The 6 Things You Need to Start Selling on Poshmark
When I tell people that I resell things on Poshmark, they often tell me that they want to sell too. They have clothes that they don’t wear sitting in their closet at home, and they’d love to make some extra money.
But they often don’t know how to get started selling or find the idea of reselling overwhelming. This post is about the six most essential things you need to start selling on Poshmark, so you can start listing and making sales today.
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** If you don’t have a Poshmark account, you can receive a free $10 bonus when you sign up with my code SFGIRL2015.
** On Mercari, you can get $10 when you sign up with the code JENMHM.
What do I need to start selling on Poshmark?
Access to Poshmark with notifications turned on
Items to sell
A phone or camera
Packaging materials
A printer
Access to the post office
1 | Access to Poshmark with notifications turned on
The first thing you need is to have reliable access to Poshmark whether that’s the website or the app and have the notifications turned on.
The essential notifications are when people purchase one of your items and when they ask questions about your items.
I like to get both a push notification and an email when someone makes a purchase because I want to know of the sale right away, and you never know when one could go wrong or be delayed.
It’s also important to answer any questions that a buyer may have. Answering questions can make a huge difference to making sales.
I’ve seen so many listings where people have asked questions and have not received a response. I’ve even asked sellers questions about items that I really wanted and have gotten no response.
Those people will not buy the item, so make sure you get notifications about messages/comments/questions. I like to answer questions within 24 hours and sooner if possible.
Some of the notifications available from Poshmark
2 | Items to sell AKA inventory
You’re probably interested in selling on Poshmark because you have things that you want to sell.
The first thing to note is that you want to sell things that are allowed on Poshmark. That’s currently women’s, men’s, and children’s clothing and accessories, shoes, pet items, certain beauty and wellness products, and certain home goods.
The list of what’s allowed changes from time to time as Poshmark adds more markets. It’s good to read Poshmark’s guidelines to stay up to date on what you can sell.
Don’t be discouraged if an item isn’t allowed on the platform. Try listing it to another marketplace instead.
The second thing to note is that you’ll want your items to be in sellable condition. Even though these items are secondhand, buyers usually want things in at least good condition if not better.
It’s good if you have items that are in great condition and even better if they are new. If you have items that have damage but are still wearable, be sure to disclose the damage in the description and show it in the pictures.
If your items are really damaged with obvious stains and holes, you might not want to sell those.
I would start by listing the items that have the best chance of selling and the ones that will likely be the biggest moneymakers.
3 | A phone or camera
Most cell phones nowadays have decent cameras to take pictures. You don’t need a special phone or stand-alone camera. Use whatever cell phone or camera you have.
It’s more important that you show your items well. That’s done in a few ways:
Good lighting – Take pictures of the item during the day when there’s natural light. That gives the best pictures. It helps to open the curtains or shades and take pictures by a window.
If you don’t have access to natural light, turn on all the lights in a room to make the picture brighter. You can place lamps around the item and shined them on the item too.
Another option is to edit your photos to make them look better. I suggest this if you’re familiar with photo-editing apps or programs and can do it quickly without frustrating yourself.
Show all sides of an item – For clothing, the minimum you need to show is the front and the back of the item, the brand/size tag, and any flaws. You’ll want to show all sides and important features of any other item too.
You’ll hear people including me talk about adding measurements to your listings, using a white background, and hanging items or putting them on a body form rather than putting them on the ground.
You’ll eventually hear lots of tips for how to take better photos. These things do help the overall presentation of your item, but they’re not necessary for getting started.
Don’t let those things hold you back from listing. Poshmark’s listing process is meant to be quick and easy, so do the best you can with what you have.
This picture was taken in my light-filled living room.
4 | Packaging materials
You don’t need a lot of packaging materials. At the bare minimum, you need a mailer or box that will fit each of your items.
You might see pictures of fancy packages on Instagram. Poshmark and some sellers like to go all out making items appear as gifts. I even wrote about it. While that’s nice for the buyer, again, it’s not necessary.
The main thing to be concerned about is that your item is securely packaged to stay clean, intact, and dry until it gets to the buyer.
Poshmark makes this really easy because all shipping is done through USPS Priority mail. USPS provides free Priority mail shipping supplies such as Tyvek envelopes and boxes of many sizes.
You can pick them up for free at the post office or order them from USPS.com.
You can also use other mailers and boxes that you may already have at home. I recycle the ones I get from my Amazon and Walmart purchases to use for my sales as well.
This Tyvek envelope is one of my favorite free mailers from USPS. It’s thin, lightweight, waterproof, and can be squeezed into mailboxes.
5 | A printer
You’ll need a way to print your shipping labels. You may already have a printer at home or you have access to one at work or elsewhere.
When I first started selling online, I didn’t even have a printer and would go to Staples to print out my shipping labels. I bought a printer soon after that.
I now have this laser printer, which works well for printing my labels and other documents.
You might hear sellers talk about special label printers by Dymo, Rollo, Zebra, and other brands. These printers print quickly and use labels with adhesive backs. They’re fast to stick to packages. No cutting and taping or gluing involved.
These printers are great for large-volume sellers, but they’re pricey. This may be something you eventually want to get if start selling a lot. No need to worry about it for now.
Any printer will do as long as it prints a legible label.
6 | Access to the post office
It might seem silly that I’m pointing out that you need access to the post office.
You’d be surprised how many people don’t ship in a reasonable amount of time. It could be because they’re busy with their children and their jobs, they’re sick, or they don’t have reliable transportation.
Whatever the reason, you still need to be able to access the post office regularly to ship your sales. If you’re selling things, then you are running a business, and you have to keep your buyers in mind.
Think ahead each week and note what days you can make it to the post office.
If you know you can’t make it to the post office in the coming days, try scheduling a pick-up by USPS. The mail carrier picks up packages when he or she delivers your daily mail. You can schedule a pick-up on USPS.com.
My goal is to ship my orders by the next business day. I think a good goal is to ship within 3 business days.
During the pandemic, Poshmark allowed up to 10 days for sellers to ship recognizing how difficult it was for people to leave the house and the constraints of USPS, particularly during the winter holidays.
Under normal circumstances, a buyer can cancel a purchase if the item has not shipped after 7 days.
If you can’t access the post office or schedule a pick-up, try putting your closet on vacation mode until you know that you’ll be able to ship. Or you can message buyers and let them know when you will ship their orders so they are not left wondering.
Wrap Up
A lot of people are overwhelmed or intimidated by the idea of selling online. They think that they need to know a lot about selling before they start. The truth is that most sellers like me learned on the go.
Don’t worry if you don’t have perfect lighting, that you don’t know how to price your items, or that your listings don’t look as good as the next seller’s. Start with the skills and materials that you do have and keep learning as you go.
You really only need the six things above to start selling on Poshmark, and you probably already have five or even all six of them. Go get started listing!
I’m cheering for you to make your first sale!
