So you want to know how to make money on Poshmark? We are going to explore everything you need to know about the money-making potential of this platform. But first, why am I such a raving lunatic about Poshmark?
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- How To Make Money On Poshmark 2019
- How To Make Real Money On Poshmark
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If you know that you need to make $1000 a month on Poshmark, you need to figure out how many items you will have to sell and for what price you need to sell them. In order to do that, you will need to know how much you will be buying the product for and how much you’re expecting to sell it for.
When I first decided to look for a job where I could work from anywhere, I got overwhelmed pretty quickly with all of the different “work from home” or “remote” options available. I had a lot of questions running through my mind like “What kind of job would be the best for me?” and “What could I stick with long term?”
I also got really frustrated reading all of the crazy success stories from people who were able to teach themselves a skill and, seemingly overnight, make a small fortune and enjoy more freedom than I thought I could ever hope to experience in my lifetime.
At the time, the only way I knew to make more money was to get a higher level of education by pursuing more degrees but I soon learned I was WRONG! All of these people in the stories I was reading were creating their own opportunities, reaching financial freedom, and creating the life of their dreams all by themselves.
How To Make Money On Poshmark Fast
The fire inside of me was ignited at that point. I was determined to find something I could enjoy doing that would allow me:
How To Make Money On Poshmark 2019
- More time to travel and explore the world
- More financial freedom
- More time to work on the things that truly make me happy!
- I didn’t have a baby at this point but I would now add- More time home with my baby!
If any of this sounds like you and you missed Part 1 of this series, we went into all the reasons why you should consider starting an online boutique and you can dive deeper into it here!
I first heard about Poshmark in 2013 when I was scrolling through my Facebook feed and an ad popped up. I learned that it was an app that allowed you to sell your used clothes online. I had never heard of such a thing! Now, before I go further, I must confess that I used to be a clothes and accessories HOARDER. Like, it was really bad. I spent basically every weekend going to estate sales or thrift stores hunting for the next hidden gem. If I found a pair of designer shoes, you better believe I was buying them, even if they weren’t my size! I could always find a friend or family member who I knew would love them.
When I read about Poshmark, I decided to see if any of the things just sitting in my closet could turn a profit on the platform. A few weeks after starting, I had already sold 3 things! Naturally, I was addicted immediately. I started looking through other people’s closets on Poshmark and realized that a lot of people were making money off the clothes they were selling. I quickly realized there was great potential for this to become THE something I had been looking for!
So, I started my journey. To be perfectly honest, it was very overwhelming at first. I had no idea how to attract a steady stream of buyers but luckily, the Poshmark community was there to guide me. We were all in it together and we were all learning as a community. I followed top sellers, took notes of the things they were selling in their closets, joined Facebook groups, went to Poshmark live events in my area…. anything I could do to learn everything I could about becoming successful on this platform. At that time, Poshmark was still in its infancy. There were no courses or books I could buy to put me on the fast track to success. I had to learn everything on my own, through trial and error, and it took years. And I am still learning every day!
Show Me The Money!
So let’s get into the finances of what it will take to replace a full-time salary, using this platform. Going from a company paying your salary to multiple, small payments making up your income is a HUGE mindset shift. Most likely, though, you will end up preferring it that way, once you understand the benefits. Say, for whatever reason, some of your sales don’t work out, which is going to happen, it happens all the time. You are not going to lose all of your income. If you are coming from a traditional job, this could make you really nervous because you are used to a guaranteed, set amount of money coming in but think about it. What if you lost your job tomorrow? All of your income would go with it. Nothing is guaranteed.
So let’s break this down.
If your goal is to make $100,000 dollars a year that means you would need to make roughly $10,000 a month. You may be wondering why that number seems so high. One thing you need to be aware of is that Poshmark takes a 20% cut of every sale you make. So if your goal is to make $100,000 in take-home earnings, you will actually need to make $120,000 dollars a year to account for the 20% that would go to Poshmark. Since there are typically 30 days in a month, let us divide that by 30 and we get $333 dollars, so that is what you would need to make per day. Now, before you get concerned that I divided by 30 days instead of the average 22 days of a 5-day work week, let me explain.
Poshmark is open for business, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Unlike your typical brick and mortar store, Poshmark never closes. That means people could be shopping and making purchases from your closet while you are sleeping! As a matter of fact, this happens all of the time because of the different time zones. So you have a much greater window of time to make that $333 than just the standard 9-5 workday. The schedule or hours within that time frame that you decide to work is totally up to you! But your potential to make money doesn’t stop when you stop working.
Luxury
Now there are several ways you could make $333 dollars a day and it depends a lot on what kind of items you decide to sell in your closet. If you have a lot of luxury items in your closet, these have a lot higher resale value and you could make your goal in just one sale. For example, check out these fabulous Christian Louboutin heels that just sold for $443. To die for, right!?!
So, is there enough demand in the luxury market to make a sale like this every day?
According to the Harvard School of Business, “all signs point to the luxury resale market continuously growing to the benefit of all parties involved. In particular, the brands and department stores themselves are starting to realize the benefits of a liquid secondary market for luxury goods. Most sellers reinvest their resale earnings in purchases of new goods from the brands they love. The more conviction consumers have that these luxury goods are liquid, the more new goods they will buy. Many buyers of pre-owned luxury are also first time buyers who get to experience a new brand for the first time. From that perspective, these resale services are a customer acquisition channel for luxury brands and a veritable gateway for younger consumers to enter their brand experience.
The world of luxury resale is creating a new paradigm – a high-end product ecosystem that is a win-win for the entire industry: brands, department stores and of course the customers themselves.”The New Normal: Luxury in the Secondary Market (January 18, 2019)
This is awesome news! Selling a couple luxury items a day is totally doable and the market is just going to continue to grow!
Fast Fashion
Okay, so not everyone has Louboutin’s just sitting in their closets, ready to sell. Neither do I, so I totally get it. No need to fret though because luxury items make up only a fraction of the products offered on the site. Up until recently, Poshmark has always been notable for not focusing on luxury. It has a large selection of products from fast fashion retailers like H&M and Zara, which isn’t something a lot of other sites do. So why do they do it? The answer is simple. It has allowed them to become THE go-to for more affordable styles. And when people do decide to splurge on that luxury item, guess where they are going to purchase it? You got it, Poshmark will be their first choice!
So to make up your income by selling fast fashion items, your focus is going to be more on quantity. Fast fashion is not going to have the same resale value as luxury brand items so you are going to have to move more items to make that $333. So let’s take a look at H&M products, for example. The prices on H&M products currently on the site range from $3 for a pair of H&M earrings that retailed originally for $12.99 to $225 for an H&M Exclusive Marni hobo tote bag that retailed originally for $500. Most of the H&M listings, however, seem to range between $30 and $50.
So, if you make 12 sales a day for $30 each, your take-home pay will be $360. If you make 7 sales a day for $50 each, your take-home pay will be $350. The key to getting more money per sale is all about presentation, which I will talk about in Part 5 of this series.
Now, so far, I have not mentioned anything about factoring in how much you paid for the item originally. When you first get started, you will probably only sell items out of your closet that no longer fit you. When I sell those items, I consider it to be 100% profit because when I bought them, I had no intention of re-selling them, to begin with. I do not factor in the price of the items I am selling out of my personal closet because I don’t consider them to be business expenses. When you start actively sourcing and purchasing things with no intention to use personally, strictly to stock your online boutique, that is when you need to start factoring in the purchase price into the above numbers.
So, is there enough demand in the fast fashion market to make this amount of sales every day?
At the end of 2018, Forbes announced its list of the next billion-dollar start-ups, and guess who was on it? Poshmark! In 2017, Poshmark was already a $625M dollar retail empire and it is anticipated to grow its revenue by 70% by the end of 2018. Y’all, those are HUGE numbers. Remember, Poshmark makes its revenue by taking 20% of every sale made on the platform so this money is coming from actual sales being made. And most of the items for sale are fast fashion brands. A sale is made on Poshmark every second! In May 2018, Poshmark revealed it had officially paid out $1 billion dollars to sellers on the app. And the demand for discount clothes is growing exponentially as well. Online retail alone is growing by about 4 billion dollars every quarter. Even offline, 9 in 10 shoppers buy from discount stores, with 75% looking specifically for deals on clothing, according to the National Retail Federation.
And if you still aren’t convinced- check out the below pictures I found by doing a 5-second browse of #poshmarkcloset on Instagram. People are reaching this goal, every. single. day.
In Part 3 of the series, I share with you the *exact* steps you need to take to start your own profitable, online boutique on Poshmark.
I am super excited to get started! Are you ready?
Let’s face it, there are a ton of ideas to make extra money as a side hustle. And selling products online is one of the easiest ways to do this. This year, I made $1000 a month on Poshmark. That is the profit per month on average. So I want to share how I did it, what my exact numbers were, what it takes, and how you can do it too.
Our Sales on Poshmark So Far in 2021
When you’re a beginner at doing anything, including selling online, it could be pretty intimidating. And full disclosure: I actually started casually selling on Poshmark back in 2019. It started with decluttering my closet when I started to see a few hundred dollars a month. So I’ve become pretty familiar with the basics of selling on Poshmark.
This year, I wanted to see if I could actually sell on Poshmark as a side hustle and track how much profit (Sales price minus fees minus the cost of goods) it can bring in each month. Here are my exact numbers so far.
These numbers average out to be about $1,230 a month. Sorry if you feel misled by the title! As you can see, some months are slower (January & February) but other months make up for it (April & May).
What It Takes To Make $1000 A Month On Poshmark
When it comes to selling anything, there are two ways that you can figure out in order to hit $1000 or any specific number you’d like. If you know that you need to make $1000 a month on Poshmark, you need to figure out how many items you will have to sell and for what price you need to sell them.
In order to do that, you will need to know how much you will be buying the product for and how much you’re expecting to sell it for. Don’t forget to factor in Poshmark fees and any shipping discount you may offer. So your profit looks like this.
Selling Price – Poshmark Fees – Shipping Discount – Cost of Goods = Profit
To hit the $1000 mark, you can sell fewer items at a higher sales price or sell more items but at a lower sales price. Or you can do a combination of both. So your variables are price and volume. Let’s take a look at two scenarios.
Scenario 1:
If you’re looking to sell $10 T-shirts that you bought for $1, you will have to sell 165 T-shirts.
- Profit = $10 – $2.95* – $1 = $6.05
- $1000/$6.05 = 165 shirts required to sell at $10 to make $1000 a month on Poshmark
*Poshmark fee is $2.95 for sales price below $12. Otherwise, it is 20 percent of the sales price.
Scenario 2:
Alternatively, if you’re able to sell a pair of shoes for $100, and you paid $30 for them, you will need to sell only 20 pairs of shoes.
- Profit = $100 – $20 – $30 = $50
- $1000/$50 = 20 pairs of shoes required to sell at $100 to make $1000 a month on Poshmark
But 20 pairs mean a much higher initial investment at $600! Of course, these are only examples. If you can source items with a higher sales price for a few dollars, the number of items you have to sell is way lower than our examples.
But the reality is, if we could all buy products for super cheap and sell them for super high all the time, we would all be doing it. You wouldn’t need to read this article because you’d be a millionaire already. Some items may cost you more upfront while others may be only a few dollars.
How We Make $1000 A Month On Poshmark
So let’s get to how I did it. And give you an idea of how you can do it too!
Started With What I Like
As mentioned earlier, when I first started selling on Poshmark, I started with my own clothes. That gave me an idea of how much certain brands go for. I tend to buy from the same retailers and look for certain brands second-hand. So I started with those brands that I absolutely loved. Because chances are, if you love them, there are other people who do too.
I definitely have what is called a “bread and butter brand” that I love wearing. And I specifically look for that brand at the thrift stores to sell on Poshmark. Items from this particular brand are able to bring in about $25 to $50 in profit per piece.
I have sold 58 pieces in the last 6 months, about 10 pieces per month. That accounts for 25 to 50 percent of the monthly profit. The rest is made up of other brands that I also love and follow.
Researched Demand
The most important thing to know about selling online is to know the demand. You could buy and try to sell anything that you love. But without enough demand for the product, you may not find enough customers. And the thing with Poshmark and fashion is that it tends to evolve and change. What is “in” one season may no longer be desirable in a few months or a few years.
So how can you try to mitigate this problem? By buying items and certain brands that either have a cult following, are a closet staple, or are not oversaturated. For example, Free People used to be a great brand to sell on Poshmark. However, they have become super oversaturated in the past few years. What’s worse? Free People have an “official” store on Poshmark.
That’s not to say you will never be able to sell their brand for a profit. There are certain styles that still sell well. Especially if a specific item is worn by multiple famous bloggers. But Free People is not a brand that I particularly look for.
Another approach to sourcing desirable items is to look for limited releases or designer collaborations with more accessible brands. But the one method that I use consistently to know what’s in demand is by following a brand’s Instagram page. You can find tagged photos to see what people are wearing and what they’re loving.
This is a great way to know what real people are buying. You will also often see certain stars or bloggers wearing certain things on TV or out and about in the city. That could and often makes the item a lot more desirable. And these pictures are often found tagged on a brand’s Instagram page.
So that is how I make $1000 a month on Poshmark: by following certain brands that I love but that have a high sales price with a big enough demand for it.
Check Completed Listings
Sometimes, I don’t always find brands that I like to sell for a large enough profit margin. And I personally don’t go for small profit margins that require a ton of listings. Why? Because you have to share them and that takes a lot of time. With a love for fashion, I also like to learn what other brands sell well on Poshmark.
I do this by checking the completed listings. So if I come across a new brand that I have never sold before, I always look up how much the item tends to sell for. When you do this, you will find that there are a ton of brands that cost a lot of money retail but do not sell for much money, à la Free People.
We Shop Around
A lot of times, I also buy from other sellers who don’t know the profit potential of the brand or of that particular piece. When you know a few brands really well, you’re able to source them confidently. Even if they have a higher cost upfront, you know that you will be able to sell them for a good profit that will make it worth it.
What I Skip And Buy Instead
I personally avoid fast fashion brands like Shein, Fashion Nova, and the like. Not just because they don’t have enough profit margins but because I genuinely don’t like fast fashion. I prefer brands that are sold in places like Nordstrom, Revolve, and REI.
But know that even within brands, certain categories will always be more profitable. I generally skip lower selling items like tank tops and T-shirts. Instead, I go for jackets, pants, shoes, bags, and dresses because those have a higher sales price.
How Many Followers On Poshmark To Make Money?
Let me save you a lot of time by telling you that the number of followers does not matter on Poshmark. A higher number of followers doesn’t mean increased sales. Poshmark automatically makes new users follow accounts as well as gives them followers. I don’t pay attention to the number of followers I have, ever!
Poshmark users are shopping because they’re looking to buy something and for a good price. I would never buy something from someone just because they have a huge following. So why would anyone else? What brings sales is having a product that is in demand. For other tips to increase your sales and secrets to selling on Poshmark, check here.
Can You Make A Living Selling On Poshmark?
The short answer is of course you can! You can make a living selling on Poshmark and there are people who do! In order to support yourself, you will have to figure out what your expenses are and aim to scale up your sales. Treat it like a business.
You can start small first. Don’t spend all your savings to buy a bunch of inventory at once. Test out brands, styles, and types of items. Shop at different stores, whether that’s second-hand, retail, in person, or online. Even if you start small by making $100 a month now, you can increase to $250, then to $500, and so on.
How To Make $2000 A Month or $5000 A Month On Poshmark
A great thing about selling online or on Poshmark is that you’re not limited to how much money you can make. You can scale up your Poshmark store as you feel more comfortable with the types of brands and items that you know are selling. And you don’t have to be limited to Poshmark.
You can always cross-list to other platforms with similar demographics as Depop and Mercari. I occasionally do too. To grow the $1000 a month on Poshmark to $2000, it would require more investment in inventory upfront. And to grow $5000, it would take even more. It will be the same case for you too.
Once you reach a cost of goods that you’re comfortable with paying upfront and consistently sell them at a price that makes you enough profit, the only thing left is to scale up by increasing the volume. That is what I plan to do in the next six months, even though it won’t happen in July. Why is that?
How To Make Real Money On Poshmark
We recently took a ten days vacation in July. And unfortunately, Poshmark does not allow any sales once you put your store on vacation mode. This dramatically decreased my July sale numbers. You must be able to ship your Poshmark sale within seven days. This may not be a problem for you if you have someone else to ship your orders for you. Otherwise, keep that in mind when you’re projecting your Poshmark sales.
Last Tips To Make Money On Poshmark
Youtube How To Make Money On Poshmark
I wanted to leave you with a few last tips to know to make money on Poshmark. While you’re doing your research for what items to sell, be mindful of the seasons. Look ahead to what people will be buying. For example, back to school will be in August and September. While people may not be looking for sweaters and boots in the summer heat of July, they will be in a month or two.
If you’re looking to sell clothing, make sure you have a steamer. Why? Because freshly steamed clothing looks much better and cleaner in pictures. Not many people will pay top dollar for a wrinkly, dingy item. If you have pets, have lint rollers on hand to brush up your inventory. Having these will ensure that your items look the best that they can. I wish you health and success!