The first impression that your potential buyers have is your pictures. If you want to increase sales, you really have to wow your future (and current) customers! Keep reading for tips on having the best pictures for selling on Poshmark, eBay, Mercari, and other marketplaces.
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Inspect and Clean Your Clothing Item
The first step to taking pictures for your eBay, Poshmark, and/or Mercari listing is cleaning and inspecting the clothing item. Look it over to double check for any stains, rips, holes, pet hair, or other signs of wear.
For the items that need a special wash, I separate them into piles. I keep a bag of items that need to be dry cleaned so I can limit trips to the cleaner. Otherwise, I separate clothes by their washing instructions and do special loads just for my reselling items that need some extra TLC.
To remove pesky stains of any kind, I use Goop. I apply Goop to a stain, rub it in briskly, and let it sit for at least 20 minutes. This stain remover has helped me with all different types of stains including dirt, food residue, and grease.
If the item has pilling in a certain area or throughout the item, use a sweater shaver. I purchased mine on Amazon, and it has been a life saver helping me bring my pre loved items back to life!
Lastly, if you have pets that shed, you know how their hair ends up anywhere and everywhere! I try to avoid my pet coming into contact with my reselling items, however sometimes her hair still ends up on the items. I do a quick and simple once over with a lint roller to ensure the item is free from any hair (my pet- or my own!)
Lastly, I use a handheld steamer on some clothing items to ensure it looks crisp for pictures. Just like for washing items, make sure to read the care instructions to see if the item is appropriate for steaming. This step really is a game changer for photos, which I believe helps items sell even faster!
How To Position Your Clothing Item For Pictures
There are many different formats to stage a picture for resellers. The main ways to orient the item include laid flat, hanging on a hanger, utilizing a mannequin, and modeling the item yourself.
The good news is there is not one right way to take pictures, in my opinion! Personally, I mostly use my mannequin to take pictures.
I feel this format is able to show the fit around the natural curves of the mannequin, which gives a more accurate representation of the item. However, my mannequin does not have removable legs therefore I only take shirt and dress pictures using this method.
For pictures of skirts, pants, and rompers, I personally prefer the lay flat method as the next best. Sometimes I even like the lay-flat method better because it is already an easy setup to take measurements of the item while you are taking the pictures. After all, time is money in the reselling game!
Other than mannequin and lay flat, resellers can choose to take photos with the item on a hanger. For this method, make sure you have a hanger that helps complement the item. So yes, you may want to leave behind the basic plastic hanger and upgrade to one a little more elegant.
Lastly, resellers can choose to model the item themselves. This offers a great advantage because this truly is the most accurate representation of how the item will look on the buyer!
However, it is still not a foolproof method due to differences in body type, shape, skin tone, and all of the other differences that make sellers and buyers uniquely beautiful in their own way.
To help the buyer gauge if the item is right for them, consider adding your bust, waist, and hip measurements (if you’re comfortable!) to help your potential buyers compare.
Lighting And Its Importance In Pictures
Lighting is one aspect that can make or break your listing pictures. Your photos are what grab the customer's attention to make them look at your item. If your pictures look dark, dingy, or are not crisp and clear, buyers may have a hard time sparking interest in your item.
There are many forms of lighting you can use for your pictures. My personal favorite is outdoor natural lighting. The best part about this is that it is FREE! Additionally, I feel this most accurately represents the item color versus using unnatural indoor lighting.
However, this option is not always feasible due to changes in the weather (hello, hot humid midwest summers and freezing cold midwest winters). Due to this, I try to project a time during the week and a time of day that would be best for me to batch my picture-taking of inventory.
For resellers that want to / have the means to utilize upgraded lighting, there are many great options. Some of these include ring lights, soft boxes, and lightboxes. When I take pictures indoors, I personally utilize a ring light that has dimming and color adjustment controls.
All of these options have price ranges that may be able to fit any resellers budget. Just the same as how you structure your photo layout, there is no one right option for lighting! It will take trial, error, and adjusting to find your perfect setup.
What Backdrop Should I Use?
Just like lighting, the backdrop that you use is extremely important. First, make sure to clear the clutter out of the way so you have a clear background. The quickest, cheapest, and easiest set up is placing your item with a blank wall behind it for your mannequin or hanging photos.
For your lay flat, place on a nice wood, carpeted, or tile surface. However, if you are wanting to optimize Google’s search engine optimization (SEO), know that it prioritizes pictures with a white background. This may help your listing rank with Google and thus bring more exposure to your Poshmark, Mercari, or eBay closet!
If you have a little extra cash to spare, you can get creative with these ideas:
- Purchase a roll of white paper to use as your wall backdrop
- Purchase white posterboard to use as your lay-flat backdrop. You can also purchase a white tri-fold presentation board to make into a makeshift light box!
Alternatively, you can use a background remover app. My favorite is Photoroom. This is a great tool because you can take photos anywhere since the background will be removed. Once you have the pictures, upload them to your background remover.
Photoroom will magically make everything but your item disappear! It typically has great accuracy, but at times you may have to manually edit to either take out extra that the app didn’t erase or restore parts of the item that were erased, but was not supposed to be.
The app offers a free version and a pro version. If you have the means, it is 100% worth it to splurge on the premium version!
This will allow you to remove the Photoroom watermark and upload photos into a batch of up to 50, ultimately helping you save time. I use this for all of my listings- both mannequin and lay flat.
I always use a white background for SEO purposes, however, it has options for many other fun backgrounds!
What to Include In Your Pictures: Angles and Aspects
When taking pictures of your clothing items for reselling, more is better! This allows potential buyers to have a real feel for the item if more pictures are included. Try to fill all of the spaces for each marketplace, if you can!
Max amount of photos for the following marketplaces:
- Poshmark: 16 pictures plus 1 video
- Mercari: 12 pictures
- eBay: 12 pictures
- Tradesy: 12 pictures
- Facebook marketplace: 10 pictures
- Kidizen: 10 pictures
- Depop: 4 pictures
Here are some ideas of what you can include in case you get stuck after a few photos:
In all of the pictures on my mannequin, I include:
- Front shot full length
- Side shot full length
- Back shot full length
- Front shot of the top close up
- Back shot of the top close up
- Close-up of the bottom
- Size tag
- Fabric content/care instructions tag
- Close-up of aspects such as pockets, hem, sleeves, imperfections
In all of my lay-flat pictures I include:
- Front shot full length
- Back shot full length
- Front shot of the top close up
- Back shot of the top close up
- Close-up of the bottom
- Size tag
- Fabric content/care instructions tag
- Close-up of aspects such as pockets, hem, sleeves, imperfections
Using Stock Photos In Your Listings
Stock photos, while controversial in their use, can be another great addition to your own personal pictures. This shows the buyer the look and feel of the item, especially if you do not model your clothing items yourself.
Take a look here at How To Find Free People Style Numbers. This article includes specifics to the Free People brand, but also has other super helpful tips about how to find stock photos for any item!
In conclusion, quality pictures sell items! Photos are the first impression potential buyers have of your items.
Find an area, background, method, and lighting arrangement that works best for you! Just like any other aspect of reselling, learning to take high-quality pictures is a skill and an art.
You will improve over time - so don’t be afraid to find a better way and circle back to redoing old pictures! Keep working to improve your craft, and increase your sales.
YesterYear Collectibles
Thanks for the tip about Photo Room and the How To Find Free People Style Numbers.
theresaledoctor
Love PhotoRoom! It's a lifesaver for resellers 🙂