Surprise! Starting today, I am launching my Reselling as a Business FREE mini-course. Over the next few weeks, I will be providing you with FREE resources via my blog and email to help you in building your Poshmark business strategy! In this course, I will be discussing 8 variables that create the framework for building your reselling strategy, identifying areas of improvement within your reselling business, and setting the basic structure of your reselling business to ensure future success and growth. For the next 10 weeks, I will be publishing a new post each Wednesday and discussing various reselling topics. FREE resources will be provided in both my post (via information) and email (via FREE PDF handouts). If you are interested in obtaining FREE PDF weekly handouts, please be sure to sign up for my email at the bottom of this post (or in the sidebar)!
Before we get started, I want to make sure that you have my FREE PDF overview on exactly what this course is about. Click the file name button below to obtain the FREE overview of the Reselling as a Business course!
Now let’s jump into the FREE Reselling as a Business course!
Week 1: Who is Your Customer?
In this section of the course, we will be discussing 3 topics related to customers:
How to Identify Your Ideal Customer
How to Shop for Your Ideal Customer
The Importance of Building Relationships with Customers
A) Who is my Ideal Customer?
In order to identify your ideal customer, we need to take a look at some basic marketing principles. Specifically, we need to discuss a concept called market segmentation. In simplistic terms, market segmentation is the idea that in order to define a given market, we need to separate it into smaller, more defined categories. There are 4 basic categories of market segmentation: (1) demographic, (2) psychographic, (3) behavioral and (4) geographic. For the purposes of this course, we are only going to be focusing on demographics.
Customer demographics are the easiest category to explore as it based on factual information. Examples of demographic information are: age, gender, income, location, family situation, and education to name a few. This information is extremely useful to us as resellers because it helps us to figure out exactly who our ideal customer is in a given market.
So how do we get this information?
The easiest way to get this information is to analyze your existing data. This information is readily available to you on almost all reselling platforms and is free to obtain; All you have to do is download the file(s) and filter the data. And no, these reports will not have ALL of the data but they are a good starting place. Additionally, you can track any other information that interests you on your own or by purchasing an information tracker online.
There are some great trackers on Etsy that I personally use that I will link for you below:
What information am I looking for? Why is it important?
This data is going to be very important for you when creating a buyer persona (but more on that in a minute). More importantly, from this data, you are able to learn who your ideal customer or client is. You can roughly estimate their age, gender, geographic location, education, income, and so much more! This information helps you to establish a custom closet that is specifically tailored to your ideal customer or client. This data is extremely valuable for your business as a whole so setting aside some time to analyze this data is important for future success.
B) Creating a Buyer Persona
In my opinion, this tool is key for reselling success! It takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete and sets the foundation of your reselling business. What is a buyer persona, exactly? A buyer persona is a semi-fictional description of your ideal customer. In simplistic terms, it is a written mock-up of who your ideal customer would be if they were standing right in front of you. It allows you clearly visualize the person that your closet is trying to attract as a potential buyer.
Some information that would be identified in a buyer persona would be: (1) demographic information (age, gender, income, etc.), (2) professional roles (industry, job title, etc.), (3) values and goals, (4) challenges, (5) sources and influences, and (6) buying decisions.
To help make this a little easier for you, I am sending out an email FREEBIE that will help you to create your own buyer persona so please be sure to be signed up for my emails!!! (If you signed up for my emails after the original copy was sent, I will create an E-folder that will house all of my email-exclusive FREEBIES. That link will be sent out once you are signed up for my emails. I am hoping to have that created either this week or next week!)
How do I use a buyer persona in my reselling business?
A buyer persona will vary between reselling platforms. Each platform will have their own buyer persona and demographics. For example, a buyer on Poshmark will be different than a buyer on Mercari. As a reseller, it is important to have a full understanding of the platforms that you are selling on and the audience that you are trying sell your items to. The better than you understand each platform’s unique customer needs, the better that you will perform on these platforms.
But we can break it down even more….
Each reselling platform has an app-wide buyer persona but each CLOSET also has their own sub-level buyer persona. This sub-level buyer persona is unique to you and your closet. Information for your CLOSET buyer persona is based on your individual customer closet data and provides you with an idea of who your ideal customer or client is. Once you identify who your ideal customer is, it makes your job so much easier- trust me! Essentially, you become your ideal customer’s personal shopper and know exactly what to look for when you go sourcing. Things that you actively keep in mind while sourcing are your idea customer’s style, sizing, budget, and brand favorites. Having a sub-level buyer persona in place, makes everything that much easier for you when you start throwing in the other aspects of running a business (but more on that in later posts).
C) Creating Relationships With Your Customers
One of the first things that you learn when working in retail is the importance of creating relationships with your customers and more importantly, creating an amazing customer experience. Think of each of your buyer’s as a potential client who you are trying to gain business from.
So what are you going to do to secure their business? Are you going to wine and dine them? Compliment them? Tell them that they are pretty? No probably not (for the most part)… but I think that you get the idea…
In order to gain your potential client’s business, you need to give them confidence that you will deliver when it comes to their business needs. Unfortunately in the reselling world, this is going to come mainly from customer reviews and love notes. This is why it is super important to make sure that you are creating an amazing customer experience with every customer. The goal is to turn these one-time customers into repeat customers.
How do I create an amazing customer experience?
You know that you created an amazing customer experience if at the end of the transaction when all is said and done, the customer thinks this:
“This is the best reseller that I have ever bought from. I would totally buy from him or her again in the future. I’m definitely going to tell my friends about their closet. I wonder if they have a social media presence or blog that I can check out?”
At the end of the day, as a reseller, you want the customer to take the following steps:
Leave Positive Feedback
Become a Repeat Buyer
Spread the Word About Your Closet (Through Word of Mouth/Social Media)
Follow Your Online/Social Media Presence
To get this ideal outcome, there are a few items that you should pay attention to in order to create an amazing customer experience:
Pay Attention to Small Details like Packaging– Over the years, I have learned that people can be extremely judgmental when it comes to how their items are packaged. When it comes to packaging, I like to use printed mailers as it is fun for the buyer and always warrants positive feedback. I, also, like to use free USPS boxes for larger items especially during the winter months. I still use mailers but the box allows for an extra layer of protection especially when there is a lot of rain and show. Finally, there is no such thing as too much bubble wrap as people want to ensure that breakable items will arrive pristine. Paying attention to small details will but you in good favor with buyers.
Communication with Customers- Customer service is very important when it comes to creating an amazing customer experience. Prior to being a full-time reseller, I worked various customer service jobs in both retail and corporate settings. One thing that we were taught is that the customer is always right (until they are not) and needs to be heard. With reselling, customer communication is a little more complicated as you are not directly speaking to someone (via over the phone or in person) but instead through a text exchange on an app. That being said, it is very important to make sure that the customer is always heard and is treated with the upmost respect. That means that even when someone offers you $5 for a $100 item, you still need to acknowledge it respectfully but are more than justified to decline their offer.
I’ve created an amazing customer experience, now what?
That’s so great! Now, all that’s left is encourage the buyer to leave you a positive love note and shop with you again!
I hope that you enjoyed week 1 of this FREE mini course! Please stop back here next week as we will be discussing data collection and be sure to follow me on my various social media channels!
If you don’t already, be sure to check out my Instagram for more Reselling Tips at @ RecycledRosesGuide (Click HERE) and Facebook HERE.
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