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Reselling on Poshmark Vs eBay: How To Leverage Posh Sidekick

Reselling on Poshmark Vs eBay How To Leverage Posh Sidekick

Looking for the best reselling online platform? Read this Poshmark vs eBay comparison and find out which one is a better platform to start a reselling venture. 

If you are looking to start an online venture with minimal costs, the unprecedented growth in the second-hand reselling industry makes it worth a shot for aspiring entrepreneurs. No matter if you are looking to resell fashion items on eBay or Poshmark, the thing you need to know is that the fashion e-commerce market is expected to reach $672.71 billion in valuation by 2023 (Source: Shopify). To help you out in choosing the right reselling platform, we bring you this Poshmark Vs eBay comparison.

The Reselling Revolution

Before starting the comparison between online reselling on Poshmark Vs eBay, it’s important to understand the reason behind the massive growth in the reselling market.

Driven by Gen Z and millennials, the global multi-billion-dollar industry grabbed over 30 million new customers in 2020 alone, according to ThreadUp. With giants like Poshmark leading the fashion reselling industry, reselling accounted for 7% of the clothing, footwear, and accessories market in 2020, and is expected to double up and capture 14% of the market by 2024. However, the question comes, what’s causing the rapid growth of the industry? Why would people prefer buying used goods from online platforms when they have the opportunity to buy new ones?

The answer revolves around sustainability. As consumers become increasingly conscious of their consumption footprint, the market is shifting towards reusing secondhand goods. According to First Insight, 62% of Gen Zs and millennials favor purchasing from sustainable brands. In addition, the secondhand reselling business model provides affordability and convenience to consumers via online buying making it the perfect package for them. Imagine being able to buy chic stylish products from Poshmark, that too at discounted prices. What an enticing offer!

Looking from the perspective of entrepreneurs, the growing customer base for second-hand items combined with the low operational costs, make online reselling of secondhand goods a highly profitable opportunity that should not be missed.

Choosing the Right Platform: Poshmark Vs eBay

Now that you have decided to start reselling, the first and most important step is to choose an online marketplace. To help sellers choose the best platform, we have listed the differences between selling on Poshmark vs eBay based on the following facets:

Listing and Selling Cost on eBay Vs Poshmark

Since costs have a direct impact on the profit which is the aim of any business, let’s analyze the costs of selling on Poshmark Vs eBay first. There are two major fees charged by most online marketplaces, including eBay, the listing fee and the selling fee.

eBay – Multiple Fees

eBay initially offers 250 “zero insertion fee listings” which indicates that your first 250 listings will be free of charge. Anything above that will be charged an insertion fee, around $0.35 per listing for most categories unless you subscribe to the eBay store option which offers additional free insertion listing depending upon the subscription stage.

Once listed, if an item is sold, eBay charges a percentage, between 13% to 15% for most categories, of the total amount of the sale along with the payment processing fee of $0.30 per order. The total sale amount on eBay includes the item price, handling charges, shipping service chosen by the buyer, and sales tax.

Poshmark – Just the Selling Fee

Unlike most platforms, Poshmark only charges the selling fee. With over 80 million users, the platform offers unlimited free listings to sellers. Poshmark’s selling fee is based on the price of the sold item. If the sales are under $15, then a flat fee of $2.95 is charged. If the sales are beyond $15, then Poshmark cuts 20% of the amount, leaving sellers with 80%.

Shipping Costs of eBay Vs Poshmark

While shipping might seem like a simple task, it can take time and effort if you choose the wrong platform, making it an important factor in choosing between reselling secondhand items on Poshmark Vs eBay.

eBay’s Variable Options

eBay’s shipping costs can be in various ways including flat and calculated rates. However, shipping labels need to be generated and bought by entering the details of the order after a sale is made, making it a hassle for sellers.

Poshmark’s Pre-paid Labels

Poshmark has a relatively straightforward option as compared to eBay. Poshmark’s shipping costs are based on a flat rate of $7.67 for expedited shipping on all orders which is paid by buyers unless the total weight exceeds 5lbs which cost then has to be paid by the seller. Pre-paid labels are also provided making the shipping process more convenient for sellers. As soon as a sale is made, a pre-addressed shipping label is immediately emailed.

Using this label can offer more seller protection. All you need to do is ensure that the label is used on the package and the package is then scanned into the USPS tracking system. Once this is done, you don’t need to worry about the delivery getting lost in transit because this will be completely covered by Poshmark itself. Orders above $400 also require buyer signatures upon delivery, giving further protection to sellers.

Is It Easier to Get Paid On eBay Or Poshmark?

When you have finally made a sale after putting your time and money into the process, you would want to receive your revenue immediately. Deciding between Poshmark’s Vs eBay’s payment methods is tough.

eBay – Pays As Soon As the Buyer Pays

According to eBay’s payment method, sellers get payouts as soon as the buyer pays. While at first, that might sound great, there’s a catch. What if your buyer delays the payment? Your payout automatically gets delayed. Sellers then have to email or invoice the buyers until they pay. If the buyer still doesn’t pay, sellers can open a case against them. While this can lead the buyer to pay, the process can be quite cumbersome for the seller.

Poshmark – Takes a Maximum of Three Days

On the other hand, Poshmark’s payment method gives buyers three days to accept the item, following which the payment is automatically approved. As soon as the buyer accepts, sellers receive their revenue.

The Terrifying Process of Returns and refunds on eBay Vs Poshmark

Returns and refunds are something disliked by both the buyer and the seller. After going through the entire process of getting an item listed and shipping it, returns and refunds can lead sellers to lose money and all their precious time causing disruption in their process. Let’s see the comparison between reselling used items on Poshmark Vs eBay based on the return and refund policies.

eBay – Takes a Step Back

For eBay’s returns and refunds, sellers and buyers communicate directly to resolve such cases. There are multiple options depending on what the two parties agree on. The buyer can also receive a partial refund while keeping the received item or exchange the item for another one.

In cases where the seller and buyer cannot reach a mutual understanding, eBay has to step in to resolve the complaint. eBay offers Money Back Guarantee policy on most items. The downside of this policy is that when a refund of an item covered by this policy is issued, sellers will only be refunded the final credit value and not the insertion fees and other eBay fees.

Poshmark – Does It For You

All sales on Poshmark are final unless the item delivered to the buyer does not match the description within the listing. Buyers have the option to open a case within three days to report the incident to Poshmark via the app or website.

The Poshmark app does not offer direct messaging functionality between buyers and sellers due to which the returns and refunds cannot be discussed privately. However, this can be a blessing in disguise for the sellers as they don’t have to spend time to try and understand the issue. Instead, Poshmark does it.

The platform deals directly with the buyer and requires evidence in the form of pictures of the received items to further investigate the case. If the complaint is proven to be valid, the return is made to the seller and the refund to the buyer. Hence, returns and refunds on Poshmark are quite simple for sellers.

Listing and Selling Experience on eBay Vs Poshmark

When it comes to listing products, sellers dread the extensive process of filling out the product details. Therefore, differentiating between reselling on Poshmark Vs eBay based on user experience is vital.

eBay – Lengthy Listing

eBay’s listing experience lags due to the lengthy details required, making the process inefficient for sellers. It offers the option of selling the item for auction or as a “Buy It Now” order. While this may seem like a flexible option, it can become quite tricky to decide. One useful feature is the option of direct messages to sellers on eBay. This allows customers to quickly send a message if they need additional information about the item.

Poshmark – Easy Listing But Selling Takes Time

Poshmark’s listing and selling processes are fairly simple through the Poshmark App which takes barely a few minutes to complete the entire process of listing. Just capture clear pictures of your items, come up with a concise, alluring description, tap a few buttons, and you are done.

In addition, Poshmark provides effective selling features that can be used to offer discounts on multiple purchases along with private discounts. What’s more is that luxury items worth above $500 are given free authentication, building the confidence of the customer for the high-cost purchase.

The Poshmark App seems quite similar to any social media app. It offers the feature of following and engaging with your audience which makes it difficult to distinguish from social media. You can post Posh stories to connect with your followers and host Posh parties to showcase live shopping events. While this may take time, greater connectivity with customers ultimately leads to a better understanding of their needs and eventually to higher sales.

eBay’s Customer Base Vs Poshmark’s

Your target customers matter more than the total number of customers on either platform. Let’s have a look at the size of customer bases on Poshmark Vs eBay.

eBay – Huge But Saturated

With over 180 million users per year, eBay’s customer base is attracted by the extensive list of categories and listings it offers. While this may seem like an obvious reason to get listed on eBay, sellers need to consider the saturated market with 15% of the total eBay users also selling on the platform. With so many categories and listings, your item needs to stand out high time to get noticed by buyers. And that can be difficult to do.

Poshmark – Best for Trendy Products

If you are someone looking to resell fashionable items, Poshmark is your best bet. The platform has 80 million buyers who are looking to buy nothing but trendy clothing items. The number of users is expected to grow exponentially once the platform expands to more countries.

Poshmark Vs eBay: The Final Winner

Time for the verdict! Having gone through some of the most important factors in choosing your reselling platform, let’s now come to a conclusion and choose the best one for your future business aspirations between Poshmark Vs eBay. Summarizing the above factors, we can choose a winner across each factor:

Fees: In terms of listings, Poshmark wins since it offers unlimited free listings. Deciding based on the selling fees can be quite confusing. Poshmark’s flat rate for items under $15 wins against eBay’s calculation of the final value fee which contains a couple of payments. However, sellers find the 20% cut quite large for items above $15 on Poshmark. So, if you are looking to sell items below $15, then Poshmark is your best bet. Even if the price is above $15 and Poshmark gets 20%, the free listings offered by Poshmark can prove to be better than eBay’s total fee.

Shipping Costs: eBay offers flexible options but the seller protection offered by Poshmark is worth letting go of eBay’s flexibility. Because in the end, no one wants to waste their time tracking lost packages which leads to inefficiency.

Payments: Poshmark wins against eBay given the payment ceiling of three days.

Refunds and Returns: Again, sellers don’t want to lose precious time dealing with unruly customers and their invalid complaints. Hence, Poshmark’s ability to deal with buyers’ complaints itself makes it a favorite for sellers.

Listing and Selling Experience: We have a tie on this one. While Poshmark’s listing process is simpler than eBay’s, it requires constant time to share listings and keep followers engaged to get sales.

Customer Base: This depends on the item you want to sell. Anything related to fashion and accessories should go to Poshmark.

Winner: Given all the factors, Poshmark has an advantage over eBay. Poshmark only lags due to the manual effort it requires to run the listing and sell it. There’s an easy solution to solve that problem too and automate the complete process for sellers. There are multiple tools in the market that can be used to grow your business on Poshmark.

Poshmark Bots

You must have heard of bots. Poshmark bots have now become a necessary tool for users across the platform. There are bots in the market that can either be employed to do some of the work for you or they can do almost everything for you, just like a virtual assistant. Their main function is automating tasks for you to make reselling more convenient. Now, with a range of Poshmark bots, it can be difficult to decide which one to choose. Let’s have a look at the factors you should consider before investing in a bot.

Intelligent Algorithm

The goal of using a Poshmark bot is to get yourself rid of monotonous tasks so that you can use your time on important tasks related to the strategy of your business. That means your bot should be able to do everything for you once you have posted your listings. This depends on how smart the bot is in figuring out the best time to do different tasks.

Be it sharing your closet, getting followers, or sending offers, the bot should have the capacity to do it all without getting flagged by Poshmark. It should be able to perform these tasks simultaneously without the need for monitoring and should be smart enough to learn through observing trends using algorithms.

Device Compatibility

Poshmark bots come in two forms: browser extensions and software. Browser extensions can be a bit frustrating since they mostly require the seller’s laptop to be on along with the Poshmark website opened in a tab. Whereas the software needs to be installed either on the computer or the phone.

The growth of digitalization has led to such immense convenience that logging onto your computer seems like a tedious task when you have the option to access the same, if not more, features, via your phone. While Poshmark itself has an app that is easy to use, most Poshmark bots work only with the Poshmark website.

If you are using the Poshmark app to sell, you’d probably have to shift your entire workflow to use these bots which can inversely affect your productivity.  Hence, it is important to consider if you would prefer working with a browser extension versus a full-fledged app.

Automated CAPTCHAs Solving

Solving CAPTCHAs is quite annoying for all of us, to say the least. Unfortunately, you will be required to solve them while performing various tasks on Poshmark, and you can’t really ignore them. Neither can your bot unless you want your account to be flagged, put in share jail, or the worst case, be banned permanently. To avoid such cases, it becomes vital to choose a bot that can solve CAPTCHAs effectively. While some Poshmark bots offer this as a baseline feature, others require you to pay extra for third-party software.

Statistical Analysis

To keep track of your listings and check the performance of the bot, you would need stats. The increase in your followers, shares, and ultimately your sales, helps you measure the effectiveness of the bot. Hence, the best Poshmark bot will provide data analytics options for you and measure your account’s growth.

Customer Support

This goes without saying. As with any service, having a responsive support team behind your Poshmark bot that is always present to help you is immensely crucial.

Posh Sidekick – The Smartest Poshmark Bot

Now that we know what features are important in a Poshmark bot, the question is which bot offers all of these at the cheapest price. Here’s a bot that does everything for you without getting your account in trouble even while you sleep: Posh Sidekick. The name might sound new to most, but the number of astounding services offered by the bot is bound to make it grow exponentially. So, what’s so good about Posh Sidekick? Let’s see what makes it so special out of all the bots out there:

Powerful Sharing

The Poshmark Pro Tools bot makes sharing a whole new experience. Without having to tap even once, you get over 100,000 shares each month. How amazing is that! What’s more, the intelligent algorithm behind the sharing mechanism doesn’t just randomly share every listing with everyone, it chooses the best time and suitable users to share listings with 24/7. Spammers are automatically cut-off and listings are only shared with potential buyers.

The most distinguishing feature offered by Sidekick is “Network Shares”. The bot has its own private sharing circles with millions of followers where your listings will be circulated. Imagine the boost in your Poshmark sales everyday by being shared in multiple such circles. More relevant buyers will see it, leading to more sales for your closet. What’s more is that anyone who likes your shares is automatically sent offers, making them more inclined to buy.

Unique Target Following

Just like sharing, Sidekick intelligently chooses its followers. You simply have to share a list of brands that you offer when at the checkout page and that’s it! The machine learning algorithm will automatically follow only those people who like the brands. Invented by Poshmark Pro Tools itself, the targeted following allows sellers to get warm leads that have a higher probability of purchasing from them.

Data Analytics

Sidekick is about to launch its own app. Yes, you read that right. The Posh Sidekick app will allow you to track daily progress and see how much your business has grown.  You will be able to see the number of shares, followers, and offers that have occurred along with many more useful insights.

How Much Does It Cost?

Sidekick offers a series of incredible features, but the question always comes down to the cost. The monthly cost is $29.99 with the inclusion of automatic captchas solving, no matter what your closet size is. If the price has made you think twice about investing in Posh Sidekick, just give a try to its free version that lasts for a whole week and doesn’t even require a credit card!

The convenient and versatile management service offered by Posh Sidekick is bound to make you buy the service for months to grow your business successfully on Poshmark. And don’t worry if you face any challenges because 24/7 customer support is always there to help you out. So, what are you waiting for? Choose the Posh Sidekick free trial and start reselling on Poshmark!

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