Reseller Tools of the Trade Series: Sell on Poshmark

There are plenty of places to resell clothing, shoes, and accessories. One of our favorite reseller sites is Poshmark. This fashion community offers so much more than a simple sales tool. Read on to find out why we believe Poshmark deserves your attention if you’re an apparel enthusiast looking to start or ramp up your reselling efforts. We’ll go over the basics of this app, plus the pros and cons of selling on Poshmark!

The Basics of Selling on Poshmark

Poshmark is a free app that lets anyone upload and sell clothing, shoes, and accessories. It’s designed to be incredibly easy to get started, but also offers a host of features you won’t find anywhere else.

To start, download the app on your iPhone or Android. Next, take a photo and upload it to the site. In less than 60 seconds, you’ll be ready to start selling. Easy right? Of course, there’s a bit more information to be found in the fine print, but the basics of selling on Poshmark really are that simple.

Poshmark Pros

There are a number of really compelling reasons to choose Poshmark for all your fashion reselling needs. Here are a few of the highlights.

Buyers

Poshmark has a huge community of fashion fiends (known as “poshers”) ready and waiting to buy your best finds. With over 60 million users, it’s a built-in audience that’s hard to beat. Not only that, the social aspects of the app (more on that later) mean these users are engaged. This is not a “visit once a year” kind of site. Most Poshmark users spend a lot of time browsing, liking, and commenting on the pieces they love. According to their 2020 Social Commerce Report, 88% of daily shoppers on Poshmark are repeat buyers on the platform.

Getting Paid

Poshmark believes your cash is your own, and they seek to make things easy for sellers in the cashing out department. Within 3 days of a package being delivered, the price paid, minus Poshmark’s fee will be deposited to your seller account. From there, you can request to cash out at any time. They’ll direct deposit funds to your bank account or even send you a check if you prefer. Deposits typically take 2-3 business days while checks can take up to two weeks to arrive. The fee for selling on Poshmark is a flat commission of $2.95 for sales under $15. For sales of $15 or more, Poshmark’s fee is 20% and sellers keep 80%.

Negotiable Pricing

Unlike most sites, Poshmark actually encourages buyers and sellers to negotiate prices. Got a top that’s just not selling? Offer a lower price to someone who’s added it to their wish list and see if they bite. You’ll likely also get offers from buyers who are interested in your items which you can then choose to accept or reject. The negotiation process makes pricing items a much more forgiving process since its ‘give and take nature’ lets you correct pricing mistakes as you go. In fact, you might want to price all of your listings a little higher than you actually expect them to sell so you can make offers and promote sales.

Returns

One of the most frustrating parts of any reseller business is the returns process. Fortunately, Poshmark offers an excellent way to deal with this. Their moderated returns process means you won’t have to deal with this on your own. On Poshmark, all sales are final. They don’t accept returns for fit issues, change of mind, or even late delivery. The only way a buyer can return an item is if it is not as described. In this case, the buyer has to prove that there’s a problem by uploading pictures showing the problem clearly. Moderators will then review the return and decide if there’s a legitimate reason or not. You’ll never be asked to refund the money for an item that will not be returned to you, and you’ll also never have to give a partial refund.

Shipping

If you’re selling only on Poshmark, you might as well get rid of that postal scale that’s taking up room on your desk. When an item sells, you’ll get an email including a prepaid shipping label. Simply affix your label to the outside of the package and toss it in the mail. It’s hard to get much easier than that!

Simplicity

Possibly the biggest reason to choose Poshmark, this app makes selling incredibly easy. Few marketplaces let you list an item in under 60 seconds. And they keep the rest of the process easy too, as we’ve discussed.

Social Media

As mentioned above, Poshmark is more than just a shopping site. It’s a community. This means there’s a social media aspect to the app, letting users like, share, and discuss pieces they find. If you’re looking for a hands-off approach, you’re not likely to enjoy this, but if fashion is your passion, it’s soon to become your favorite feature.

Taxes

Sales tax across state lines made reselling far more complicated for many small businesses. Poshmark helps you cut through this annoyance too by including tax remittance on your behalf. Their Posh Remit service is a real lifesaver for those who dread dealing with taxes.

Poshmark Cons

Of course, as with anything, there are also some things that sellers don’t love about Poshmark. We’ll give you the details on those too so you can make an informed decision about your business.

Higher seller fees

The biggest complaint most people have with Poshmark is their fees. Like we said, all sales under $15 pay a $2.95 fee, and all sales of $15 and over will pay 20%. This is pretty high when compared to many other sites, but when you consider all of the features and services that are covered by the fee, many sellers find it a bit easier to swallow.

Big social commitment

The other complaint some sellers have is that you have to be active to keep up with Poshmark’s social media aspect. Sellers who don’t want to answer questions and engage with buyers probably won’t like this platform at all.

Lower-priced items will cost the same to ship

Buyers are responsible for shipping and it is a flat rate of $7.45. This doesn’t seem huge…or even like a bad thing if you aren’t responsible for paying that. But when you consider the sale of a lower-valued item between $5-$15, this becomes much more substantial and can potentially deter customers (AKA sales for you). A buyer does have the option to bundle shipping if purchasing multiple items from the same closet as long as it is below 5 lbs, overweight costs will be designated to sellers.

If you’re looking for a marketplace to resell fashions you purchased through B-Stock liquidation auctions, Poshmark should be on your shortlist.