18 March 2015

Poshmark - An Honest Review on the Plunder and Payouts

Poshmark, the app where you can buy and sell fashion at greatly reduced prices, has definitely gained popularity since I joined almost three years ago. Being the serial shopper that I am (don't judge me) I originally joined purely for the purpose of finding more things at great prices - a la eBay but without the bidding wars and seriously inflated prices.

As far as spending money goes, I purchased several items at pretty reasonable prices. There were not all sunshine and rainbow experiences but it wasn't enough to sour me.

Before I outline my pros and cons, here is a snippet a few things I've purchased:

Lauren Conrad Fringe Sandal

Vera Wang Glitter Ballet Flat

Zara Glitter Sandal

J. Crew Sequin Top
 Now, my thoughts...

Pros:
- Easier to negotiate prices with the seller than on a site like eBay
- Once packages are shipped, it's two day priority shipping
- More likely to find unique and hard to find items that may originally have had big ticket prices
- Shipping cost is all the same no matter what you buy
- Discounted shipping can be an incentive for a seller to make a sale if they lower an item price
- Poshmark is very responsive if you are unhappy or if the seller is dragging their feet

Cons:
- Some sellers are not as engaged and responsive to questions and and offers
- Some sellers can be extremely slow shippers
- No free shipping
- Their still is price gouging as you find on eBay


After some time Poshmarking as a shopper, and seeing this IFB post, I decided I needed to start purging my closet (that's another blog post entirely). And my thoughts on that....

Pros:
- You don't have to worry about shipping prices questions or whether to offer it free or not, because it's set by Poshmark
- Money you've earned can be held to use for Posh shopping or can be easily direct deposited into your bank
- There's no seller bashing
- It's pretty quick and easy to post items using their template
- There's no reposting if it doesn't sale within a given period of time, it will just continue to be in your closet

Cons:
- Like a lot of social media sites, it's the popular kids who get most of the action
- Along with the the popular kids your closet also has to compete against the closets that often have the bigger brands (but everyone's not looking for that so don't get discouraged)
- It can be frustrating to get a lot of likes on an item but no sale, even when it's priced more than reasonable
- Some Posh shoppers are extra needy and then don't even leave decent feedback
- Like any social media site, you have to spend a considerable amount of time promoting items in your closet and participating in Posh parties, so that can be time consuming


And one final overall note, you can only shop and post through the app, even though they do have a a website, it's just for browsing.

I consider myself a Posher at this point. My personal tips for selling are to post items to both eBay and Poshmark, just be sure to keep up with your inventory. If you have a big brand item (i.e., Kate Spade, Kors, etc) you may just be better off posting it on eBay where you can possibly get more, Poshmark is more for haggling. Between the two sites, I managed to make enough to pay off a sizeable bill. So it certainly can be worth it, as with most things you just have to take the good with the bad.


I'm curious of what you other ladies think of Poshmark from either a buyer or seller perspective, please leave a comment below on your experience!