If you've landed on this post, you're probably scouring the internet wondering, why are my items not selling on Poshmark? How do I increase sales on Poshmark?
Does anyone actually sell anything on Poshmark these days?! If so, I'm here to tell you that I can help.
I have been a Poshmark seller since 2016, and have personally been through many sales slumps for various reasons. Because of that, I'm here to help you get on the fast track and learn from the mistakes that I've made with these 5 hard truths.
Jump to:
1. Your Inventory Sucks
Sorry to be so blunt with this first one, but this is a hard truth that I've had to learn myself, too. 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, we may have found a culprit.
If your items are sitting for 6+ months to a year, it may be time to re-evaluate your sourcing strategy.
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.
For example, stop buying Free People dresses just because you hear that it is a popular brand. You must conduct an analysis of the current supply and demand of any item on the marketplaces before you purchase it to resell.
One Free People dress may sell for $100 whereas another Free People dress may be listed at $15 and sit for 6 months. You have to perform market research for each item specifically.
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.
How To Perform Market Research
To perform effective market research, first look up your item on Poshmark. Preferably you would use the brand and style name of the item when searching for the item.
First, look for all available items in that style and color. Make sure you have all sizes included.
Here, look for oversaturation of a certain color or size. Also, make note of the listing prices.
Next, filter the Poshmark results to "Sold" items. This will be a more accurate representation of how much you will be able to get for your item.
Positive signs include many sold listings with not many available listings. That's classic supply and demand where you, as the seller, will generally have more control and success.
On the flip side, it's obviously not a good look for your item to have many available items with a very small amount of sold items.
Use this information to make an educated decision about sourcing and/or pricing an item on Poshmark to decrease your frustration about slow sales.
Poshmark Today's Trends Tool
Another way to make informed sourcing decisions includes using a tool from Poshmark itself. Poshmark has a section on their platform advertising Today’s Trends.
Poshmark collects data from searches and sales on the platform to let buyers and sellers know what is in demand. 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. This can, and should, influence your decision-making when sourcing items.
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. Your Pricing Could Use Some Work
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 who 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 if I don't get much action. Usually, I use Vendoo, my crosslisting software, to delist and relist an item every 90 days.
See my guide for help with pricing items as a reseller if you believe you are struggling in this area.
3. Your Pictures Are Subpar
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. Your Titles And Descriptions Are Suboptimal
Optimizing Your Titles
Short and nondescriptive 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 found a Lulu's pink floral mini dress when shopping at Plato's Closet. I was able to find that this dress is not just a pink floral mini dress, it's actually called the “Lulus In This Together Floral Print Wrap Dress”.
Now that I've included the style name, customers who 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 need help in this area, read my guide on finding style numbers and stock photos for your listings.
Optimizing Your Listing Descriptions
Both your titles and descriptions need to use keywords and phrases that get your item seen by the buyers who 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 into that category and can be used as a homecoming dress, you need to add that phrase to 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 your items are within the gender description you feel fits best.
For example, avoid listing a ladies fit polo in the men’s category.
Size
Sometimes items may be accidentally listed as the wrong size. Maybe the item is a size small but you actually have the size listed as an extra small.
Although seemingly minor, many Poshmark prospective customers filter their searches by their specific size. Those searching for a small will miss your item every time if you accidentally have your item listed as an extra small.
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. You're Not Active Enough 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.
Every day 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 all this with the help of my crosslisting platform, Vendoo, and my Poshmark sharing bot, 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.
Plus, read our full, in-depth Vendoo review for more details about the helpful functions of the platform.
PosherVA
PosherVA has saved me an insane amount of time compared to when I would have to manually share my listings and send offers to likers. With this browser extension, I am able to create a sharing schedule.
PosherVA will take my set-up sharing schedule and automatically share my entire closet. Additionally, PosherVA will automatically send offers to likers.
Sending offers to likers is arguably one of the best ways to increase your sales.
So be sure to read our PosherVA review to see what it's all about.
Bonus Tip
My last and most important piece of advice for dealing with slow sales, or even nonexistent sales, is to wait it out and stay consistent. Sales will have hills and valleys, along with slow times and busy times.
Keep putting in the work. Run your own race and improve your reselling craft each day.
Over time, the consistency will show as results, and you will no longer have to ask yourself, why are my items not selling on Poshmark?!
If you have any other helpful Poshmark tips for our readers, comment below!
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