its capacity. Once 200 listings per day became achievable, Morgan and her team started seeing 250 or even 300 daily listings as possible next steps.
pearldive also created flexibility across the e-commerce operation. Before, employees were often tied up with manual research and listing work. Now, with much of that process streamlined, team members can shift more easily between photography, quality control, listing review, lot creation, shipping, and fulfillment.
That flexibility became especially visible in shipping. Before pearldive, the employee handling shipping would sometimes finish early. Now, increased listing volume keeps shipping moving, and other team members can step in to help when needed.
Training also became easier.
Instead of teaching new employees how to research every product category, what details to look for, and which fields to include for each item type, Morgan can train them on the pearldive workflow itself. The tool helps generate the product information employees need, while the team stays responsible for reviewing accuracy and quality.
“It’s easier to train newer people. Instead of having to train them with: ‘Hey, you have to find all this information, this is how to research, this is what you have to include with this specific thing, but then you have to include this as well with this specific type of thing…’”
The customer experience improved as well.
Because pearldive helps generate complete listing details upfront, customers have more information before they buy and fewer reasons to message the team with follow-up questions.
“AI includes a lot more information that [listers] typically wouldn’t think to include, so we definitely save on messaging back and forth with clients.”
Morgan added that customers benefit from having key product information available from the start.
“The customers appreciate it more, since it does have a lot more information in there from the get-go instead of having to repeatedly message us for information that we might not have thought was important with the item.”
For Thrift World, the value of pearldive’s faster listing output helped the team increase revenue, raise average sold price, improve daily output, simplify training, and create a better buying experience for online customers.
With pearldive, Thrift World’s e-commerce team gained confidence in what they could accomplish.
That confidence matters, because Thrift World’s growth supports more than online sales. The organization partners with local nonprofits, including Big Brothers Big Sisters and Habitat for Humanity, to support community programs. The team is also deeply focused on keeping donated goods out of landfills.
For Thrift World, the landfill is the last option. Unsold goods may move through the company’s bin store, recycling channels, or export partners before disposal is considered. Altogether, Thrift World diverts approximately 2.5 million pounds of material annually.
— Morgan Goldsberry, Thrift World E-commerce Manager
E-commerce revenue supports that work as it keeps more inventory moving, creates more opportunities to recover value from donated goods, and helps sustain local jobs. Since adding pearldive, Morgan has already added a new team member and is looking ahead to future hiring as demand grows.
Their success with pearldive Ama and Auto-Lister has also opened the door to new possibilities. Morgan is preparing to pilot Sea-Glass by pearldive, a tool that allows intake teams to photograph an entire cart or box of donated goods and process multiple items in a single transaction. The team plans to test the tool in select stores as they continue improving how inventory moves from donation intake to the right sales channel.
The team is working toward consistently surpassing their monthly e-commerce revenue and eventually doubling their targets. They have expanded online inventory and increased shelf space as they plan for continued e-commerce department growth. In time, there may even be opportunities to add another e-commerce operation at a second Thrift World location and expand into additional marketplaces.
For Morgan and her team, pearldive has made those goals feel more attainable.
“I definitely want to continue to use pearldive, and I’m excited to see what comes up in the future. […] It has allowed an easier trajectory to hit those big milestones without disrupting too much the core business.”
Thrift World’s results show what can happen when secondhand teams spend less time manually researching and more time moving quality inventory online.
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