Happy Wednesday friends and welcome to a quick reseller Q&A! Ever since my Instagram has been deactivated in February, I have had to connect with my reseller friends through other channels. During that process, I have made some new friends and have had some great conversations with both new and experienced resellers. For today’s post, I thought that I would share with you some reseller questions that I have been asked lately, in hopes that it will help you too!
Q: Is everything okay? You haven’t been active on Instagram in a while!
A: Yes, everything is good on my end! Fortunately, no one in my direct vicinity has been COVID positive and neither Eric or I have been sick with anything other than spring allergies. Back in February, my Instagram account was wrongfully disabled and it has been quite a process to regain access to the account. If you would like to learn more about it, read THIS post and THIS post.
Q: Have you noticed a change in your Poshmark/Mercari sales now that your Instagram account is disabled?
A: Yes and no. I used to spend quite a bit of time on my Instagram account and it would distract me from focusing on my Poshmark and Mercari sales. Without having Instagram in the equation, I am able to spend more time focusing on my Poshmark and Mercari sales which has in turn, increased my sales. Not having my Instagram has been both a blessing and a curse. It has really helped me to gain clarity in how I plan to grow this business moving forward.
*If you are wondering if you need to have an Instagram account to make sales, the answer is no. You can make plenty of sales without having a social media presence. After everything that I have been through with my Instagram debacle, I would greatly caution you to steer away from using social media solely to gain sales. (BTW: This is something that I would have NEVER said months ago but due to my current situation, I am firmly standing by.)
Q: I’ve been having a hard time making sales on Poshmark. What am I doing wrong?
A: This is probably the most asked question that I receive. When it comes to making sales on Poshmark, there are many factors that come into play. There is no “one size fits all” approach when it comes to making sales on this app. Just like any other social platform, there is a behind-the-scenes algorithm that is running the show. As a user, you need to constantly please the algorithm to see activity and growth on your account. The algorithm is “pleased” through consistency meaning that you need to be active on the app daily and doing things like sharing your items, following other users, and adding new items daily.
In addition to being consistent on the app, you need to be supplying your closet with items that people are actively looking to buy. Brand does matter to an extent but the biggest factor that impacts my sales is style and what is trending. I try to stay up with upcoming fashion trends months in advance and also use platforms like LiketoKnow.it to gain insight on what is currently trending among consumers. (If you have a LTK.it account, please be sure to follow my account– Recycled_Roses HERE).
Other factors such as pricing also plays a major role in making sales. People obviously have budgets and are trying to stick to them while also trying to get a “deal.” Be conscious of that when it comes to pricing items in your closet. It is always better to price an item slightly higher than what you are actually looking to sell the item for. When you do lower the price, it gives the consumer the illusion that they are getting a deal while you are still making a decent profit. It’s a win-win for everyone.
Q: I have luxury brands in my closet and I cannot move them. What should I do?
A: I’m going to answer this based on my experience with reselling luxury items for over 7 years. Personally, I have found that high end luxury items don’t really sell well on Poshmark. Why?
A Few Reasons:
(1) I don’t really think that the audience on Poshmark is looking to spend that much money on an item. Obviously there is always an exception to the rule but for the most part, people are looking to get a “deal.” Their demographic is not likely to spend hundreds of dollars on a designer item.
(2) There are many replica pieces being advertised online as being authentic. This causes buyers to hesitate spending hundreds of dollars online in fear of being scammed. If you do have a luxury item that you are looking to sell on Poshmark, it is best to take as many pictures as possible, show all proofs of purchase (receipts, invoices), provide a detailed description of how you obtained the item and provide proof of authentication.
If you do have some luxury items to sell, please be patient as it will probably take a while for these items to sell. In the meantime, it may be worth looking into other reseller apps that focus on selling luxury goods like Tradesy and The RealReal.
Q: What are your thoughts on the whole Poshmark community thing and sharing other people’s items?
A: Honestly, I think that sharing other people’s items on Poshmark is a giant waste of your time. Sharing other people’s items and sharing your own items yield very different results. When you share other people’s items, these items are ONLY shared to your feed and no where else. While it is nice to be kind to fellow Poshers, it is not really helping anyone when it comes to exposure and making sales. When you share your own items, these items are then shared to your followers, to Posh parties, and are updated in search rankings. It is much more beneficial to share your own items then to share other people’s.
When it comes to the whole Poshmark community thing, my opinion is probably the opposite of what you might hear other die-hard Poshmark resellers’ say. I am not a hobby-seller or part-time seller but instead a full-time reseller who is running a business. That means that my income comes entirely from reselling items online and through other business dealings that I have through my blog and my LiketoKnow.it. All of that to say that I like to view Poshmark from a business perspective and look at it from the viewpoint of their CEO.
At the end of the day, Poshmark is a business. They are looking to make as much money as possible through the app. As many of you probably know, Poshmark entered the stock market and went public fairly recently. In order to do that, the company needed to provide data on the app. One piece of data that they needed to provide was a record of how many active users they have on the app. (Can you see where I am going with this?) This is where the whole “Poshmark community” concept comes into play. In order to have a high number of active users on the app, they need their users to constantly be active on the app so they push actions like sharing items to make sales and following users to make the algorithm happy (and most importantly, to keep that active user numbers very high).
Looking at everything from a business perspective, do you really think that being a part of Poshmark community is that important in driving sales?
I’ll let you decide that for yourself.
I hope that you enjoyed this Q&A. If you would like to chat about this or have any other questions for me, please don’t hesitate to send me an email or message me on my newly created Facebook page!
If you don’t already, be sure to check out my Instagram for more Reselling Tips at @ RecycledRosesGuide (Click HERE)
You can instantly shop all of my looks by following me on the LIKEtoKNOW.it shopping app HERE.
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