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Before there was Facebook Marketplace and Poshmark, there was eBay.
In the early 20-teens, the online auction site was pretty much the only place you could sell your stuff online. There were even people that made businesses out of selling other people’s stuff, taking a cut of the profits but doing all the work for you.
eBay held it’s monopoly or close-monopoly on the buy-sell market for a while, but started to see some competition around 2015. And Poshmark – the closet selling site – was one to get in on the game.
On Poshmark, like eBay, you can post items and name your own price. It’s not an auction site, but people are allowed to make offers if you turn that feature on. It’s a place to sell lightly used clothing, that’s more relevant than what you’ll find at the thrift store and doesn’t have that musty smell.
What is Poshmark?
In their words, Poshmark is a “Completely new way to shop”. They claim to be the biggest “social commerce marketplace” for new and used personal style items (clothes, shoes, accessories). They encourage people to share their fashion sense with others and be able to afford more looks since their site offers lower prices than buying retail.
Their claims to their marketplace size sound legitimate. The site notes they’ve had over 2 billion “social connections”, though we don’t know if that means site visitors or on-site interactions.
They’ve certainly got the bragging rights for the size of their online inventory, though.
Since they opened their virtual doors, over 25 million items of clothing/accessories/shoes have been uploaded to their site – and that’s only counting mobile uploads.
And if you want choices, there are over 5,000 brands for sale on the site at any given time. Could you even name 500? Let alone 5,000? It’s an impressive assortment.
The site itself was the brainchild of Manish Chandra, who doesn’t seem like the kind of person who’d start a fashion-based site. But he saw a gap in the market – and he went for it.
Their CEO and Co-founder board are mostly male, except for Tracy Sun, who’s the SVP of New Markets.
The company is older than most people give them credit for, it was founded in 2011. But it didn’t start reaching the massive status it has now for a few years after that.
In 2017 the site received an 87 million dollar investment, which helped them get to where they are today.
How Does Poshmark Work?
Let’s get into the part that involves you – how you can actually make money with Poshmark.
The general idea is very close to selling on eBay if you’ve ever done that. You’ll need to find items you think will sell, photograph them (the more professional they look, the better), markdown all the details, and upload them to your “closet”.
We’ll touch on that process in more detail later.
Once your pieces are listed and you’ve given them the price you want, other people can browse your uploads. It’s worth using a few keywords in the item’s title, so you’ll show up in relevant searches.
If someone decides to buy your item, they have three choices. First, they can buy it flat out, through an online payment platform that takes credit cards, or through Paypal. The site will calculate shipping for them and send you a shipping label.
Then it’s up to you to print out that label and send them their order in a timely manner. Customers can leave reviews on your service, just like on eBay or now – even on Facebook Marketplace.
Their second option is to “make an offer”. This is a setting you can turn on when you’re listing an item if you’re flexible on the price. You should know that many people use this to try to lowball sellers, but you can counter an offer and/or reject it.
The good thing about offers is that they’re binding. If a customer offers $59 on a $65 item and you click “accept”, their card will be charged immediately. They can’t back out of that sale, unlike casual cart abandonment.
Finally, you can turn on the “bundling” feature, which is essentially a bulk discount. You set your bundle discount, which can be anything, such as –
- Buy three get one free (the lowest priced item)
- 15% off total bundle price for 3 or more items
- 50% off the most expensive item in a bundle of 5 or more
It’s more common to bundle lower-priced items, as opposed to luxury pieces. If someone is buying a $2,500 purse, they’re probably not going to triple their purchase just to get 15% off.
And to answer your burning question — yes, Poshmark does take a cut of what you sell your item for. See the “Pricing and fees” section below for more information.
Who is it for?
Poshmark is for anyone that has an entrepreneurial spirit and a good eye for fashion, or at least for value.
There are three main groups of people that sell on Poshmark.
First, you have the people who are just trying to clean out their closet, get rid of some stuff that doesn’t fit or that they don’t wear. They’re using Poshmark casually and are looking to make some money, but don’t see it as a source of income.
Then there are the people who really look at Poshmark as a business (which it can be). They go to thrift stores, shop sales, and in some cases cross-list merchandise from their stores or MLM clothing type businesses. Their model is to buy low, sell high(er).
And it’s a legitimate way to make money.
Third, there are the brick and mortar businesses, like vintage stores and specialty shops that are listing their inventory to get new eyes on their products. This is a small group on Poshmark, but it’s growing.
There’s another site, that has the same idea as Poshmark, but is for leftover or lightly used wedding supplies. At first, consumers loved it – Brides would make some of what they spent back. But in the past year or two, people have started treating this site like another Etsy, selling expensive hand-made goods, though that’s not the point of the platform.
It’s unlikely that this will happen to Poshmark since the platform is so big and there are so many users, but it’s a possibility worth noting.
How to Sign Up
First thing you should do is download the Poshmark App.
Signing up for Poshmark is easy. It’s like most other sites, where you can even create an account through your social media profiles, or through your Gmail account.
You’ll tell them your name, email, make a username, set a password, and designate your country (where you’re buying or selling from). Then you can fill out optional details about the kind of things you’re looking for and “what brands you love”.
Based on the answers you give to these questions, you’ll get a “personal shopping network” which is a group of people who the algorithm thinks matches your needs. Then you’ll click “start shopping”.
From there, you’ll be taken to your home page, where you can search for anything you want to buy and see “curated” things the site thinks you’re a good match for.
How to List an Item
To sell your first item, you want to have a few things done beforehand. First, if the item is used, you need to make sure it’s washed and give it a good lint roll/ironing. Then you’ll need to take a few pictures of it, on a clear background, with either natural lighting or in the best-lit room of your house.
Make sure photos look great and your items are properly illuminated. Ask any photographer and they will tell you how important lighting is. Even if this means investing in some quality lighting gear, it would be well worth it.
This is one of the biggest issues I see as a buyer on Poshmark, so many of the photos simply do not look attractive. As the saying goes ” a picture is worth a thousand words” and this is so true. Bottom line, great photos can make your listings stand out from the pack.
Some sellers choose to upload pictures of them wearing the item (if they did), even if it’s just a shot from Instagram. This puts a face to the item and gives some styling inspiration.
If you want to go all-out, you can get a body-form, to “put” the clothes on. You can get these online, or at a store in your town that’s closing, like Macy’s or Sears. If you’re going to use a form, make sure you get some sort of clips or small pins, to help the item hang well or fit the form for pictures.
Finally, know the details of the item, like the brand, size, and condition, along with what similar items are selling for. With all that in mind, you can click “SELL ON POSHMARK” in the upper right corner of your dashboard.
Learn more: Compare Poshmark vs Mercari
Create a Listing
The site pretty much walks you through what you need to do to list an item, such as upload photos (up to 8). It will ask you for a title and description, which will be how people find your item, other than its general category.
After adding other details about the items, you’ll get to the ”Pricing” section. There you’ll need to list the original price (approximate is fine) and what you’re listing it for. Once you’ve put in your listing price, Poshmark will automatically tell you how much you’ll actually make – minus their cut.
So, if you list something for $300, you’ll make $240 when all is said and done. If it’s $100, you’ll make $80. Listing Price $10? You get $7.05.
The higher your item price, the more Poshmark makes – that’s how percentage fees work. Let’s break down those fees, below.
Prices and Fees
Here’s where we get into the nitty-gritty details of selling on Poshmark. To their credit, they are very straightforward with their fee schedule and you are getting free shipping and credit card processing by listing through them.
Poshmark takes:
- 20% of all sales above $15
- $2.95 for sales under $15
As you saw above, those fees can get pretty large, based on your item price. A $500 priced item will only make you $400. You have to decide if that’s worth it to you.
Are the Fees Fair?
With the fees, you get free credit card processing and Poshmark takes care of the shipping for you, sending you a printable label. But what would that cost if you had to do it on your own?
Shopify is a popular payment platform that processes cards for online shopping -but it’s not free. Sellers/users of Shopify pay for their service and pay a fee on every transaction.
If your monthly revenue from selling things was $500, a basic Shopify plan would cost you around $50. That’s half of what you’d lose on one $500 Poshmark sale right there.
Plus, Shopify will take 2.9% (down to 2.15 with their most expensive plan) plus thirty cents of every credit card transaction someone makes.
On that same example $500 sale, that’s another $15, on top of the $50 per month it costs to run your Shopify service. You’re now only getting $435 for that item, that Poshmark would have given you $400 for.
It seems like more, but those fees don’t include shipping and they build over time.
So – do the fees Poshmark charge make sense? If you’re serious about running your business – yes. If you’re just trying to get rid of some old stuff, try Plato’s Closet or another in-person resale shop first.
(Spotify pricing information from this site)
Getting Paid from Poshmark
As a Poshmark seller, you don’t get your money immediately when the client buys your item. This is mostly for the buyers’ protection and is a minor annoyance to sellers.
However, it acts as motivation for the seller to get the item to the customer quickly and to have honest selling practices.
You’ll only get paid once the buyer “accepts” the item. They can only accept it once it’s been delivered and they’ve inspected it to make sure you sent them what they paid for. If all is well, then they click accept and the money that was being held from you goes into your account.
The buyer has three days from the day of delivery to accept the item, otherwise it’s accepted automatically and you get paid.
You can set up a direct deposit through your bank to have your funds transferred electronically, or you can request a paper check, which sometimes incurs fees (and takes longer).
If you’d like, you can also shop with your earnings, directly on Poshmark’s site.
Shipping Your Items
Shipping is expensive. Long gone are the days when the Post Office went bankrupt – they’ve figured out how to get into the online shipping business, like with their site “Stamps.com”.
Now, to ship an item, you can pay anywhere from $4.00 to $25, depending on weight. Most people choose to ship Flat rate since weight doesn’t matter, you pay for the size of the mailer/box.
However – you don’t have to worry about picking the right shipping method. USPS will even send you their boxes for free, and you can order them online.
To ship with Poshmark, first, you’ll need to print out the shipping label that was emailed to you when someone bought your item. Print it out with a good printer, and cut it to the right shape.
Then, pick a PRIORITY MAIL box that’s the appropriate size for your item and pack the item inside. You can use other boxes and mailers – but these look the most professional and they’re free, so there’s no reason not to.
Once the item is packed, tape the box shut and tape on your shipping label. Most people choose to put their clear packing tape over the label, as a sort of lamination or weather-deterrent.
Then you can drop your packages off at the Post Office, put them in your mailbox as outgoing (if they’ll fit, or hand them straight to your mailman. There are those blue-post boxes around town, but they’re getting harder and harder to find.
You can search for your closest one, here.
Return Policy
Customers have the right to return things you send them, for a few reasons. If you sent them the wrong item or wrongly listed the size/color, they’re allowed to ask for their money back.
They’ll also ask for a refund if the item is in different conditions than you described. If there are holes, stains, snags, or any other defect you would notice in a retail store, list those and add a photo to your listing, for the sake of honesty.
Poshmark has to “approve” the return claim, to make sure it’s legitimate. Buyers can’t return things that don’t fit or that they’ve decided they don’t like in-person.
You can read the official wording on their “Posh Protect” site.
Pros and Cons of Poshmark
Nothing is perfect and anytime you use a third party to sell items, you’re going to lose some money. It’s up to you to decide how much you’re willing to lose for the ease of a platform.
The Pros
Poshmark makes it easy to list items and has its own algorithm which helps get eyes on your listings. It also offers parties and other social options to draw more attention to your items and make Facebook-like social connections.
They take care of credit card processing for you, as well as shipping, which are both expensive on their own, though the actual fee vs DIY-cost varies depending on the cost of the item.
It has a big user base, which is both a pro and a con. Yes – there are people always on the Poshmark site, but there are always new people listing, which means you have high competition.
The Cons
The biggest cons of Poshmark are easily the fees. It’s hard to list something at one price and then only get 80% of the sale price.
That and the competition between sellers/the general size of the site are most “Poshers” biggest complaints.
Feedback from sellers on Poshmark
Tory Canonge of Chase the Write Dream is a successful seller on Poshmark and she provides some advice below.
Where do you source items to sell?
I start with my own closet and make a pile of clothes, shoes, and accessories, that I’m no longer wearing. Then, I’ll often go to local thrift stores and secondhand stores to find other name brand items.
I make sure to check the quality of the pieces and make sure that they are priced well so that I can still make money off of them when I go to sell on Poshmark.
I open the app while I’m shopping to see what previous items in that condition have sold for so that I have a good estimate of how much I can expect my inventory to go for.
How does Poshmark compare to selling on other platforms?
I really like how Poshmark is more than just a selling platform – it’s also a community. The Poshmark community is also very supportive and when you treat it like a social platform, you’ll find that your followers become loyal and will often share your listings regularly when you do the same.
The app has also received many great upgrades over time, including the ability to add more photos and zoom in on images.
Users can also join in on several parties every day, ranging from beauty and makeup to clothing and seasonal favorites.
Any tips or hacks on how to be a successful seller?
I have an entire blog post written about this, which can be found here: Selling on Poshmark: 9 Simple Tips for More Sales.
How do you decide what to price your items at?
I like to see what items have sold for in the past. Sometimes you can find the exact same item and that gives you a great place to start in regards to listing your item. You always want to keep in mind that the buyer is going to have to pay for shipping, so you need to make the discount enough for the purchase to make sense for them.
For example, if someone can purchase the item in stores for $50 and you list your item for $40, that might not be enough of a discount for your item to sell because that $40 doesn’t include shipping. It’s also helpful to know what the original purchase price was so that you can put that into the app!
Advanced Tip
Lisa Stevens a top Poshmark seller suggests offering bundle discounts in order to increase your sales. By offering these discounts, buyers will often buy more from your closet. They also don’t have to pay any additional shipping fees since most people choose flat rate shipping. She also says it’s really important to be active, and this includes sharing, commenting and liking.
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