How to Sell On Poshmark
Selling on Poshmark can seem a bit overwhelming when you first open the app, but the guide below will help you cut through the noise and sell through your closet! While Poshmark can, at times, be annoying with low ball offers etc. overall I have had great success on the site and move items quickly. Before listing on Poshmark, I also recommend reading my Closet Clean Out Tips , The T&T 3Ps , and Reselling FAQs (this one is required reading and has lots of Poshmark specific tips). You can sign up for Poshmark here with my referral code. Happy selling! For more shopping and consignment tips & tricks, be sure to subscribe to the Thrift & Tell Newsletter and follow @thriftandtell on Instagram.
LISTING YOUR ITEMS:
I recommend taking clean photos that are well lit. I recommend taking photos in the morning by a window for the best lighting.
Iron your items. No one wants to buy a crumpled up shirt!
BE HONEST. That is my number one piece of advice. If you do not disclose the imperfections on your item, it will come back to bite you in the proverbial you know what.
I am explicit when detailing the description of the item, for example “This is extremely well loved. The soles need to be redone. Priced to sell.”
Be sure to use as many important key words as you can so you will show up in a buyer’s search. For example, if you were selling a Patagonia fleece, “Patagonia Better Sweater Blue Fleece with Zipper” is better than “fleece.” A detailed description will help Poshmark match your listing to a buyer. If you’re vague, Poshmark won’t know to include your listing in a relevant search.
For whatever reasons, buyers on Poshmark think you will trade with them. Often these proposed trades are laughable; for example, I had someone offer me their closet of Bebe clothes in exchange for a Chanel bag. I write NO TRADES in the listing to at least try to deter people from asking.
I start most listings with “No trades and no offers please” to deter buyers from even suggesting either of these. Some buyers will ignore this, but some will be respectful and not suggest either.
You unfortunately cannot direct message someone on Poshmark, so all communication is public and happens in the comment section of the listing. The only workaround is if a seller adds an item in your closet to a “bundle” they can privately message you.
If you’re going to be out of town for more than a day or two, you can put your closet on “vacation mode” until you return. This will ensure that no one can place an order while you are away. It is a bit confusing because it will mark your whole closet as “not for sale” so you’ll inevitably get a few comments saying “is this still available?” Just simply respond that you’ll be back on X day and they can buy then. If I’m going away for a weekend, I won’t put my closet on vacation mode as I can always ship when I get home.
I recommend that you read my full resale Q&A, but, as a heads up, sometimes when you list a new item, you will almost immediately get a comment from a buyer asking to email with more details. This is spam. I frankly don’t know why Poshmark doesnt filter those out, but so be it. Ignore it or flag it as spam or transaction off Poshmark and it will disappear.
OFFERS:
Buyers can submit offers on any listing. You can haggle with them, and, once you finally accept the offer, it immediately processes as a sale.
Poshmark is filled with cheapskates. PERIOD. You will get ridiculously low offers. I will either reject them or come back with the price I listed it at.
If someone continually puts in low ball offers, despite you rejecting them, you can block the buyer. I have only had to do this a handful of times.
Occasionally, if I am getting low ball offers from the same person, I will post a comment on their listing simply saying, “thank you so much for your offers. I just sent you my best and final. Thank you for your understanding.” (I prefer to write this on their listing than my own, since I don’t want another possible buyer to see I was entertaining an offer!) :)
On that note, I never haggle in the comment section of my own listing. You’ll never get full price on the item if a buyer can see in the comments that you will accept a lower price.
As a seller, you can also send private offers to everyone who has liked the listing. You select a percentage off and a shipping promo too. I really like using this function. I typically send out a bunch of offers when I just want to clear out things. I find it is helpful to move things along, without having to lower the price permanently.
SHARING:
Poshmark encourages its members to constantly “engage” with the community and share personal listings as well as others on the site.
For your own personal listings, sharing an item puts it to the top of the queue for that item. For example, if you a Black Cashmere Vince Crewneck sweater 6 months ago, sharing the listing will mean it will go to the top when someone searches those key words.
As of June 2021, there is now a function to “bulk share” your listings and this a great improvement. This means you won’t have to share listings one-by-one. Instead, you can bulk share your listings. You can do this as often as you’d like, but since it’s so easy I’d try and do it at least once a month.
I do not incessantly share my listings and don’t think you have to sell. If I do share my listings, I do it while I’m doing mundane tasks, like waiting in line at the grocery store or in an Uber. If you don’t want to be bothered, share your listings when you think of it and maybe every 1-2 months, reshare the items in your closet. If you decide to send out offers to “likers” on a listing, that is also a good time to reshare your listing.
PARTIES:
Poshmark has “parties” every day with different themes.
I have never “attended a party” but I notice if I share to a party, others will share my listing. Does that actually result in immediate sales? I haven’t seen that which is why I don’t spend too much energy on sharing to parties.
I only share to parties if I happen to be on the app and notice a party.
I’ve had two items in my closet be select as “Posh Ambassador Party Picks”. This has resulted in a bunch of comments on the listing saying congratulations but neither actually sold…
SHIPPING:
The buyer pays for shipping on Poshmark, unless you offer a private shipping discount.
Once your item sells, you get an email from Poshmark with a pre-paid USPS label.
You can ship in a free USPS priority mail box. You can get them at the post office or have USPS send a bundle of boxes to you.
You can use your own shipping tape or the USPS priority tape which is available for use at the post office.
If you sell an item over $500, it will qualify for free authentication through Poshmark. Your shipping label will send to Poshmark HQ for authentication and then they will send the package for free to the buyer.
Some Poshmark sellers go all out with packaging. I don’t really. I save the tissue paper I get in packages and reuse. I do include a note thanking them for their purchase and explicitly asking them to rate me 5 stars. (Having a high rating, helps to sell more!)
Here is an example of what I would say, “Thank you very much for your purchase! I hope you enjoy your purchase and that you can rate 5 stars and leave a love note. Thank you!”
You can drop your item off at USPS or schedule a USPS pick up for free.
Optional: Especially if you’re shipping something of high value, it never hurts to take some photos of the item right before you ship, including the packaging. I say this not to freak you out but it just provides an extra layer of time-stamped, photo evidence of the condition of the product and the packaging in case the seller happened to open a case claiming condition was not as pictured. I’ve never actually needed to use these photos before but they take about 30 seconds to do so no harm in adding this extra step. You can delete from your phone once the sale is complete.
PAYMENT
Poshmark takes a 20% commission and you get 80%.
The buyer has 3 days from date of delivery to “accept” the order.
After 3 days, your funds are released. This is much faster than Tradesy that holds onto your funds for weeks!
CASES
About two times, someone has filed a complaint stating the listing I posted was not as described. This is 99% of the time the person’s attempt to return something that does not fit. My most recent was a woman saying it was not a size 4, when the tag was size 4.
In general, I take issue with people who buy things that are 90% off and then complain it is not new. There is nothing you can do to stop that; it’s just the hazard of selling online.
When you’re dealing with cases or otherwise, Poshmark customer service is verrrry slow to respond. Ultimately they’ve ruled in my favor, but there is no customer service phone line and the email correspondence feels like you’re emailing a black hole. I have dm’ed Poshmark on Instagram to try and get an answer. That seems to work for me to finally get a response.
AMBASSADOR:
Poshmark has an ambassador program with a list of particular criteria you must meet. (The one I really can’t stomach is they want you to share other people’s listings 5,000 times. )
Some T&T followers have told me that once they hit ambassador status, they saw an uptick in followers, as Poshmark suggested their profile to new followers.
It is certainly possible that ambassador status would improve my sales, but as it is I am selling both low end and high end products without it. In all things, I think it’s important to consider opportunity costs; spending hours resharing people’s items just doesn’t seem like the best use of my time currently.
If you’d like to prioritize being an ambassador, by all means do it, but for most people I think the requirements will make reselling feel brutal. If you stick to the T&T 3Ps: Patience, Price & Photos, I am confident you can sell and make money on Poshmark without ambassador status!
Overall, I would say I participate about 50% in the Poshmark “game”. There are hard core Poshmark people (they even have an annual conference!) that flip thrift store finds for a living. There are lots of blogs/resources online so I also recommend just googling Poshmark + whatever you have a questions about and you’ll likely find tons of information. Happy Selling!
