I haven’t been thrifting since pre-pandemic times, so I’ve been spending a lot of time browsing Poshmark from my couch and occasionally selling my old clothes I no longer need. I used to sell on Poshmark more regularly back when I first started working for myself as a way to supplement my inconsistent freelancer income, so I have plenty of opinions on how to best use the Poshmark app from the perspective of a seller, a buyer, and a self-employed person who likes to make as much money as possible while exerting as little effort as possible. 

Can you make a full-time income reselling on Poshmark?

It’s totally possible to make a substantial income selling on Poshmark. There are plenty of professional resellers who scour thrift stores for items they can sell at a profit, but it’s not easy and it is very time-consuming to do even part-time, much less full-time. If you wanted to do something like this, I would recommend using it as a supplement to other forms of income whether it’s your full-time job, a digital product shop, freelance work, or another type of side hustle. It’s important to keep your income diverse, especially if you want to be self-employed, which I know a lot of Poshmark sellers aspire to. Not to mention, reselling is a much more exhausting way to run a clothing boutique than with something like print-on-demand. 

If you hope to work for yourself one day, Poshmark is actually a great way to get your feet wet in the online business and e-commerce world. Just because you’re not selling your own product or service on your own website doesn’t mean you’re not working on the skills needed to create a business empire. Starting a Poshmark store will teach you how to research a product’s resale value, how to write compelling titles and descriptions that entice buyers, how to deal with customer service, how to track your income and expenses, and how to organize and manage all of this information as a self-employed person.

Whether you’re brand new to reselling or you’ve been doing it for a while but want to make more sales in less time, these are my best tips for making money on Poshmark without putting in more work than necessary. 

POSHMARK PRODUCT PHOTOS

Your product photos are the first thing a potential buyer will see, so you have to grab and hold their attention if you want them to click through instead of continuing to scroll through other listings. 

Natural light is the best light

There is no better lighting than natural light, so the best time of day to take photos is midday near a sunny window. This will provide the most accurate product colors in your images. If you’re in a room with harsh yellow or blue light, it could affect how the colors turn out and you could end up with a buyer claiming their item was misrepresented. 

Flat lays vs. mannequins vs. lifestyle images

Whether you take photos of your products lying flat, hanging from a hanger or mannequin, or while you or someone else is modelling them, remember this: less is more! I know it’s popular to do styled flat lays where you include other items that would style well with the product you’re selling, but in my experience, this can cause confusion for buyers. I’ve seen sellers complain that customers thought they were getting something other than the listed product, or even everything in the picture, which is why I say don’t waste your time on it and keep it simple, clean, and minimalist instead. Time is money and it’s better spent steaming your garments than styling a shirt that you’ll be lucky to sell for more than $11 (don’t let me stop you from doing what makes you happy if you love styling flat-lays). 

For my photos, I used to hang most items from a hanger on a white wall, which worked great as long as the lighting was on point. Now, I hang a white sheet on my wall as the backdrop (because my apartment is ugly), then for clothing, I style them on an adjustable sewing mannequin like this, which makes it easy to resize according to the product (important if you’re thrifting and reselling products that don’t always fit you). The body of my mannequin is blue, so I use white fabric covers to neutralize it. The end result is something like this:

I’ve also done flat lays by laying the product on either the white sheet or a white blanket. You may want to do something more stylish, but whatever you do, just make sure you’re not the seller snapping photos of wrinkled shirts laying across a washing machine in a dark basement. Browse Poshmark and see which product images catch your eye and which ones make you gag to get an idea of how your photos should look. Lots of sellers like using a light box for bags, shoes, and jewelry, which you can find cheap on Amazon or bootleg your own version with items around the house. 

POSHMARK PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS & TITLES

Great photos are essential to getting your customer’s attention, but how do you make sure they find your product? This is where the importance of titles and descriptions comes in and where you have to think like a shopper. It’s also important to learn about search engine optimization (SEO), one of my favorite things on the internet:

Search engine optimization is the process of maximizing the number of visitors to your website (or Poshmark closet) by using targeted keywords that communicate with search engines and help drive relevant traffic.

Optimizing Your Poshmark Titles and Descriptions for SEO

I’ve seen many products for sale on Poshmark that have the most unfortunate titles and descriptions. If you don’t use relevant, specific keywords when listing your product, it’s going to take a lot more work to sell your products because nobody will find them in search. That’s the wrong kind of lazy business owner. The good kind of lazy business owner writes out keyword-filled titles and descriptions that answer all the questions a potential buyer might have. Lazy business owners know their time is much better spent watching 90 Day Fiance than it is answering “what dimensions are this?” from 15 different people because you didn’t take 30 seconds to put the dimensions in the description. 

SEO Titles for Poshmark

Example: you’re selling a Marc Jacobs red leather crossbody purse. If you just put “purse” in the title, that’s not telling Poshmark or Google anything important about what you’re selling. Not to mention, “purse” is a generic and common term, so it’s highly unlikely that someone searching the word “purse” on Google or Poshmark will be shown your listing over the billions of other purses for sale online. It’s too broad.

However, if your title says “Marc Jacobs Red Leather Crossbody Purse”, your product is more likely to be shown to people searching for that exact thing, which is who you’re trying to attract. It won’t just attract people looking for this specific bag, but it’ll also show up in searches for terms like “Red Crossbody”, “Marc Jacobs Crossbody”, “Red Marc Jacobs Purse”, etc. This is why it’s essential to use as many keywords as you can to describe your product, especially in the title, which is the first thing in your store that speaks to Google.

SEO Descriptions for Poshmark

The same goes for your product description. This is where you provide all the relevant information about your product, and it’s another great opportunity to double down on your SEO efforts and reuse your title keywords (the more frequently the same words show up on the page, the more Google knows they’re important). 

Brand Name – Marc Jacobs, Old Navy, etc.

Style – crossbody bag, espadrille shoes, dark wash flare jeans, etc

Condition – new with tags, new without tags, used, some visible scratches, only worn once, never worn, excellent condition, good as new, etc. Be descriptive!

Size – I provide the letter/number size as well as measurements for everything. For bags I provide height, width, length, strap length, and strap drop (how far it hangs when the strap is on your shoulder). For clothing I provide measurements from shoulder to bottom and from armpit to armpit when the garment is lying flat. 

Here’s an example of a description I’d write for my imaginary Marc Jacobs red leather crossbody bag:

Gorgeous Marc Jacobs red leather crossbody bag in excellent condition! Bag includes a black lined interior with two open pockets and one zip pocket. Gold hardware. Exterior includes a snap fold closure and zip pocket on the back. 

Measurements (body): 16” wide x 10” tall x 5” deep

Strap length: 36” Strap drop: 18”

As an impulsive Poshmark buyer, I’d say that keyword-filled titles and detailed descriptions are even more important than photos in many cases. For example, I’ve been searching for a pair of Sorel winter boots. When I type “black Sorel winter boots size 8” into the search bar, you know exactly what I want to find. I know there are some ladies out there trying to get rid of a pair of my perfect boots, but there’s no way for me to know because their listing is just titled “Boots” and their description just says “only wore these a couple times”. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO FIND YOUR BOOTS? My feet are cold. I need your help. If you take anything from this article, it should be the importance of providing detailed titles and descriptions that answer all of your customer’s questions upfront. It saves us both time – I get the pleasure of impulse buying your product knowing it’s exactly what I want because your listing answers all my questions, and you get the pleasure of making money off the whims of a late-night shopper.

PRICING YOUR PRODUCTS

Buyers will scroll on by if your price is too high, so it’s important to have an understanding of what different brands and styles are going for.

When researching your products, the inclination is often to search for the product you’re selling and see how much other people are selling it for, but all that does is tell you the current competition. It’s much more important to check the items that have already sold so you can see what they’re actually selling for versus what’s currently available. You can do this by filtering your search in the Poshmark app to view only “sold” listings. This feature is under “available,” which will give you the option to view all listings, available listings only, or sold listings only. 

Share your closet and other people’s items

One unique aspect of Poshmark is that it’s a more social selling platform than something like Etsy or eBay. You’re able to follow people, re-share your products to your followers whenever you feel like it, and re-share other people’s products to your followers as well. This keeps your items constantly cycling through people’s feed, which you often can’t get on other apps unless you re-list your item.

I’ve noticed that a lot of sellers get into this with the belief that sharing is the ultimate key to sales. It can help, but it’s only going so far if you neglect your photos, titles, and descriptions. You don’t want to make money only off people who happen to be in the app at the same time as you, which is what happens if you focus all your efforts on sharing (not to mention you’ll be spending way more time working than you should be). If you want to make money off people in the app as well as people all over the world wide web, then SEO must always come first. Share your items and other people’s items when you feel like it, but don’t feel dependent on it to make sales. At the very least, share your own items whenever you log into the app to cycle them through the feed once in a while.

Follow other sellers

Following other people is another great way to grow your shop’s visibility in the app. I don’t really like the idea of following a bunch of people just for the sake of numbers, so here are my strategies for deciding who to follow:

Posh Ambassadors: in the “find people” section of your Poshmark app, you’ll see a list that says “connect with Posh ambassadors.” These are sellers who:

• Made at least 15 sales
• Have at least 50 available listings
• Have an average rating of at least 4.5 stars
• Have an average ship time of less than 3 days
• Have shared their items at least 5,000 times
• Share at least 5,000 items from other Posh closets

Once you become a Posh Ambassador you’re shown in this list of recommended people to follow every so often. I recommend checking this list and following these accounts because you know they’re more likely to be active sellers who will engage, share your items, and have good quality items you can re-share or buy. 

I also like following people based on what I’m selling. For example, if I’m selling a J Crew polka dot pencil skirt, I’ll do a search for that or a similar item to see what comes up (chances are I was already doing this for pricing research anyway). If I find the exact product, I go see if anyone has liked or commented on it, and I follow all those accounts because I know they’re looking for or at least interested in a product I’m selling.

BE RESPONSIVE AND HAVE GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE

The only way for your customers to ask you questions about a product on Poshmark is to comment on the listing. ALWAYS respond to these professionally, promptly, and kindly! If you ignore a question and someone else has the same question but they see you ignored someone who already asked, they’re going to keep scrolling because they assume you won’t respond to them, either. Not a great look.

RESPONDING TO POSHMARK OFFERS

Another fun aspect of Poshmark is that customers can make you an offer on a product and you can offer private discount offers to people who have liked your listings. If someone makes you an offer that you would absolutely never take, don’t just decline and move on – counter it with what you’re willing to accept. I’ve made several sales by counter-offering to people who I never would have expected to accept my counter offer based on the lowball they sent me, but some just want to feel like they got a good deal or haggled for a discount, even if it’s only a $2 difference.

I hope this helps you make more money with your closet! New to Poshmark? Use my shop referral code GINGERFOXSHOP and we’ll both get a $10 shopping credit.

Poshmark and reselling in general is a fun way to make money online, but it shouldn’t be your only source of income. Check out some of my other posts for more work-from-home small business ideas:

How to Make and Sell Printables on Etsy

How to Start an Online Boutique With Print-On-Demand

27 Work-From-Home Jobs You Can Do From the Couch

How to Start a Freelance Writing Business (Based on Everything I Wish I Knew 10 Years Ago)