Making Money on Poshmark

Use this step by step guide to create Poshmark listings and make money off of the clothes in your closet.

Alright, this is a long one because I have learned so much in the past year. To make it a little bit easier to digest, I've broken it up into different sections.

Here are the 7 key components to building a revenue stream on Poshmark.

If you want to check out my closet, here is a link: www.poshmark.com/closet/craftyrice
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As always, here is a consolidated list of some of the items that I recommend throughout this post.

These are some of the supplies that I like to use when selling on Poshmark:

• Shipping Label printer sheets
• Lint Shaver for making your clothes look new again
• Poly bags for shipping
  • Small  6x9 that will fit a single shirt 
  • Medium 10x13 fits a dress or a few shirts  
  • Large 14.5x19 will fit quite a few items 
• Lint rollers to clean up your items before shipping
• Small sewing kit if you need to mend any clothes

1 - ​GETTING STARTED

Use this link to create your account and we both get a credit!

When you do create your account, your name is automatically generated by your email address.  I sent an email to their customer support (who are very helpful and friendly) to change my username. Then, just like any other social platform, you can add a picture, description and profile details.

The first hurdle is finding items to sell (You want to try to keep a full closet on Poshmark).  Start off by going through your closet and look for things that you never wear. Especially if they still have tags on them.  People love to search for NWT (New With Tags)

But don't worry, not everything needs to have the tags still on them.  There are a few items that I found in my closet that weren't perfect so I fixed them up a little bit before listing them.
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If you are anything like me then your clothes might have some little pills on them from chub rub. Get a cheap little lint shaver or carefully use a razor to remove all the little pills and it looks brand new again.

I've also sewed on buttons, fixed collars, or mended holes. You would be surprised what a few minutes of work will do to improve your items.  New to sewing?  Grab yourself a small sewing kit so you can do the basic stuff.

Don't forget! Poshmark isn't just limited to clothes. You are encouraged to sell household items and I have even seen people listing toys or other random things like dogs. I don't know if the random things have sold but I do have some décor and accessories like belts, scarves, jewelry, etc in my Posh Closet. Look around your house and see if you have a candle holder or picture frame that you just aren't using.

Here is a list of some of the household categories.

2 - ​THE LISTING

Now that you have a pile of items waiting to be sold, you need to think hard about what people would want to know about your item before you create the listing

Always use every single character available in the title and description. (This will help the item to show up in searches)
See the example below:

For the title, most people follow this formula:

Brand + Type + Size + Color

For Example: Levi's Boot Cut Denim Jeans sz 11 dark blue

Find words that people might be looking for: Skinny, laced, fitted, floor length, etc.

Another thing I like to do is think about the person that might buy my item.  What words are they searching? What other items will they be looking for?

I have shirts that say dog mom on them so I add things like "fur mama", "I love my dog" "mother of dogs" etc because people might be looking for similar keywords but then see mine and love it instead.
But, if you really think about the person that might stumble upon my dog mom shirt and be interested in buying it...think: what else might a dog mom be looking for on Poshmark?  They might be looking for dog items. So, In add keywords like "dog costume" or dog shirts, leash, collar, etc because a dog mom might be searching for those items on Poshmark and now they will come across my shirt when they search those keywords.

If you are selling a bridesmaid dress, think of other wedding items that someone might be searching for on Pinterest. Work those words into your description. You can make it natural like: While you are helping the bride locate the best wedding dress, planning the bachelorette party, finding handmade wedding decor and securing a location for the bridal shower, save money by buying this barely used bridesmaid dress.

Now when someone goes on Poshmark and searches for the words "wedding decor" or "bachelorette party" then your item will show up in the results.

If you are lazy like me, then you could just add a keywords section to the end of the description instead :)

The hardest part about shopping for clothes online is that you can't try them on. This is why you should add any measurement you can possibly think of. Pit-to-pit is a must have. People always ask for this so be sure to have it for any tops/dresses.
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I add any possible measurements that I can think of. Top to bottom, sleeve length, ruffle length, button size, zipper length. Really, you can't put too much information in the description.
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See the picture below with some of the recommendations: ​

3 - ​​PRICING

Pricing is about finding the right balance. You need to ask a little higher than you expect to make because Poshmark takes 20% (or $2.95 for items under $15). But you don't want to price it so high that people just keep on scrolling.

If you find that something hasn't sold after a couple of months, edit the description or name to get better visibility and reduce the price as much as you can.

If someone likes your item, make an offer. This is why we priced it a bit higher than we planned. You can make an offer to all likers and it will just send it to people who haven't received an offer for that item in the past 30 days. So, you might as well offer for every like.

Here is a little bit of pricing math.

People tend to make offers to see how low you will go. A few people that are new to Poshmark will just buy it at the price listed, but most of the time they will make an offer instead of just purchasing it.

Ignore the low-ball offers. There are people who go around Poshmark just offering a dollar or two for everything. It's just rude. You don't have to justify it with a response, but you can always send a reasonable offer back and see if they respond. It could have been a typo where they meant to say $13 but they typed in $1. I do always respond to the low-ball offers but they always decline my reasonable counteroffer.

Another built-in feature of Poshmark is that you can set it up to automatically offer a discount on bundles, meaning if they purchase more than one item then it takes a percentage off.  At first, I had mine set to 20% but that didn't leave much wiggle room for offers or counter-offers so now I have it at 10%. I mention this in my item description to encourage people to look at the rest of my closet. ​

4 - ​SHARING

This is the most important part of getting your items out there.

When you share something, it puts that item back on the top of the list of search results. Also, it shows up in the news feed for those who are following you.

I share while I'm laying in bed watching TV, while I'm on hold with customer service, when I'm in a waiting room, when I have a few minutes between meetings, or anytime that I would probably just be scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed. If you are one who spends a lot of time in the bathroom. Take your phone with you and share your entire closet while you're sitting there :)

My tips for sharing:

Every item should be shared at least once a day. Always share during busy shopping times. Think: When will people be online shopping? Consider different time-zones; definitely evenings. Thursday night through Saturday night you should be sharing your heart out. Most of my sales are made on Friday right after people get paid.

Share other Poshers items as well. I like to Share items that are similar to my own. You might think that this would be counterproductive because someone might buy their item instead of yours but let's think about it: The Poshmark community is very good at returning the favor when it comes to sharing. Use this to your advantage. Target your shares and make them count.

Remember what we said about the person who might buy your item?  What else are they shopping for?  Well, also consider what might they be selling. That Dog Mom who wants my shirt might be selling items similar to the keywords we mentioned earlier. If I have a dog mom shirt that I want to sell then I search and share items like collar, leash, dog shirt, so they will see that I shared their item and look at my closet to share in return. Once in my closet, they see the Dog Mom shirt and I just made a sale. Many of my sales have been from someone who's item I had just recently shared. Anything we can do to get folks in our closet looking at our items!

This brings me to Poshmark parties. These are hosted by someone just like you. Someone on Poshmark trying to make sales. They have a theme for the party. Some of them control what you can share based on the type of clothing, but some of them aren't controlled at all and you can share your whole closet. Share anything you possibly can to those parties. It's your opportunity for a new audience to see your products. I try to pick the items that really fit with the theme so that the host will pick my item as a host pic.
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When your item is a host pick, it goes into a special room in the party where people tend to focus their attention. You can kindly ask the host to consider picking your item but don't be that person that blows up their inbox and send them a comment with 37 emoticons. It's just rude and they aren't going to pick your item if you do that. I've had over a dozen host picks in the past year. It usually gets you a few new follows and most likely a sale of the item that was picked.

​See . . . Lots of emoticons:

5 - ​BUILDING A FOLLOWING

Speaking of follows, The best way to make sure everyone is seeing your items is to build up a huge following. The best way to do that is to become a Poshmark Ambassador as quick as you can. I got mine within a month of starting my sales.

If you are a Poshmark Ambassador then Poshmark will automatically recommend you to new users when they open their account. You'll notice that when you created your account you were already following some people. Those are usually Poshmark ambassadors that Poshmark connected you to right away. As long as you stay active then Poshmark will keep connecting you to more people and those new people will come in and see your items.

The new way you are matched to new followers is by similar sizes, so add a bunch of sizes that you sell. Are you a medium, but you are selling a bunch of Large items?  If you set your sizes to be medium then Poshmark will be adding followers that are a size medium. Update your sizes to include Large and Poshmark will match you with people who need those sizes. Currently, you can add three sizes for each type (shirts, sweater, dress, pants) so add a bunch to each to get a greater variety of followers based on the sizes that you sell. Now, this means that people might be offering you clothes of a different size but that's okay because Iare here to make money not spend it :) okay, maybe I spend a little money too.

Remember! Get ambassador status fast. I shared all day everyday until I got mine. (See ambassador section for more info on how to make status fast)

Other ways to get follows

• follow people and they will tend to follow you back
• share on social media - Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumbler, etc.
• having lots of items in your closet will make people want to follow you

6 - ​SHIPPING

Ship quickly. I get everything in the mailbox the next day before work. You can put it in your mailbox in the morning or drop it off at your post office on the way to work. The important thing is to get it shipped ASAP.
The one good thing about the expensive shipping on Poshmark  is that we can take advantage of the Free priority or flat rate boxes boxes from the post office. You can even have them delivered by going to the USPS website here.  Just remember that it is Illegal to use them for anything other than shipping so just return them to your local post office if you don't want or need them.

Or you can be like me and do something to spice it up. I try to make my customers remember me with some pretty (cheap) poly bags - I got these from Amazon. (small, medium, and large)  

Anything that makes you stand out might help you to get that rating!  I still have the boxes for big orders but most fit in the bags.
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Here is my shipping supplies drawer :)

Don't forget to leave a little note in the package to say thank you. I put it on the back of a business card in hopes that some will check out my website or tag me on social media in their new outfit (which has happened a few times).
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​I also comment on the sold item with a thank you and letting them know that I have shipped their item. Be sure to tag them so they get a notification. This will give them an opportunity to reach out and you can always ask them for a review so you can get the rating you need to get Posh Ambassador status.

7 - ​POSH AMBASSADOR STATUS

5,000 Community Share - This is so easy, just share, share, share! Remember what I said about making your shares count. Target the people or items that will help you to get sales.

5,000 Self Shares - I usually share all of my items once a day ( I have over 1,000!) But at first, I would share them almost every hour just to get that ambassador status.

50 New Poshers Shared - There is a trick to this one. When you are searching for items to share, change the default from "just shared" to "just in". These will be items that were just listed. I know that this also includes existing Poshers and not just new Poshers that are listing items but it increases the chances and I got this one really quick by switching my search.

50 Available Listings - you definitely have this around the house! If not, find some really cheap clearance items or thrift store finds. Heck, you can even find a pallet of returned/clearance clothes these days.  Don't forget that Poshmark is not just limited to clothes.

15 Sales - This is really tough at first. It seems like the first month you are staring at your closet watching paint dry, then all of the sudden the sales start coming in. You might need to go pretty low with the offers to get those first few sales. Keep making offers to anyone who likes your items and you will get there!

4.5 Star Rating - ratings are based on the validity of item description, item cleanliness, packaging, ship time, seller responsiveness or "other". This means that we need to make sure that we are very honest with our description. Mention any slight imperfections. With cleanliness, I always take a lint roller to everything. Here, buy yourself a pack because you will need them! Also, remember what I said earlier about making your package stand out.

3 Day Ship Time - This is super easy! Mine sits at 0.9.  I always get them out the next morning and drop them in the mailbox.

Love note Given - This is where they get you!  You have to buy something. It worked out for me though because I needed a Halloween costume anyway and we were able to find this great couple costume for a very reasonable price:

Focusing on getting your Ambassador status will go a long way to getting those sales.

​ADDITIONAL TIPS

• Don't just wait on sales to happen, go out there and get them as soon as people are liking your listings. Offer, Offer, Offer.
• Keep 100 items in your closet at all times. People tend to ignore small closets.
• Be social! Return the share. Comment on items or closets.
• Follow other people- you would be surprised at how many return the favor.

Any other ideas?  Did some of these work or not work for you?  Post a comment below to let me know.

​Wishing you all lots of sales!!!