Top 5 Tips to Resell on Poshmark

I used to work at a place where I could purchase clothing at wholesale prices. We're talking $40 for a $180 jacket. $4 for a high end tshirt. $20 for a brand name gym bag. Heck, I even bought a snowboard at wholesale price. This caused an abundance of things. My walk in closet was so jam packed with stuff that I did not have ANY room to even browse through the items. So about 5 years ago I decided I was going to purge. I sold a bag of clothes for $50 and I donated some things to a second hand store. Perfect. Over the years I dwindled down little by little but I still kept buying more. Since this Pandemic hit and losing my job, I've been sitting at home in this mess of stuff and I needed it to be gone. I am so sick of looking at it and I didn't want to deal with the hassle of selling on Facebook Marketplace, so I discovered Poshmark and off I went. This is what I've learned...

So what is Poshmark? It's an online platform for sellers and resellers to list items and ship to buyers. Poshmark takes 20% of the sales profit and you take 80% minus any shipping discount if you so choose to give one. It sounds simple, and it is! In a few short months I've been able to part with 100 items (as of Jan 2021) and making $1548.69. I purchased $430 worth of clothing lots from Marketplace bringing my actual profit to $744. I paid about $2 per item in the clothing lots and some were brand names new with tags! I have already made my money back on the marketplace purchases by only selling a few items from those lots with so much more to sell. I have 197 available listings worth  $4298! So now that I have a hefty inventory and sold a solid amount of items, it's come with a few hiccups and learning a few things along the way.
So these are my top five tips for selling on Poshmark from what I've learned so far: ​

​1. List New Items Often
If you have a lot of items to list, don't overwhelm yourself by uploading them all at the same time. Once I have the bulk of my items listed, I try to get one - three listings up per day. This keeps your account active and fresh. I also add a new item every time I make a sale! But what happens when I run out of things to list? I find more. I ask friends or family if they have any items that they want to get rid of that I can take, I check marketplace for good deals. I haven't personally done this, but boxes of multiple children's clothing sell really well on Poshmark & TONS of people sell baby / children's clothing for cheap on Marketplace in Bulk. That would be a great place to start! When purchasing from Marketplace, make sure to check items over thoroughly for re-sell-ability and value! ​Name brand items in good condition tend to sell the best.

2. Describe Your Item Thoroughly & Take Descriptive Pictures 
Go over every inch of the item checking for holes, defects, loose threads, stains, pilling etc. Fix what you can if you're Savvy like that. If not, investing in a needle & thread and a few Youtube Tutorial videos goes a long way! For what you can't fix, make sure to include all defects in the description of your item. You'd be surprised what you can sell even it has a defect. What do I mean by taking descriptive pictures? Everything that you put in your item description should have a photo for reference? Is there a stain? Take a picture of it. Thread loose? Take a picture of it. You also want to take pictures of all the tags that are on the garment or item including the size, material content, brand and wash instructions. If there's no tags, put that in the description as well. The more people know, the better informed their decision to purchase it. The more informed a customer is on their purchase, the more likely they are to give you a 5 star rating and come back again as a repeat customer.  This is the reason why I don't think you should list all of your items at once, take your time to make sure you do it right the first time! Also, include measurements if you can. It's most likely people will ask anyways. Make sure to give them all the info right away so they don't have to ask! 

Photo Tips:

• Take a clear photo of the front and the back of the item, with the whole item in the photo - use natural daylight and whatever camera you have available (cell phone is fine!). Make sure the photos are 1:1 square
• Make sure to mention if the color shows up a bit differently in real life vs. the photo. It happens! DO NOT use color altering filters.
• I often take photos closer to the item at an angle to give a better idea of texture and colors.
• With items like jackets or anything that zips open, I take a picture of the inside.
• It's so important to disclose all item defects. Make sure to take clear photos of the defects and describe them in the item description.
• Take a photo of all the tags. This is great for confirming brands, sizes, and material. If the item doesn't have any tags, disclose that in the description.

3. Be Active On the App & BE PATIENT!
The times I make the most sales are the days where I am active on the app. I do this by:

• Listing new items
• Sharing items from my closet to my following and to parties
• Updating older listings
• Participating in Posh Challenges (Closet Clear Out, Love it or List it, etc. You can find these in your notifications daily)
• Sharing Posher's items from parties to your following (Not as important as sharing your own Listings to your following) 

I set aside 15-30 minutes about 3 times a day to stay active on Poshmark. I do a lot of this while sitting on the couch watching Netflix! I didn't make my first sale until about 2 weeks after I uploaded my first item. Being patient and not giving up right away was worth it and I know it will be for you as well. Three of my personal friends have ALL made sales after creating their Poshmark closet, and they did it a lot quicker than I did. 

4. Get Proper Materials for Packing and Sending Items
When I first started selling, I didn't have ANY packing materials or tape. It sent me into panic mode! I was using weird colored duct tape and I didn't even have scissors to cut out the waybill.  Make sure you at least have the basics: A printer, packing tape, scissors & bubble mailers or boxes. I re-use boxes from shipments I received from amazon and other deliveries. I much prefer to recycle! Make sure the items are well protected in the box and including a handwritten note is also a really great touch. 

5. Get Over Being Perfect
You don't need fancy equipment to take good photos, fancy packing paper, a ring light, mannequin etc.
Your phone, daylight, a white plastic hanger and a wall is enough. Yes, lots of people take time staging items and taking photos with mannequins and staged lighting. I guarantee you that is NOT how they started selling their items. Start with what you have because there's no point in SPENDING money when the point is to MAKE it! If you want to invest in better equipment, do it after you've made some money! With my first $200 that I made I bought a ring light. Not only will it be good for my Poshmark closet, but other content creating as well!
So don't get stuck on being perfect, you will still make sales! 

6. BONUS TIP!
Make sure you're using descriptive words in your description that people would be searching for. 
​Ombre, Animal Print, Star Wars, Funko Pop, Ceramic, Stained Glass... Whatever it is!! If you were looking for the particular item that you are posting, what words would you put into search to find it? Use those words in your description so people can find your item! I'd say 98% of sales come from people using the search tool in the Poshmark app! Try searching for something fun to see what I mean. Searching "Carole Baskin" brings up quite a few hilarious cheetah print items. 

​I'm living my pandemic life right now, with time to spare. I haven't been working due to layoffs and I needed something to do with my time. Even if you're still working and want to reduce clutter while making some cash, I still recommend using Poshmark. Set some time aside after work to put together a Poshmark Closet. You'll be surprised how easy and fun it can be, and how much room you'll have after getting rid of all the extras in your closet!

If you don't have a Poshmark account, use code christinablogs at sign up to get $15 to spend!

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