I don’t know about you guys but I’ve had a significant increase in Poshmark sales lately. I am contributing this increase in sales to the back to school season. If you are looking for ways to prepare for back to school as a reseller, be sure to read my post about it HERE. So lately, people have been reaching out to me with many questions about Poshmark. Please, if you guys have any questions about Poshmark, let me know and I will post about it. For today’s post, I want to discuss brand vs. style when selling items on Poshmark.
Which do you think is more important when selling items on Poshmark: brand or style? Before I continue, I just want to note that there is no right or wrong answer here. The answer to this question is purely a matter of opinion. My answer to this question is based on patterns that I have noticed in sales over the past few years. Selling on Poshmark for as long as I have has allowed me to understand the shopping patterns of my specific customer base. Understanding consumer behavior plays a very important role in the Poshmark business. Specifically, in what you should list in your Poshmark closet. Now, this is where the question of brand vs. style comes into play.
So let’s say that you are sourcing for inventory and you need to make your final decisions before heading to checkout. When you are sorting through your items, how do you make your final decisions? What factors come into play when deciding what items to buy and which ones to leave behind? Based on experience, factors such as cost, brand, and design all play a role in making these decisions. Let me share with you what goes through my head when making these decisions.
First and foremost, I need to disclose with you guys that I have resale experience outside of Poshmark. For almost 2 years, I worked for a Once Upon a Child store whose owners also owned a Plato’s Closet which was two doors down from it. I spent quite a bit of time between both stores while employed there. Whenever you go into stores such as Once Upon a Child and Plato’s Closet, they will instruct you that their purchasing decisions are based on style, brand, and condition (things I also look for as a reseller). There were many times while working there that I was faced with the decision of which was more important brand vs style. In that type of environment, there is no right or wrong answer. Some styles sold better than others and some brands sold better than others.
Your job as a reseller is to figure out what brands and styles sell best for you and your unique customer base. What sells well for me may not sell well for you. Personally, I do look at brand before style. Over the years, I noticed that certain brands sell better for me than others. However, there are times when I find something from a brand that sells well for me and it is just really ugly. Just because it is a good brand does not mean that I am going to buy it in that case. The reality is that it is going to sit for months in my closet taking up valuable real estate.
On the flip side, looking at styles first can be somewhat tricky. I say this because with the rise of fast-fashion, many companies are able to mass produce “trendy” pieces. These companies range from high-end labels to direct manufacturers from China. Let’s say that you are looking through the rack and spot two really cute, trendy dresses. One dress is new with tags from Target while the other is not new with tags but in good condition from Anthropologie. I know which one I would buy based on my customer’s preferences but which one would you buy? Again, there is no right or wrong answer here. My customers would rather buy the Anthropologie dress (unless it was from the Lilly Pulitzer collection or something).
Once you’ve established a relationship with your customers, shopping for them becomes a lot easier. You learn their likes and dislikes and how much they are willing to pay for items. One of the most important things that I have learned is that you need to make sure that you are shopping for your customers and not for you. If you notice that a particular brand or style is selling really well for you, than buy more of it. However, don’t go into it with blinders on where you only focus on buying that one thing only. Try new things, see what works (and doesn’t), and widen your customer base. Those of us with thousands of followers and hundreds if not thousands of sales had to work REALLY hard to get there. Please don’t get discouraged if things don’t happen for you right away, they will just give it time.
I love writing these Poshmark posts for you guys, if there is any topic in particular that you would like to address in detail please let me know.
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