Have you’ve ever wondered, how do I increase sales on Poshmark? Why am I not making sales on Poshmark? Why aren't my items selling? Does anyone actually sell anything on Poshmark these days?! If so, read on for some helpful tips and tricks for solving a slow sales slump.
First, know that if you are having slow sales on Poshmark, you’re not alone! There are many factors that can be contributing to this, including the summer slow down, the lull after everyone completes their holiday shopping, algorithm changes, inflation, and more.
However, don’t let this discourage you! As resellers, all we can do is improve the aspects that are within our control.
Jump to:
1. Source and Resell In Demand Products
The first aspect to look at is inspecting the items you currently have for sale in your closet. Ask yourself, are my items in demand? Are my items in season? Are my items in style? If the answer is no to one or multiple of those questions, I'm not saying give up and trash those items.
Take it as a learning opportunity to evaluate your closet and your sourcing strategy to make better decisions for your business in the future. See if you are noticing a trend of certain brands or styles of items that sit in your closet for a long time and get stale.
However, this may not be the issue for your specific situation. This is just the start of the buying and selling process, so I figured it would be a good start for us resellers to evaluate.
After all, the brands, styles, colors, prints, and seasons change - so we too must be adaptable and open to change! To gain insight on what is selling, luckily Poshmark does a lot of the work for you.
Poshmark has a section on their platform advertising Today’s Trends. For example, one day the trend was Shades of Blue. Here, Poshmark stated blue will be the color of the season, and recommended blue tracksuits, bright blue midi dresses, navy jackets, and more.
Additionally, pay attention to the Poshmark parties that occur periodically throughout the day. For example, Poshmark recently advertised a designer party for the brands James Perse, Cole Haan, Aritzia, and more.
This alone is a HUGE hint for what is popular and currently trending. Keep an ongoing list of the current trends to keep in mind while you source for future items to sell!
2. Evaluate Your Pricing Strategy
The next aspect of the selling process to inspect is your pricing strategy. Pricing your items too high can be a large reason why the items in your closet are not selling.
There are many reasons customers shop on the secondhand market, and a large one for most customers is to find a good deal.
After all, Poshmark advertises buyers can get up to 70% off retail prices! Therefore, buyers expect to save some serious cash when shopping on the platform. However, it is important to perform market research to determine an appropriate price. This involves checking comparables (comps) on Poshmark, along with other platforms like eBay and Mercari.
I, however, am a reseller that tends to price items on the high side because that allows me to accept offers and have some wiggle room for negotiation. Personally, I start pricing the item high, and decide a time frame where I delist and relist the item for a decreased price to see if the cost of the item was a barrier for a potential buyer.
See my guide for help with pricing items as a reseller if you find you are struggling in this area!
3. Take High Quality Pictures
Pictures are the buyer’s first impression of the item. To be honest, it is not very inviting to see the item in a dark room with a background filled with clutter or other items.
If you haven’t already, it’s time to re-evaluate your pictures! This could be a contributing factor to why items are not selling on Poshmark.
Find an area to set up with good lighting and a plain background. You get bonus points for using a light box, ring light, or other photography lighting equipment. Even better, if its a nice day, take your items outside for some beautiful (and FREE) natural lighting!
If you have limited options or space for taking photos, you can still take your pictures with a busy background. That is because you can use the Photoroom app! This is a background remover tool that replaces your current backdrop with a plain white background.
This is especially vital due to Poshmarks search algorithm being closely intertwined with Google’s search, which prioritizes products with white backgrounds. Optimizing your listings to be searchable on both Google and Poshmark will help bring more eyes to your items and ultimately help increase sales!
More on search engine optimization (SEO) to increase your chances of selling on Poshmark up next.
4. Optimize Your Titles and Descriptions
Short and non descriptive titles and descriptions may be another factor leading to the question of why are my items not selling on Poshmark. The titles and descriptions that you create are extremely important when it comes to attracting customers on reselling platforms.
A lot of the time, customers are looking for specific items. For example, instead of your title saying, “Pink Floral Mini Dress”, do some research to find the style number (if you can).
For this example, I was able to find that the dress I vaguely described above is a “Lulus In This Together Floral Print Wrap Dress”. That way, customers that love the brand Lulu’s may seek out the specific style of dress either to save some cash on the piece, to support the secondhand market, or both.
If you find you are needing help in this area, read my guide on finding style numbers and stock photos for your listings.
Both your titles and descriptions need to use keywords and phrases that get your item seen by the buyers that want it most. This is especially helpful when buyers are searching without a brand in mind, but maybe a certain style or occasion.
For example, customers may search for a homecoming dress. This seems like a no brainer, but if your item falls in that category and can be used as a homecoming dress, you need to add that phrase in your listing!
Use as many descriptive keywords as you can to describe the item including color, pattern, sleeve length, dress length, neckline, occasion, style, and more. For this part of the process, you need to think like the buyer - what would they search to find your item?
Lastly, glance through your items and check for any errors. At times, we can get listing FAST and overlook certain details. No big deal, we’re all human and make mistakes at times. However, if many mistakes slip through the cracks, you may be missing out on sales. Check for errors in a few common places:
Spelling
Make sure you have the correct spelling in your titles and descriptions. When buyers are searching for Lululemon leggings, your listing may not show up if it is titled “Lululemom leggings”
Item category
It is important to check that your dresses are in the dress category and your coats are in the coats and jackets category. Additionally, make sure you are within the gender description you feel it fits best, for example, listing a ladies fit item in the women’s category versus the men’s category.
Size
Maybe you have a listing in your closet that is a size medium, and you have pictures of the tag showing it’s a medium, but you accidentally write in the title that it is a small. This shouldn’t be a big deal, however, try to make all of your transactions as frictionless as possible.
Buyers may stray because they don’t feel like reaching out/sending a message to clarify what the exact size is. This could also lead to the buyer wanting to open a case and return the item if it does end up selling.
5. Daily Activity On Poshmark
The last piece of advice I have is to increase your activity on Poshmark. Whether we love or hate the current format, we have to play the algorithm game to be a successful reseller on Poshmark.
At its core, Poshmark is a site for reselling clothes, shoes, housewares, and other items. However, it was also designed to be a social platform. So the more you interact with it, the more good kickback you will get.
Everyday you should be
- Listing new items
- Delisting and relisting stale items
- Sending offers to likers
- Bundling items
- Sharing your closet, depending on closet size, 3-8 times a day
- Checking on the daily trend and adding keywords to your listings that fit the description
- Responding to offers, comments, and questions
I know that list seems like a LOT for one day - however I’m able to accomplish this with the help of my crosslisting platform, Vendoo and my poshmark sharer, PosherVA.
Vendoo
With the help of Vendoo, I can delist and relist items with one click of the mouse. This helps keep my listings fresh and not let them sit and get stale. If you’d like to give Vendoo a try, head over to their website, where you will save 25% on your first subscription after signing up.
PosherVA
PosherVA has saved me an insane amount of time compared to when I would manually share my listings and send offers to likers. With this browser extension, I have scheduled times throughout the day where it will share all the available items in my closet. Additionally, PosherVA will automatically send offers to likers.
My last and most important piece of advice for dealing with slow sales, or even nonexistent sales, is wait it out and stay consistent. Keep putting in the work. Run your own race and improve your craft each day.
Over time, the consistency will show as results, and you will not have to ask yourself, why the heck are my items not selling on Poshmark?!
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