5 Places To Sell Your Clothing Online
A change in seasons can be the perfect excuse to do a bit of cleaning! I’ve shared a TON of tips in the past about how to clear out and organize, but I thought I’d focus on the selling aspect of said clean-outs.
SELLING CLOTHES ON POSHMARK
ADVANTAGE: I’ve loved selling on Poshmark; their app makes it incredibly easy to list and confirm transactions. The listing format is pretty streamlined and allows you to enter both a retail price or a boutique option. I personally only sell new or lightly worn items but have found that as long as your item description is honest and detailed, you shouldn’t have any issues. I will say that I have experienced a handful of disappointing buyer transactions where returned damaged or worn items. Aside from these, which thankfully were not overly pricey, I have had a great experience. Poshmark has its own niche culture, and many people utilize the app as a resell tool. I mean, more power to you, but some of the mark-ups are kind of ridiculous.
DISADVANTAGES: Overall, I prefer to make clothing sales on Poshmark! For the reasons listed above and the overall use of the app, but it does also have some downsides. For one, all listings must be posted through the app (this has since changed!). You can edit listings online, but they must first be displayed using the Poshmark App. I find this somewhat inconvenient, especially if I am trying to type out a more detailed caption.
Another thing I’ve also grown to realize is buyers can be very hot and cold! While most sales go very smoothly, there is always 1 or 2 (depending upon how much you sell) people who rate a transaction poorly for NOT reading the product description thoroughly. Unfortunately, once a buyer evaluates a sale, Poshmark cannot go back and fix a low rating even if the buyer has no solid reason for a less than a 5-star review. I do realize that these drawbacks may seem nitpicky, but when you're going through the hassle of listing, shipping, etc., it’s frustrating that their support team cant assist more.
SELLING CLOTHING ON EBAY
ADVANTAGE: I love using the eBay app to sell items on the site. It's much more relaxed and streamlines the process of listing and keeps everything straight forward. The other great thing is that you can list using a similar item, and many of the details are input for you. In general, I reserve shoes and accessories for eBay and list actual clothing items on other outlets.
DISADVANTAGES: Generally, I do not like selling clothing on eBay. I find that clothing sells much faster (and for higher profit) on other resale apps targeted towards fashion. I will say that accessories, such as bags, totes, sunglasses do sell well on eBay. Typically, what I will do is use eBay as a backup option if my item doesn’t sell on Poshmark. Since I already have the images and text, I copy-and-paste this into a quick listing and set a buy it now price.
Another thing I noticed for those of you who may be selling sneakers is that these do VERY well on eBay. People will pay a pretty penny for new or like-new sneakers if they are noteworthy or hard to find. CS is a toss-up, since removing their email function, all customer issues are addressed by phone, which is frustrating.
SELLING CLOTHING ON thredUP
ADVANTAGE: Selling with Thred-up clean out bags or shipping labels are quite possibly the easiest way to make room in your closet. All you need to do is request a pre-labeled clean out bag on their site, fill, and return. The bags are pretty big, but should you decide to use your own box, you can get a shipping label immediately emailed. The payments do vary in time, and item pricing fluctuates between items, but overall expect to receive 1/2 of what you’d make if you were able to sell it on your own. I’ve found that J.Crew, ZARA, and any designer denim sells very fast on Thred-up. Boutique items or lower priced items are better-being donations. Which brings me to another great point. Thred-up donates any clothing that it does not sell to charity, which is AWESOME! Should you be worried about them not selecting an item to list on their site, you can always request a $10 return clean out bag. Opting for the $10 return means they will return any items they didn’t select.
DISADVANTAGES: thredUP is a bit of a gamble when it comes to using their clean-outs for profit. When they first started, I used to receive $100+ per clean out bag. Now, they must receive tens of thousands of packets per week because the payouts are much lower, more so around $30+. I usually use thredUP for items that didn’t sell within a few months on Poshmark. The payouts always range between 10-40 dollars because they are very selective about what they choose to purchase. I really wouldn’t recommend using them as the main point of selling if you're looking to make for bang for your buck. But, if you’re merely just cleaning out and don’t mind making a couple of extra dollars, then go for it!
MERCARI
ADVANTAGES: I know a TON of people, including many fashion bloggers who prefer to use Mercari over Poshmark. In general, there isn’t this weird since of seller competition on Mercari that exists on Poshmark. People seem to want to make a sale and move on, which I can appreciate. You won’t find too many highly-styled flat lay set-ups with fake flowers or fake marble contact paper, just the item and the description.
DISADVANTAGES: I just started to dabble on Mercardi, partly because I had heard it was a lot easier and more straight forward than Poshmark. While I do agree that Mercardi is much more streamlined, I will say that the overall payouts are on the lower side. For example, Poshmark will bring in a higher resale, while Mercardi compares more to what Thred-Up will offer.
Selling clothing on THE REALREAL
ADVANTAGES: Similar to Thred-up, The RealReal will email you a prepaid shipping label for you to pack up your gently used designer goods for their team to authenticate and review for sale. I found the process to be very straight forward, and the prices they offered were very reasonable. In general, I don’t own a ton of designer leather goods, but I do tend to purchase clothing from a mid-price range. TIBI, Rebecca Minkoff, Alexander Wang, and Diane von Furstenberg sell very well!
DISADVANTAGES: I don’t have a ton of negative feedback on The RealReal. Since the site is targeted towards luxury or high-end designers, everything is pretty transparent about the payouts and what they will accept and will not. Perhaps, one downside is the time it takes to get paid for a sale. Let’s say you sell something on the 2nd of the month, and you would not get paid until the 15th of the following month. Another downside to the RealReal is the way they approach sales incentivizes for their customers. Their seller agreement allows them to apply an immediate 20% discount to your item, which will affect the item’s Initial Sale Price, aka you make less.
I hope this review helps!