Is Selling on Poshmark Worth It? Review From a Seller Who’s Made Over $77,000 On The App

Sep 8

So, you’re thinking about trying to make some money selling clothes on Poshmark, but…you’ve got QUESTIONS.

You might be wondering: is Poshmark legit? Can I actually make decent money? How difficult is it? Is it worth putting in the time and effort? What if I just intend on casually selling a few pieces from my closet?

I’ve been there. Back in 2014, my mom told me about Poshmark, an online marketplace to buy and sell used clothes. Mind you, this was in the early days of the app when secondhand shopping wasn’t “trendy”. At the time, I wasn’t much of a thrifter myself, which made me super skeptical that anyone would want to buy my used clothes online.

SO skeptical, in fact, that even after joining Poshmark, I let the app lay dormant on my phone for TWO WHOLE YEARS before uploading my first listing in 2016. But I figured since Poshmark has zero listing fees, what did I really have to lose?!

Flash forward to today: I’ve made over $77,000 selling clothes on Poshmark. If you had told me that Poshmark could bring me THOSE kinds of profits—that one day I’d be making THOUSANDS of dollars from a silly little app—I would have spit out my coffee in shock.

So yeah…I guess you could say selling on Poshmark was more than worth it in my case.

But it’s certainly not everyone’s cup of tea! In this post, I’ll be answering all your burning questions to help you determine if selling on Poshmark is right for YOU. So let’s dive in!

Is selling on Poshmark worth it? Your questions—answered:

Is Poshmark legit?

Yes, Poshmark is a reputable business and became a publicly traded company in 2021. The app is a legitimate online marketplace to buy and sell used clothing. I have personally been selling on Poshmark since 2016 and still use it to this day.

Get $10 when you sign up for Poshmark using my invite code: POSHTOPROFIT

Can I actually make decent money selling on Poshmark?

After having made over $77,000 selling clothes on Poshmark, I am a true believer that it is possible for anyone to have success making money on Poshmark. I think you would be pretty surprised what people are willing to pay for your gently used clothes.

I would not describe Poshmark as “passive” income as there is work involved (photographing, listing, shipping, etc.) even though you can technically “make money in your sleep” (I often wake up to new sales!). But I am living proof that if you put in the work, it can really pay off! I even created a course where you can learn (in under ONE hour!) how to make an extra $100-$1,000/month selling your clothes on Poshmark.

The only instances where I would say Poshmark is not worth the time investment is if your clothes have a lot of major flaws or you’re only selling fast-fashion brands like Shein, Forever 21, Boohoo, etc. (because they’re cheap and don’t retail for very much brand new).

How difficult is it to sell clothes on Poshmark?

Compared to similar online marketplaces, I would say Poshmark ranks as one of the easiest to use. The interface is more modern (and far less cluttered) than eBay’s, making it user-friendly to figure out how to upload photos and fill in the required fields.

Plus, Poshmark is known for being the #1 fashion marketplace with a community of 80 million registered users. Even though they’ve expanded into other categories like home, electronics, pets, and beauty—the majority of users are on the app specifically for clothes. The same cannot be said of eBay and Mercari.

Additionally, the shipping process is a lot easier and more streamlined than any other platform:

Buyers pay a flat rate for shipping (currently $7.67)
Poshmark sends you a shipping label via email
You print out the label and slap it on the package

What makes Poshmark’s shipping label so unique is that it’s good for anything weighing 5lbs or less!

If you're looking for a truly hands-off approach (meaning you don’t have to do any work) you’re probably better of sending your clothes into ThredUP or taking them to your local consignment store. But the payout will likely be a fraction of what you could earn on Poshmark.

CLICK HERE to get $10 to shop on ThredUP

Is it worth putting in the time and effort to sell on Poshmark?

In my personal experience, the time and effort I’ve put into selling clothes on Poshmark has really paid off. But it all depends on your situation. Are your clothes gently worn or do they have a lot of flaws? The better condition your clothes are in, the more worth your time it is to list them. Do you own quality, in-demand brands or does your closet mainly comprise of cheap, fast-fashion brands? These are the types of questions you want to ask yourself when determining whether your efforts are well spent.

It’s important to note that there are a lot of misconceptions when it comes to what you “need” to do to make sales on Poshmark. A lot of sellers are wasting time on unnecessary, useless tasks that don’t actually move the needle. If you want to learn more about what NOT to do on Poshmark, I wrote a whole blog post on the topic called 11 Common Mistakes Poshmark Resellers Make (And How To Fix Them!)

What if I just want to get rid of clothes from my personal closet?

So…you’re not interested in taking Poshmark full-time. You’re not looking to start a full-blown side hustle, either—I get it. If you just want to make money cleaning out old clothes from your closet, you need to weigh a couple of factors:

Ease of use
Highest profits

I would recommend using Poshmark if you want to get the most bang for your buck. I’ve sold everywhere from Poshmark, eBay, Mercari, ThredUP, to local consignment stores.

Get $10 when you sign up for Poshmark using my invite code: POSHTOPROFIT

In my experience, ThredUp’s payouts are the lowest. I generally only get a few bucks (and sometimes only pennies). But ThredUp does all the work for you (photographing, listing, pricing, running discounts/sales). I only send them cheap, fast-fashion brands (Forever 21, Old Navy, Boohoo) that aren’t worth my time. I just want to get rid of them and don’t care if I only make a few pitiful cents.

CLICK HERE to get $10 to shop on ThredUP

Alternatively, consignment and Buy-Sell-Trade stores are notorious for being weirdly picky. I say “weirdly” because I’m always perplexed by the items they DO choose to take (while refusing clothes that I feel are more on-trend and much higher quality). I have a client who used to take her items to a high-end consignment store but now she exclusively gives me all of her clothes to sell on Poshmark for her. That just goes to show that even after my cut, she must be making a fair bit more selling through me on Poshmark!

You can make similar profits on eBay and Mercari as you do on Poshmark, but the learning curve is a little more involved (especially for beginners). eBay’s interface looks like it hasn’t been updated since the ‘90s (LOL) and on both eBay and Mercari, the seller has to select the shipping label. This requires weighing items to get the best price, whereas Poshmark uses the same shipping label and it’s good for anything 5lbs and under.

Want to learn how to make an extra $100-$1,000/month selling your clothes on Poshmark? Click here.

What about the 20% fee Poshmark takes? That seems kind of high…

Yes, Poshmark takes a 20% fee every time you make a sale. But Poshmark also has a lot of amazing benefits that other selling platforms don’t offer. For starters…

SHIPPING SALES ON POSHMARK IS STUPID EASY

It’s so easy a toddler could probably figure it out! As of September 2022, Poshmark charges a flat shipping fee of $7.67 (the buyer is responsible for paying shipping charges), allowing you to ship out anything 5lbs or less. If you’ve ever tried shipping a 5-lb package at the post office, you know that $7.67 is an absolute steal—nearly unheard of!

I guarantee that most of your sales will weigh less than 5lbs. To put it into perspective: of the 2,084 items I’ve sold to date on Poshmark, only ONE package weighed over 5lbs (when a sneakerhead purchased a bundle of three bulky pairs of Jordans…to be shipped along with their original boxes).

And on the rare occasion (again, we’re talking odds of 1 in every 2,000 sales) that your package weighs over 5lbs, you’ll just need to upgrade your shipping label. The additional charge comes at the seller’s expense, so if you don’t want to bother with that, simply stick to items that are under 5lbs when listing on Poshmark.

Did you know?
Poshmark ships via USPS Priority Mail which has an average ship time of 2-3 business days. Faster shipping = happier customers!

On alternative selling platforms (like eBay or Mercari) the seller is responsible for purchasing shipping labels. Don’t worry—you can still charge your buyer a shipping fee to cover the cost. However, in order to ensure you’re charging buyers the correct amount, you will either need to a) weigh your items in advance or b) be able to accurately guess an item’s weight just by looking at it. For seasoned sellers, this may feel like secondhand nature, but Poshmark’s shipping model is definitely more beginner-friendly.

Get $10 when you sign up for Poshmark using my invite code: POSHTOPROFIT

POSHMARK’S POLICIES ARE PRETTY FAVORABLE FOR SELLERS

For one, returns aren’t allowed unless the item is a fake/counterfeit or if it arrives “Not As Described” (which basically means there’s a flaw present that the seller did not disclose or the item is a different size than what was listed). That means buyers can’t request a return simply because they “didn’t like it” or it “doesn’t fit” them.

This really sets Poshmark apart from the rest of the pack. Any seller would agree: returns are a hassle! You have to wait for the item to get shipped back to you, re-list it, and put it back in your closet or storage space. Plus, returns can be stressful if you were counting on that money to help pay the bills.

That being said, if for some reason you overlooked a small stain (you’re only human—mistakes happen to the best of us!) and a return request gets approved, Poshmark pays for return shipping. Even though you might be bummed about the return, at least you don’t have to fork out money to get the damn package sent back to you!

Return shipping costs are just one example of where that 20% fee is getting allocated to. Naturally, Poshmark’s fee also goes towards paying their employees and any operating expenses involved in running the app. But did you also know that any time a package gets lost in the mail, Poshmark refunds the buyer AND releases the earnings to the seller?

You heard me right. If a shipment randomly stops tracking, you can email Poshmark [explaining the situation] and your earnings will get released to you. Even if the package gets marked as “delivered” by USPS (but the buyer reports that they can’t locate it) you will still get your earnings.

In my opinion, this is phenomenal customer service on Poshmark’s part. It’s not Poshmark’s fault that the USPS screwed up and lost the package! Yet the company chooses to take responsibility as a way to strengthen trust with its buyers and sellers. I’ll happily give Poshmark a 20% cut for that!

Get $10 when you sign up for Poshmark using my invite code: POSHTOPROFIT

Don’t you have to “share” your closet on Poshmark? Sounds like a waste of time…

It’s true—sharing your listings on Poshmark is an integral part of getting your items seen by shoppers—which undoubtedly increases your odds of making a sale. While this can seem like a tedious, useless task, it’s Poshmark’s alternative to ads or “promoted” listings. Their intention when creating the ‘sharing’ feature was to make it possible for ANYONE to get their listings seen—regardless of whether you’re a novice or seasoned seller.

Think about it: you can’t pay Poshmark to “feature” one of your listings and put it in front of more buyers. But by clicking the little “share” button in the lower right-hand corner of a listing, every seller has the ability to bump their listing to the top of a brand page’s results. And while Poshmark has made changes to its search algorithm (for more details on that, read my post Outsmarting The Algorithm: 7 Tactics To Boost Slow Sales Despite Changes To Poshmark’s Search Function) sharing activity is still factored into the search result’s algorithm.

Plus, Poshmark made it easier to share more listings at once with their “Bulk Share to Followers” feature. Here’s how it works:

1. Go to your closet and click the tool icon in the upper right-hand corner

2. Select “Share to Followers” underneath “Bulk Listing Actions”

3. Click the funnel icon in upper right-hand corner

4. Click “Availability” towards the bottom of the menu

5. Select “Available Items”

6. Click “Select All”

7. Scroll down until it says ALL of the listings in your closet have been selected

8. Click the blue “Share to Followers” button at the bottom

Then just wait until all of your items have been shared!

This is definitely an improvement from having to individually click on each listing to share it. I think it’s an excellent tool for:

Beginners who are just getting started on Poshmark
Poshers who only have a handful of listings uploaded to their closet
Hobbyist sellers who don’t rely on Poshmark to help pay their bills (who just want some extra “fun money” to play with)

But as you can see, the “Bulk Share to Followers” process is not effortless. I still had to walk you through 8 different steps. And that only shares your closet once, which means you’ll need to repeat that process several times per day to keep your listings fresh.

That's why I still choose to use Closet Tools—a bot that automatically shares my listings with the click of a button. If you’re an aspiring or full-time reseller, I would highly recommend automating your sharing process. When you’re serious about making money on Poshmark, it’s vital to invest in tools that help save you time.

My Closet Tools bot only costs me $1/day. To put that into perspective: I only have to make one $30 sale and my bot is paid for for the entire month! Plus, Closet Tools can automate more than just sharing (pssst—it sends out offers for me!) and I can even use it to quickly de-list and re-list.

Click here to get 30% off your first month of Closet Tools

I'm confident you’ll actually make MORE profits if you spend your time on tasks that Closet Tools can't do (e.g. picking out items to list, photographing, etc.). Heck—try it out for a month and if it doesn’t CHANGE YOUR FREAKIN’ LIFE then stop using it. Simple as that!

You’ll never know until you try…

If you’ve read this far and you’re STILL not sure whether selling on Poshmark is the right fit for you—sometimes the best way to find out is to give it a try! Grab a few pieces from your closet you no longer wear, post them on the app, and see what happens.

Don’t want to waste time “figuring out the ropes”? If you’d rather skip to the front of the line and become a Poshmark pro in under an hour, I created a course that teaches the exact methods and strategies I used to make over $77,000 on the app. Whether you’re a complete beginner or you’re struggling to see consistent sales, my course will show you step-by-step how to make an extra $100-$1,000/month selling your clothes on Poshmark.

GET THE COURSE

So…do you think is selling on Poshmark worth it? I’d love to hear about your personal experiences selling on the app!

Get $10 when you sign up for Poshmark using my invite code: POSHTOPROFIT