Poshmark replicated their 2020 results and finished in 6th place in the 2021 Sellers Choice Awards. The niche fashion app earned high marks for Ease of Use, but many respondents were not as enthusiastic about the work involved marketing their items on social media.
In January 2021, EcommerceBytes readers rated the marketplaces on which they had experience selling. An introduction to the Sellers Choice survey along with a summary of the overall ratings can be found here, along with links to results for each of the 10 online marketplaces included in the survey.
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Poshmark
Year Established: 2011
Description: Mobile selling app with a focus on fashion
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Summary:
Poshmark came in 6th place in the 2021 Sellers Choice Awards for Online Marketplaces.
Poshmark has enthusiastic users who praised the site as easy to use and for its 3-day return policy – though one seller wrote, “Poshmark is another venue that often refunds without insisting on getting the item back from the buyer.”
It’s free to list on Poshmark, which charges a 20% commission on items that sell (for sales under $15, there is a flat-rate fee of $2.95 instead of the commission fee). Many enthusiasts said they felt it was worth it – some sellers were more concerned with the investment in time Poshmark expected sellers to make in “sharing” listings, both their own and those of other sellers.
“Sharing keeps the listings at the top of search results, brand pages, followers’ Feeds, and showrooms,” Poshmark explains.
“The constant sharing multiple times a day and no ability to bulk edit pricing, etc. makes this site less appealing. It requires a HUGE time commitment,” wrote one seller.
Some sellers also said the shipping structure made it unsustainable for selling low-priced items. Poshmark charges buyers a flat-rate of $7.45 (effective February 4, 2021) for items up to 5 pounds, which are sent USPS Priority Mail.
“All the sharing and interaction is a pain, and I wish they could fix shipping for people selling items because buyers don’t want to pay the huge shipping fees for lightweight items,” one seller wrote. However, one seller said you can send offers with lower shipping.
One seller said they felt there was a lack of information to help sellers and said there were no forums where sellers could gather to share information.
The seller also said there was a divide – “Advertising shows only high end. I didn’t even know there are two parts of posh, the real posh and the lower class posh. And no info on how to get on the high-end side. All around lack of info for sellers.”
That appears to be a reference to the “retail” option on Poshmark in which it allows sellers to turn their Poshmark “Closet” into a “Boutique.”
Poshmark received a 5.41 in Profitability; a 5.64 in Customer Service; a 5.76 in Communication; and a 6.69 in Ease of Use. It received a 5.96 from sellers when asked, “How likely are you to Recommend Poshmark as a selling venue to a friend or colleague?”
Reader Comments: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Poshmark is pretty easy to use. No problems yet.
Best. Easiest. Most clarity in all areas. Consistent selling/profits. Responsive & helpful customer service.
Poshmark is the easiest user platform, most seller friendly and now going public so anticipating even more growth. Seems to be the platform of tomorrow.
Love Poshmark! Easy to sell and ship. PM takes care of shipping label! PM cares about their sellers and buyers. The 20% fee, while higher than most sites, pays for itself when you need help from PM on a transaction or shipping issue! They have protected their sellers during this USPS crisis and keep us updated on platform changes.
Great return policy – 3 days. Can’t beat that with a stick.
We have been on Poshmark for two years now and are pleased with the operation and our sales. We plan to increase inventory this year even though we have almost 600 items. The 3 day acceptance is a selling point. No returns for non fit or remorse is another great point. Not saying there are not scammers and dishonest buyers, there are, but not nearly as bad as eBay or Mercari. Overall good place to sell!
I haven’t sold a whole bunch but I am just beginning to up my number of listings. Poshmark has a fair shipping policy and very good customer service. Lost packages thru USPS they make it right for buyer and seller. It is more of a social platform. You sell by sharing listings from your closet as well as other sellers listings. They then return the favor by sharing your listings. So I am learning to get use to this. All in all a good platform to sell on.
No insertion-fees is a nice perk, as is the super easy and streamlined shipping rates. And a bonus to sellers is that buyers are trained to pay for 3rd party provided cost.
Profit margins are good on Poshmark for me, however I wish they offered a first class mailing service as I sell a lot of lightweight items and shipping deters customers.
Poshmark listens to sellers and is providing the upgrades we ask for to improve listings.
Easy to list, one fee, one shipping price, tons of traffic, seller protection. They are the gold standard for easy transactions and my stuff sells. They are built on small sellers. The one shipping price can be rough for selling small items, but you can send offers with lower shipping. The one shipping price is awesome for shipping larger items or items that need lots of packaging, because it is good on any package up to 5 lbs. Poshmark is my favorite.
I make the most money on Poshmark. I can list it and forget about it. It stays active and doesn’t disappear like on eBay when a listing gets stale. You can participate or not in sharing and other activities available to keep your closet active.
I have recommended Poshmark. I like that they cover the shipping costs, even though I’m sad to see the rates increased. It makes it harder to get buyers. Again, I just haven’t listed much, but I do plan on using more soon.
I don’t have very many items listed on Poshmark which is why it isn’t as profitable for me. Other than that, its pretty simple to use and the fact that I do not have to worry about the shipping charges makes it great.
Much easier to list on PM than elsewhere. Less info – so speedier. Sales are not amazing, but they add to the total and the big plus the buyer pays shipping.
Would get rated higher if they had a share all button for your closet, or did away with the sharing altogether.
I sell clothes from my family and dishes on Poshmark. I really like the ease of the platform but don’t care for the social stuff. I don’t share much but I don’t think it matters because my items are not in high demand so I won’t get buried in Posh search. Most of my sales come from buyers without a “closet,” so I assume they found me on Google. Apparently Posh has a good relationship with Google, unlike eBay. Although you can’t call customer service on Poshmark, they are responsive to email. And they have actual people sorting out problems. Occasionally they refund the buyer AND pay the seller if it looks like no one is at fault. For this, I justify their 20%. I don’t think they are greedy pigs. Also, the shipping is so simple. The flat $7.00 doesn’t work well for under a pound, so I sell those items on eBay. But I keep it under 5 lbs for dishes and sending 4 lbs of salad plates across the country for $7.00 is awesome. I think Posh has a nice vibe. My main concern is I wish they had a good photo editor so I wouldn’t have to edit photos with another program.
I became a Posh Ambassador this year and will likely ramp this venue up. All the sharing and interaction is a pain, and I wish they could fix shipping for people selling items because buyers don’t want to pay the huge shipping fees for lightweight items. But, Posh IS bringing in the eyes and it’s a fast list. The fvf is high, but compared to others, they are in the ballpark. These guys are up and comers.
I love how Poshmark does shipping. Wish I did not have to spend so much time sharing though.
Poshmark makes selling very simple with a user friendly listing tool, shipping solution and no returns policy. Traffic and sales are suprisingly good. Fees are high and the business dashboard is poor.
Very easy site for new sellers, but they take a large cut (20%) and most buyers ask for big discounts. They offer good seller protections and limit returns, which is a plus for clothing sellers.
It’s worth listing. The sales have been great but their CS is not great and the silly sharing side of it makes it seem less professional.
You have to stay very active on Poshmark to make any real sales… for the most part, it is an easy platform to use.
Items are profitable on this platform. Hard to list items and time-consuming. Can’t delete sold items from feed and other features need improving. Items do sell for a good price.
The fee structure is 20% flat, so it’s costly, and they do have some low ballers on there trying to nickle-and-dime.
Never had to contact customer service yet. They send a bit too many emails. The listing form could probably use a bit more help, maybe more characters allowed in description, etc. But the simplicity probably does help the whole idea. I wish they had a filter to add to pic or way to mark things as freebies.
The main positive feature of Poshmark is that people know about it. I make more sales on Poshmark, but less profit. Commission rates are high, and their shipping policies are restricting to the point where in some cases there is no way to price something properly. There are a lot of items that would sell for $7, but Poshmark requires charging an additional $7 for shipping (rather than the actual $2-3 it actually costs to ship, and sellers don’t receive the difference), plus the minimum amount to cover commission so you are making a $.01 or more profit. Now that $7 item has to cost $20. I get a lot of offers that I would otherwise accept, except Poshmark’s pricing structure prohibits this. I’ve also noticed buyers becoming increasingly unpleasant. They beg for a huge discount, which I usually grant them and then complain when widely known postal delays mean they get it within the later half of the arrival time-frame.
I like Poshmark, even though they require a lot of interaction with sharing listings for other people. The actual listing process is the easiest of the platforms I used. I love that once I ship my part is done, unless customer service reaches out to me for an issue the buyer has. As a seller, I’ve not had to deal with customer service. I am not happy about the fees, or that I can’t seem to get their labels to print on 4×6 labels. But that’s minor. I do recommend the app, but wouldn’t considered it a high sale traffic place.
Poshmark has been my savior in 2020. Quite a bit of work sharing, but I have sold many many items that I had tried for years on eBay and other places. The profit is lower, the ease of listing is unbelievable. In under a minute and a half, the listing is up and running. With Poshmark, I have a choice…..0 profit or some profit. Consumers are changing their habits, the good old days of selling in the 80’s is long gone. At least I can get packages out the door and put new items in their place, inventory is moving.
I cannot use the same pictures I use on other platforms (eBay, Etsy, etc.). Poshmark needs to be picture-friendly to standard pictures, not only those taken by phone. (I use a professional camera, and all but Poshmark display them just fine; Poshmark crops them by at least a half.)
Poshmark is definitely a great site for selling clothing. I do wish that there were more shipping options as I have yet to sell more than one item to a customer. For bundle sales, the flat rate is awesome but when someone buys just 1 lightweight shirt…USPS First class would save buyers and sellers so much in shipping fees. It would also be nice to have the option of messaging a user privately when a sale is made or when making and/or responding to offers. In case any questions or clarification is needed and you don’t want to have a whole conversation back & forth on the listing.
Too hard to list multiple items, needs an upload feature.
Easy to use, but buyers are encouraged to seek low prices. Unable to delete sold items. Wish there was a more direct & private way to contact buyers.
Too many pictures required for buyers, too much pressure on “pretty” packaging and freebies, nitpicky buyers and too many fields to fill in
A venue always urging sellers to reduce their prices – a real race to the bottom pricewise. Buyers expect low prices on Poshmark.
The $7.11 shipping charge makes it difficult for buyers to purchase a 2-ounce jewelry piece. Wish Poshmark would have lower shipping for items under 5oz. Receive the most ridiculous low-ball offers on this site. One must constantly be “sharing” in order to keep items closer to top of listings. Not enough room in listing DESCRIPTION box.
Too much unrelated participation required.
Selling fees are too high, need bulk import tool, need ability to have more than 1 in stock
The offers are very low ball ones. The 20% fee is very high. The site is flooded and you have to stay on top of the sharing and following. It takes a lot of time. I like how they set up once you’ve made a sale. They make that part very easy with the notifications.
Very easy to list. Too opaque with policies. Needs to provide more insight to sellers on selling performance. Very high fees & they need to revamp their ridiculous $7 shipping for everything.
While the site gets great visibility, customer service is lacking. No phone number to contact support and issues often go in favor of the buyer, regardless of whether or not the seller had support to back their claims.
I haven’t had any questions selling on Poshmark so I can’t speak for their customer service or rate them a 10 because of it. If there was a way to turn offers off, I wouldn’t have to price things so high and in the end, end up accepting less money just because I know that there is no returns and I don’t have to consider covering the cost of shipping and if someone is to return it.
Easy to use. Can’t speak to a person. High fees.
Poshmark is so time consuming. The fees are so high. I can put in hours of work and sell 3 things in a week or no time at all and sell 8. There is no real information on what magic it takes to get consistent sales on Poshmark. I find Poshmark pretty frustrating, I think they mean for all the social stuff to be fun but it just feels fake.
Posh fees are high. Ease of listing makes it worth my doing (especially with cross posting software). I sell better brand and designer merchandise, keep my prices steady with only small reductions, so I do not get inundated with low ball offers. Sales volume is low even though I have over 10K followers, share on my own and at parties, share other folks’ listings, etc. I do not “Put up signs” in my shop. Bundle discount at the level I am able to offer is not effective. Resellers at somewhat of a disadvantage at this site. Hate all the “Boutique” unbranded low quality stuff they push. It will never be a big part of my business but from time to time, I do buy and I make enough from items I sell to keep me there with ease of cross posting.
Where do I begin? This site is robbery 20% selling fee. 20%! Just take my unborn children, Poshmark. It gets worse – $7.11 shipping fee on everything even 1 ounce items…..no option to choose lower shipping rates. Unable to communicate with buyers and sellers privately. Sold items can not be deleted – that makes me so mad. Relisted items do not go on the “just in” page. Response from customer service take a week. Did I mention the 20% seller fee??? This site is my last resort if I have to sell something, and if I do, I only use it for heavy items so I can save money on shipping. Something that would cost me $50 to ship I use Poshmark shipping label if $7.11. Thanks Poshmark. Just let other buyers know to go through Poshmark to save on shipping for heavy items that are real expensive to ship. I hate Poshmark. What’s the shipping rate going to be this year $8.00 and we know Poshmark pockets all that shipping money along with the 20% seller fee. How this greedy site keeps going beats me.
Too much need to keep lowering prices to gain shipping bargains. Too little choice with shipping costs. Too little space for descriptions. Too much reliance on getting followers and participation. Full time sellers have distinct advantage. No forum for sharing/helping. Little guidance, tips, help, shortcuts. Seems very cliquey. Not enough tutoring. Advertising shows only high end. I didn’t even know there are two parts of posh, the real posh and the lower class posh. And no info on how to get on the high-end side. All around lack of info for sellers.
Pros: The seller has the option to trigger your products into a Boutique if they are brand new with tags. Cons: Kind of overwhelming when u have to keep sharing and following.
If you have the ‘right’ merchandise, you’ll do well. One bad thing is how they handle returns – very bad for the seller. Not a problem for me, but for many, many other sellers who have lost money and product. Buyers will damage and/or switch out things and ask for a return, and the site allows this.
Shipping fee is a problem: buyers not willing to pay Priority Mail fee for everything – same Priority Mail shipping fee for a First Class or Media Mail item. Many sellers do not communicate with buyers.
Poshmark is another venue that often refunds without insisting on getting the item back from the buyer. It allows buyers to cancel the transaction even after the tracking shows the item in transit so the buyer gets the item AND the refund. Easy enough to use but again, very easy to get banned unfairly.
Sellers Choice Awards:
We thank all readers who took the time to rate the marketplaces. If you have comments about the Sellers Choice Awards, please feel free to post them below.
