Frequently Asked Questions
What is 5miles?
5miles is the fun and easy way to buy & sell items and services with your phone. Snap a photo, enter a short description, and be selling to thousands of potential buyers within seconds. 5miles uses your phone's GPS location to reach a multitude of buyers and sellers in your area. And making an offer is as quick and easy as sending a text message.
Launched in Dallas, Texas in 2014, 5miles has been downloaded in more than 100 countries, with a strong base of customers in the United States.
How does 5miles differ from Craigslist?
5miles puts a premium on safety and security. User ratings, Facebook, and phone verification allows you to feel confident that those you are trading with are real and not scammers. And our Awesome Experience team checks every item to make sure they match our safety guidelines.
With a visual design much like Pinterest, you can browse images of items sorted by what’s closest to you or search and filter for whatever you are looking for. Like your favorite items, follow your favorite sellers, and make connections with people in your neighbourhood.
Who started 5miles?
5miles is the brainchild of Dr. Lucas Lu, a Ph.D. in Physics from Southern Methodist University, who had previous worked at the ecommerce giant, Alibaba, as well as serving as CTO of the global marketplace company, Light In The Box.
Dr. Lu liked to buy used stuff online and browsing for vintage items. In 2014, fed up with online marketplaces that are hard to browse, charge expensive listing fees, and are full of spammers and fakes. Dr. Lu formed a team and wanted to make selling as easy as uploading a photo and buying as easy as leaving a comment.
Where is 5miles currently available? Are there plans to expand?
Since establishing our North American headquarters in Dallas, Texas in January 2015, the company has expanded rapidly in major cities across the United States.
Where can users find the 5miles app?
The app, available for iPhone and Android devices, can be downloaded for free via the App Store and Google Play marketplace. 5miles is free to use for both buyers and sellers. When users compare us to Craigslist and see how simple it is to list an item, how easy it is to contact sellers, and how safe it is to make a deal, they never look back to other platforms.
Users who buy or sell one item successfully are more likely to do so a second time. In each city 5miles enters we are rapidly expanding both the number of items listed and sold, and more people are converting to 5miles fans.
How many users does 5miles have? How much money does that equal?
5miles currently has more than 14 million users. Every day hundreds of thousands of people sell all kinds of items via 5miles. In the Dallas-Fort Worth area alone, tens of thousands of users return every day to buy and sell.
In terms of contribution to the local economy, 5miles has facilitated more than $6 billion in transactions since 2015.
How does 5miles engage and interact with users?
We reach out to people through media and social networks. In addition, our support team is very active in responding to user issues through all of our channels as soon as possible. We continuously convert 5milers just through superior customer service. That, along with actively reviewing each product uploaded, keeps the community healthy and safe which in turn keeps our users returning to the app when it is time to buy or sell.
Is 5miles safe and secure?
Safety is our number one priority. 5miles has a comprehensive system to identify and quickly disable any account with suspicious or fraudulent activity. Our goal always is to create a vibrant, worry-free marketplace for all users.
5miles provides a number of safety-conscious features including our Safe Exchange Area Locator (or S.E.A.L. for short), which recommends safe, monitored areas to meet up and exchange items being sold. For those who do not prefer to meet in person or transact in cash, 5miles offers in-app payment (5miles Wallet) and shipping options.
What new features does 5miles plan to introduce?
5miles constantly is developing new features such as listings that support images and video, voice-enabled search, and the aforementioned online payment and shipping options. We also expanded our marketplace to include, similar to Craigslist, service, housing and jobs categories, thereby becoming a full-category platform offering both products and services.
User feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, particularly for peer ratings/reviews, the ability to share photos in chats, and the 5miles Wallet and Sales Tools features. More innovative, user-friendly product upgrades are planned for future versions of the app.
