Want to make more money on Poshmark?
These tips will help you better understand how the Poshmark app works and what actions you can take to maximize your profits while minimizing time wasted!
This approach helped me turn a small side hustle into a six figure a year business and over $100,000 earned on the Poshmark app alone!
Poshmark Algorithm
But before we jump into the tips, I need to address something that a lot of my tips revolve around: the Poshmark algorithm. I hear these two words being throw around and honestly I cringe a bit whenever I do. However, I understand it. Once you start selling on Poshmark, you quickly focus on how to optimize your closet so that your listings can reach more and more people and hence have more and more sales. But unfortunately I think this speculation around algorithm “hacks” has led to a LOT of misinformation and wasted time.
So let’s break this down.
SEO and why it does NOT apply to Poshmark
On every reseller platform, the main way that people shop is SEARCH. The vast majority of of sales result from SEARCH. You may have heard of SEO, which stands for Search Engine Optimization. Typically this refers to Google because companies are always trying to rank higher under different Google searches. They are trying to understand Google’s algorithm for why Google prefers some websites over others and then optimize for that.
On reseller platforms, it’s the same way. When I search for, say Madewell on eBay, it automatically sorts by “best match”.
We don’t fully understand why eBay has determined why certain Madewell items should rank higher than others. Is it because higher ranked items have better sellers? Is it because higher ranked items are paid? Is it because of price point, category, title, description? We don’t know. And that’s why resellers are constantly trying to figure out or hack the algorithm on Ebay.
The same is true for Tradesy & Mercari, the automatic sort on search is “Relevance” and “Best Match” respectively.
The difference with Poshmark is that when I search for something, it automatically sorts by “Just Shared”. This isn’t something we need to hack or experiment with to understand, it’s straight-forward. The items that appear at the top of search are items that were shared most recently by that item’s owner (notice I didn’t say by anybody, which is something we’ll get to).
And in fact, all of Poshmark’s sort options are very straight-forward and easy to understand. Poshmark has done this on purpose to democratize the search for sellers. It has chosen not to play favorites with bigger or more experienced sellers. It has chosen not to offer promoted options, which I think of as “pay to play”. Instead, it wants to make it FAIR and give everyone the opportunity to show up at the top of search.
The only Poshmark algorithm that’s not super straightforward is the active feed. When you open up your app or jump onto Poshmark from the desktop, you are automatically taken to this active feed. Poshmark is choosing to show you items that it thinks you’ll like. We don’t really understand why it’s showing you certain items or certain people.
So when people refer to Poshmark’s algorithm, this is what they’re perhaps unknowingly referring to — the active feed. But as we’ll get into in a second, I spend 0% of my energy worrying about the active feed because very, very few transactions result from people scrolling around the active feed
So, now that have an understanding of the “Poshmark algorithm”, let’s dive into tips.
Tip #1 List Every Dang Day
A lot of people say to do this because of the algorithm. But as I just explained, I give zero bleeps about the algorithm. Instead, I recommend this to every reseller who asks for advice because what success on Poshmark really comes down to this: LIST MORE, SELL MORE!
And how are you going to list more? By doing it consistently. Chipping away, moving the needle one day at a time. If you can get into the habit of setting aside 30 minutes or one hour each day to your most important task–listing–then you will soon see consistent sales. Of course, you need to be listing items that people actually want. Paying attention to what other people are selling is a good way of gauging that, but the most tactical way to figure that out is by trial and error.
And if you’re listing–even as few as three things a day–you’ll really start to develop the skill of reselling faster.
What do I do if I run out of things to list?
If you run out of clothes in your closet, in your neighbor’s closet, your partner’s closet, your best friend’s closet to sell or you run out of money to buy clothes with, switch over to relisting every day. Like I said earlier, Poshmark automatically sorts your search by Just Shared, but there are three other options: Just In, High to Low, Low to High.
When you relist, you appear higher in search when the buyer is sorting by Just In. So relisting can make a difference.
I rarely relist. But that’s only because I’d rather commit my time to listing new inventory because I always have some waiting to be listed. But we’re not all in that camp, so I think getting in the habit of listing or relisting every single day is the best way to actually move the needle on your sales.
Tip #2 Share Your Closet ONLY
Sharing is really important because of Search. Since search is the main way people buy items on Poshmark and Poshmark automatically generates results based on Just Shared, sharing is your best form of SEO. I recommend sharing your entire closet 2-3 times a day. But if you have a smaller closet, you can share it more often.
But here’s the thing & this is really important: do NOT share other people’s listings.
When you share someone else’s listing, it ONLY goes to the feed, it doesn’t affect search whatsoever. And like we said earlier, we don’t give a flying flamingo about the feed.
I know what some of y’all are going to say:
“Mogi Beth, when I share other people’s closets, I appear in their news feeds, which gets their attention.”
I used to follow this logic too. Because when someone shared something of mine, I shared something of theirs…on some rare occasions, while sharing I’d find something within their close that I thought was cute & I’d like it. I spent SOOOOO many hours of my precious time here on earth following this logic.
But let me tell you how many times I’ve actually purchased something from that whole process: zero. Zero times. Every single item I have purchased is from search except one, which I purchased when a friend was closing their closet.
It might happen very occasionally, but it’s really not the best use of your time. And so yes, if you share my closet, I do appreciate the sentiment, but please spend your precious time doing something that will actually make a real differenc.
Tip #3 Pay Absolutely Zero Attention to your Follower Count
Speaking of things that don’t make a difference: your follower count!
If I could reclaim the time I wasted following people and participating in follow games and all that stuff, I’d probably get back a few days. And if you don’t believe me, look at how many people I have followed: over 100,000.
That’s a whole lot of wasted time. You can argue that Instagram followers and YouTube subscribers make an impact on sales & I’ll give it to you there in some regards, but I will argue with you tooth and nail when it comes to Poshmark followers. It does NOT make a difference.
Again, it only affects the feed and only partially because–again–we don’t understand Poshmark’s algorithm of the feed. Poshmark could very well be giving preference to people who are new and have small followings because they want them to have a positive experience on the app. Who knows & who cares. No one buys from the feed. Stop spending any second of your time caring about followers, the algorithm, community sharing, or the feed. It’s time wasted.
Tip #4 Send Offers to Likers as they come in
Okay, my rant about the feed is over. You’ve stopped wasting your time, but now you’re wondering: okay well other than listing and sharing, is there any way to make more sales?
Yes, Offers to Likers.
This is the best thing Poshmark has rolled out in my tenure on the app. If someone likes an item in your closet, you now can send them an offer. It must include a shipping discount or free shipping.
My tip is to send the offer as quickly as you can after you see that someone liked something. I used to set aside time every day to send offers and I still sometimes do that when I fall behind, but the highest success rate occurs when you can send the offer while that item is still top of mind for the buyer and the buyer is still on the app. You’re probably going to get the majority of your likes after you share your closet, so after you share your closet make sure you then go over all your likes and send offers.
Offer Sending Strategies
I like sending 10% with free shipping or 20% with discounted. If an item has been sitting longer than a month or two, I might send 30% with discounted. I prefer sticking with 10% off, 20% off, 30% off instead of writing in your own number because you can send multiple offers to the same liker, but it must be a 10% greater discount than your previous offer. So if you write in a number, it’s hard to keep track of what that is. So I always just stick with the buttons already pre-set at 10, 20, 30.
And now, my favorite and most popular tip!
Tip #5 Price Items on the Price Range Filter Thresholds
My last tip is a pricing tip. And I could do a whole post on pricing, but one of the most important things is this: never ever price something at $55 (or $105, $245, etc.)
Why? Because price filters on Poshmark.
With each more expensive filter, you shrink your customer base because there are more people searching $25 – $50 than there are $50-$100.
That doesn’t mean you should never list anything in a higher price range, but just keep these filters in mind when you list anything in the $40 – $60 range or the $85 – $115 range. $25, $50, $100, and $250 are your golden numbers because they appear in both of these search ranges. So if you can, price items at those price points.
pic of threshold pricing
Having your item displayed in both price ranges is a huge advantage because it puts your item in front of more eyeballs which leads to more opportunities to make a sale. So I would happily give up the potentially additional $5 ($4 after poshmark fee but let’s be real, it has a slim chance of being sold at full price so the amount is likely lower) in order to get my items in front of more potential customers.
However, I also wouldn’t “force” these magic price points either. If I have an item that has been selling for around $70, lowering it to $50 cuts into my margin too heavily and raising the price to $100 makes my item look ridiculously expensive compared to the competition. Use your best judgement but I would definitely consider doing it when it comes within +/-$5 of the filter threshold.
Well those are my five tips! I hope y’all found them to be helpful. Let me know in the comments down below if I left any out that you would add. Feel free to subscribe to our newsletter for weekly roundup of great reselling resources like this.
Love & Gratitude Always,
MOGI