What is Poshmark? It's a social platform where you can sell or buy preloved clothing, accessories, and home décor. It is also where I started The Boyfriends Closet.
1. The Customer is Always Right
The customer is always right when there is a claim to be had. When something goes wrong with an order, and the buyer opens a case against you. 9/10 times even if you listed everything correctly, posted 16 photos, and wrote a novel in the description, Poshmark will side with the buyer not the seller.
My advise: If you messed up the order, just own up to it and save yourself the drama. If you genuinely feel you were in the right, just be sweet and lovely. Poshmark tends to help a goodie-goodie more.
2. Offers
On Poshmark both buyer and seller can send discounted offers. Don't get me wrong, I love a good haggle. What I don't love is getting sent an offer for an item, that is 90% less then what you have it listed for. Or going back and forth for hours with a buyer who constantly sends a counter offer for $1 more each time.
My advise: Just ignore them. Send a reasonable offer back, and let them know your bottom line. Don't play into their games. Be honest, be nice, and just let them know you can't accept a lower offer. It will save you so much time, and energy.
3. Share! Share! Share!
With Poshmark, when you look up a brand or an item type the first items that pop up are the most recently shared items. This has caused a bit of a share marathon on the site. If you want your item to be seen first, you have to be sharing your closet multiple times a day, and every day of the week. Now there are plenty of tips out there for optimizing this, if you want to play along. Personally I hate this. Why should I have to spend my time sharing the same things over and over again? While literally everyone else is doing the same. It has created an unbeatable cycle.
My advise: Just find a day/time that works for you to share your entire closet. Then pick your favorite 10-30 items and share those at least 3 times a day. This is what works for me, without going crazy.
On Poshmark both buyer and seller can send discounted offers. Don't get me wrong, I love a good haggle. What I don't love is getting sent an offer for an item, that is 90% less then what you have it listed for. Or going back and forth for hours with a buyer who constantly sends a counter offer for $1 more each time.
My advise: Just ignore them. Send a reasonable offer back, and let them know your bottom line. Don't play into their games. Be honest, be nice, and just let them know you can't accept a lower offer. It will save you so much time, and energy.
3. Share! Share! Share!
With Poshmark, when you look up a brand or an item type the first items that pop up are the most recently shared items. This has caused a bit of a share marathon on the site. If you want your item to be seen first, you have to be sharing your closet multiple times a day, and every day of the week. Now there are plenty of tips out there for optimizing this, if you want to play along. Personally I hate this. Why should I have to spend my time sharing the same things over and over again? While literally everyone else is doing the same. It has created an unbeatable cycle.
My advise: Just find a day/time that works for you to share your entire closet. Then pick your favorite 10-30 items and share those at least 3 times a day. This is what works for me, without going crazy.
4. The Shipping Cost
Shipping in Canada is $12.99 an order on Poshmark. If you want to offer less the cost comes out of your profit. There is only one event where Poshmark offers to reduce this, during a "Closet Clearout". The cost goes down to $9.99 if you reduce the price of your item by at least 10%. I would love it if Poshmark had an event where they offered free shipping, or a much more heavily discounted shipping. Most people send lower offers, or don't buy at all based on the high cost of shipping. I also regularly get people sending me comments asking for discounted shipping, unaware it's coming out of my pocket. As a small online business I know the cost of shipping in Canada. Canada Post charges insane amounts for shipping. That said, a bigger company like Poshmark probably gets a bigger discount, and could afford to take a hit on it.
My advise: Just be honest with people when they ask for a shipping discount. Otherwise, I wouldn't send an offer with a shipping discount. I have done experiments with sending them for periods of time, and for me it didn't help generate more sales. Keep the extra couple of dollars in profit. A buyer will come along eventually.
5. 20% Comes Out of Your Pocket
When you make a sale on Poshmark, 20% of that sales is given to Poshmark. This is also on top of being taxed when a sale is made. Now don't get me wrong, I am okay with Poshmark taking a commission on my sales. We are using it's platform and that brings in costs for Poshmark. I just think 20% is way too high for what the platform does for you. Other then providing a place to sell, they don't advertise your items or go out of their way to help you generate sales. You have to do that with sharing or relisting new items. They have events but most of that is seller hosted. For what they offer, something like 10% or less is what they should be receiving.
My advise: Always keep that bottom line number in mind. How much profit do you want to make? Now make sure you are accounting for the 20% Poshmark will take and add that on top. Don't accept offers any lower then your bottom line.
Shipping in Canada is $12.99 an order on Poshmark. If you want to offer less the cost comes out of your profit. There is only one event where Poshmark offers to reduce this, during a "Closet Clearout". The cost goes down to $9.99 if you reduce the price of your item by at least 10%. I would love it if Poshmark had an event where they offered free shipping, or a much more heavily discounted shipping. Most people send lower offers, or don't buy at all based on the high cost of shipping. I also regularly get people sending me comments asking for discounted shipping, unaware it's coming out of my pocket. As a small online business I know the cost of shipping in Canada. Canada Post charges insane amounts for shipping. That said, a bigger company like Poshmark probably gets a bigger discount, and could afford to take a hit on it.
My advise: Just be honest with people when they ask for a shipping discount. Otherwise, I wouldn't send an offer with a shipping discount. I have done experiments with sending them for periods of time, and for me it didn't help generate more sales. Keep the extra couple of dollars in profit. A buyer will come along eventually.
5. 20% Comes Out of Your Pocket
When you make a sale on Poshmark, 20% of that sales is given to Poshmark. This is also on top of being taxed when a sale is made. Now don't get me wrong, I am okay with Poshmark taking a commission on my sales. We are using it's platform and that brings in costs for Poshmark. I just think 20% is way too high for what the platform does for you. Other then providing a place to sell, they don't advertise your items or go out of their way to help you generate sales. You have to do that with sharing or relisting new items. They have events but most of that is seller hosted. For what they offer, something like 10% or less is what they should be receiving.
My advise: Always keep that bottom line number in mind. How much profit do you want to make? Now make sure you are accounting for the 20% Poshmark will take and add that on top. Don't accept offers any lower then your bottom line.
I will leave it on this note: There is a reason I started my own website, and am moving away from selling on Poshmark. Shop it now and support my transition to running my business completely off all other selling platforms.
Follow me on Instagram @theboyfriends_closet to get updated on my most recent apparel drops. Or more tips on navigating the reseller community.
Follow me on Instagram @theboyfriends_closet to get updated on my most recent apparel drops. Or more tips on navigating the reseller community.
