Friends, this is a safe space. I have worked for tech companies for over a decade (though granted, not any but my own for a good 5 years now) and yet, whenever anybody talks about how great AI is for their work, I have been afraid to ask my most burning question: what.... are you actually doing? To... do AI?

Like, everyone speaks waves hands generically "AI" but... where are they going and what are they doing to ~use~ it though?

If you have ever wanted to know that, and specifically, how to know what exactly to do to ~use~ it for reselling, you are in the right place because WE DO NOT GATEKEEP HERE. We also do not judge (pls). So here is the extremely rudimentary way I personally use AI to help me resell, so you too can... do... AI. Let's go!

But first... some FAQs:

Why use AI for reselling?

It's a fast way to generate lots of copy about your item based on your inputs. Essentially, instead of you looking at your item and describing it, you can give AI a few key images (including tags) to generate the description for you.

Is AI helpful for reselling work?

Yes, it is surprisingly good for helping create listing copy! Though you may have heard people say that AI only works as well as your prompts (or, inputs) do, so pay attention to the results your getting and tweak, tweak, tweak your requests for the best results.

Does AI make mistakes?

Yup, but surprisingly rarely for me so far. Always skim through the copy you get to check for errors (or as Alan more colorfully puts it "hallucinations"). From time to time, AI will up with something really random for no apparently reason, like telling me a Lululemon sweatshirt is vintage Max Mara. It's rare, but it happens.

What do I ... do though? To do AI??

YES, that it they key question. There are many tools you can use, but the easiest to start with (and one that is free) is Google's Gemini. To use this, go to https://gemini.google.com/.

Will the robots come for us all?

Probably. Anyway, here's how to use Gemini!

Step 1: Create your prompt.

Be as specific as you like. Here's an example of a (lazy-ish) one I use. You can tell I didn't like the results the first time because I have a "please don't do this" note in there. Gemini actually heeds these!

Step 2: Attach images.

Drag n' drop! For best results, include a full length pic, any important detail shots (like showing a hood in back, or a photo of the inside of the garment to show that it's lined in fur), and brand, size, style, and care tags. Gemini will read these and textify the info so you don't have to (is textify a word? It should be).

Step 3: Review and dehallucinate!

As you can see, Gemini did an awesome job here of intuiting that this piece is vintage based on the look of the tag (!!) and the fact that it was made in Hong Kong. But pay attention to the details--while this listing copy looks good, one I generated just before mistakenly described a jacket as having "deep" pockets (wrong) and that the fuzzy shearling lining was "deep pile," which a good image search of "deep pile shearling" told me was not true. It's not that deep, Gemini. Literally.

Step 4: Copy/Paste/Format/List/Enjoy

Feel superior! For now you have joined the legions of people who can brag about how they use AI to do their work--unlike the lowly minions who still don't know if AI is an animal, vegetable, mineral, or something you have to download.

And stay curious about what AI can help you with. I just recently started asking for help with pricing suggestions and the results have been pretty darn good:

The sky is the limit when it comes to outsourcing tasks that basically boil down to google searches to AI.

Questions, comments, requests, suggestions, or AI pro tips to share? Drop 'em below. And godspeed!

Love and AI magic,

Cathy@Closetwitch

It started as a dream: shopping! Working from home! Packing cute little orders for happy customers! Thank you stickers!

But then reality crept in: piles of clothes with problems. Unhappy customers. Endlessly pricey supply restocks: tissue paper, lint rolls, and those damned Thank You stickers.

What happened? And what can you do about it?

The upside of having all the responsibility of working for yourself is that you also have freedom: freedom to work when you want, how you want, in the environment you want. So let's start reshaping things.

In this series we'll address key trouble spots of the reselling lifestyle and help you make intentional choices to boost your happiness, productivity, and quality of life.

Let's do it!

Last week we discussed the 80/20 Principle when it comes to choosing inventory: how 20% of the items you sell likely generate 80% of your income, so it makes sense to try to increase those types of sales and target that kind of inventory when sourcing.

Let's next apply that principle next to our day to day work reselling. Which tasks generate 80% of sales, and which have little impact but take up lots of time? And how can we tip the balance back in our favor?

Highest ROI Activities for Poshmark Resellers

When managing your reselling business, certain activities yield significantly higher returns than others. Here are a few of the activities that generally have the most impact that are worth focusing on:

Sourcing

Obviously sourcing great inventory is key to your business. Boost your efficacy with these high return sourcing tasks:

• Researching and identifying high-margin brands and categories before shopping (and comp-ing in-store to reduce bad-buys). Bonus: framing your shopping trips around these sections of the store first (especially if you're low on time)
• Researching inventory sources available to you; timing purchases around clearance events and sales; planning shopping trips around multiple locations where you're likely to pick up lots of good inventory at once
• Searching harder and longer for items with proven quick sell-through rates and high profit margins and leaving items with mediocre sell-through rates, poor condition, or low profit margins behind. ***This is probably the single simplest way to save time on all your other activities in reselling and maximize your productivity***

Processing/Listing New Items

Let's list that amazing inventory! Here are the parts of the listing process that have the most impact:

• Writing detailed, keyword-rich descriptions for better search visibility
• Taking clear, well-lit photos that show item details
• Taking measurements and noting fabric content in listings and/or tag photos (the time saved in answering questions alone makes this worthwhile, but it will also generate sales from folks who wouldn't bother asking for measurements or fabric details, but wouldn't purchase without them)
• Finding style numbers and specific product names when available (I also use stock photos when possible to show fit, but that's not for everybody)

Sending Offers or Price Drops

We all know sending offers drives sales. Here's how to maximize your time spent doing it:

• Send offers to likers within the first 24-48 hours (waiting much longer than this greatly reduces efficacy of offers, in my experience)
• Run strategic price drops during Closet Clearouts at peak shopping times, for items with recent likes
• Offer bundle discounts to encourage multiple-item purchases (FYI: you can set this up automatically in Poshmark so it's completely hands off, though sending buyers with multiple likes in your closet a hand-generated deal is nice too)

Shipping/Inventory Management

Inventory management tends to fall to the back burner for most resellers; packing and storing items properly doesn't feel urgent until you're suddenly tearing through everything, stressed, wasting time, and making a huge mess trying to find that one stupid skirt you sold. Here's what to focus on for the biggest return for that all important inventory management work:

• Quick listing of new inventory (within 24 hours of sourcing, before it becomes ~one~ with your workspace and thus invisible to you)
• Fast, batched, regularly scheduled shipping sessions for sold items
• Regular rotation of stale inventory through relisting (preferably from scratch/from a reliable tool to reset the just-in dates on items)
• Maintaining organized storage for fast shipping and less wasted scrounging time
• Tracking inventory by age, seasonality, and brand/style demand and adjusting prices accordingly (this will also provide you invaluable information for future sourcing)

Phew, that was a lot. Now that we have a sense of what's non-negotiable with reselling work, let's consider ways to trim down these processes and get them more efficient.

1. Streamline Your Photography Process

Photos are incredibly important in reselling: if buyers don't trust that they're getting a clear picture of condition, accurate color, or the photos are just dark and unappealing, it will cost you sales. That said, spending lots of time editing photos or dragging everything outside for a temporary setup is a poor use of time. Here's what I recommend for making the most of your photo work:

• Set up a permanent photo station with consistent lighting, and consider using pre-set lighting and camera settings
• Use pro settings on phone or camera that allows you to adjust shutter speed and color temperature to accurately capture color and achieve clean, bright photos
• Batch items in similar categories so the photo process moves smoothly/you need fewer brain cells to remember all the shots you need for shoes vs. jumpsuits
• Prep (steam and lint roll) items beforehand so they're ready to rock at photo time
• Sort by color for fewer transitions between camera settings (for example, transitioning from blues to reds and oranges may require white balance camera adjustments and eat up time)
• Have tools at the ready for tackling snags, pills, lint, schmutz, or errant wrinkles so you don't have to stray from your area (psst: a spray bottle of water is an excellent, lazy way to get out wrinkles if you have time to let the fabric dry)

Photo Time Wasters to Avoid:

• Constantly rearranging your photo setup between shots or transitioning between photos and prep work
• Excessive retaking of photos due to poor lighting setup or missed shots
• Over-editing photos when better initial shots would have sufficed

2. Eliminate Repetitive Work While Listing

Let's move on to the listing process. Crafting good listings is an excellent use of your time, but don't bother focusing on flowery descriptions and superlative adjectives. Instead:

• Create templates for descriptions that include info you put in every post. Mine have notes about how I take my measurements, what my condition details mean, and what my closet discounts are
• Save frequently used measurement fields for similar items, line by line (this is also a nice way to make sure you don't miss any key measurements). For pants, for example, you might include waist, rise, inseam, and leg opening, all in a bulleted list
• Keep to a standardized framework for listings. For example, mine follow a general flow of title, condition/flaws, bulleted features/details, measurements, and closet policies)
• Keep measurement charts ready for quick reference (common go-tos for me are skirt lengths in inches (ie. midi vs. maxi skirt definitions), chests sizes in inches for various sizes for men vs. women, and leg opening guides for different styles (to differentiate straight vs. bootcut).

Listing Time Wasters to Avoid:

• Forgetting info because you're writing listings from scratch and having to double back or answer questions
• Falling down research rabbit holes

3. Eliminate Lost or Damaged Items With an Organized Inventory System

Fewer things in reselling are more heartbreaking than ***FINALLY*** selling that one thing you've had forever, then having to cancel the sale because you can't find it anymore. The time and energy waste is just...the absolute worst. Fight the chaos with these best practices:

• Organize inventory with a clear labeling system
• Store similar items together for easy access
• Maintain a digital inventory tracking system, expecially if you crosspost
• Regularly purge slow-moving items
• Store items folded, sealed, and ready to ship so you don't get any last minute nasty surprises

Inventory Time Wasters to Avoid:

• Searching for items that aren't properly organized or labeled (sometimes tidying up your space before starting work is the biggest time saver of all)
• Maintaining too large an inventory that's difficult to track (purging old items is painful, but if you imagine each item getting free rent in your system, it's easier to let go)
• Repeatedly handling the same items due to disorganization (note: this item applies to just about everything on this list)

4. Automate Digital Work

It's so easy to let sharing, relisting, and sending offers eat up you work hours. Try these tips t0 keep digital work effective and boundaried.

• Share or schedule sharing sessions at peak times, and for goodness sake, use a tool for this (there are so many free ones, including ours!). It may vary for your target audience, but generally early to mid morning, lunchtime, and early evening are safe timing bets
• Use digital inventory or cross-posting tools for selling on multiple platforms, or just to stay organized. Yes, a Google Sheet counts as a tool!
• Set up automated offers triggered by new likes or set regular times to send the likes in batches by hand
• Drop prices instead of sending offers on Closet Clearout days to make sales while saving money on shipping discounts (PSSS CCOs are almost always on Fridays and Sundays). Then, drop items that have the most recent likes; they're most likely to sell
• Sort items by listing age to regularly relist stale inventory in batches

Digital Time Wasters to Avoid:

• Sharing your closet manually (there are just too many dang tools that do this for free, including ours)
• Reacting to each individual likes with offer sending by hand all day
• Getting sidetracked by messages and comments instead of scheduled response windows

5. Bonus Tip: Focus on High-ROI Items and Buyers

I write this while knowing damn well I have a pair of YSL heels sitting in my death pile because I'm too intimidated to list them. Don't be like me!

• Prioritize listing high-profit items first (if the markets change, you don't want to miss out on a chance to make your bag)
• Spend more time sourcing proven categories and brands up front vs. bring home lots of mediocre inventory
• Focus sharing and relisting efforts on items with high engagement
• Answer questions and provide extra info for big-ticket items first

Avoid:

• Sinking time and energy into low-value items with issues (sometimes it's best to cut your losses on a bad buy vs. relisting a million times, getting something repaired, or spending hours rehabbing pilled or shrunken sweaters)
• Haggling back and forth with low ball buyers or responding to lots of hyper specific questions about low cost items (buy it or don't buy it, Karen, it's $5)

General Speed Tips for Efficient Reselling

Efficiency speed round! (heh) Feel free to apply these to other areas of your life as well. Apply these tips liberally and often to any phase of your reselling work.

1. Batch Processing

• Sort items by category before starting any task
• Have dedicated areas and set ups for each individual task
• Move items from one phase to the next in one go to keep up momentum

2. Reducing Unnecessary Steps or Movements

• Keep tools where you need them
• Set up your spaces to reduce extra movements or trips
• Template or using bulk functions where possible

3. Scheduling Maintenance and Buffers for the "Unexpected" (That Realistically, We Saw Coming)

• Tidy workspaces at the end of the day
• Schedule time for odd-jobs like laundering or repairing items, or purging old inventory
• Give yourself enough time to complete a job, and add time padding around time-sensitive tasks like packing orders before the post office closes.

In Conclusion:

Streamlining your day and work will forever be a work in progress, but that's part of the fun. Pay attention to the flow of your day; can you find bottlenecks? On the other hand, which seemingly minor details in your space or workflow create obvious rewards? Can you apply these to other parts of your process?

Opportunities to 80/20 your life are always hiding--make it game to find them!

That's it, that's the tweet. Did I miss anything? Do you have any sneaky time-saving tips to share? Do your fellow resellers a solid and drop them below. And now--back to work!

Love and magic,

Cathy@ClosetWitch

It started as a dream: shopping! Working from home! Packing cute little orders for happy customers! Thank you stickers!

But then reality crept in: piles of clothes with problems. Unhappy customers. Endlessly pricey supply restocks: tissue paper, lint rolls, and those damned Thank You stickers.

What happened? And what can you do about it?

The upside of having all the responsibility of working for yourself is that you also have freedom: freedom to work when you want, how you want, in the environment you want. So let's start reshaping things.

In this series we'll address key trouble spots of the reselling lifestyle and help you make intentional choices to boost your happiness, productivity, and quality of life.

Let's do it!

Your new year so far may have involved a lot more: resolutions can have us rushing around squeezing in new morning routines, workouts, obligations, goals, and a heck of a lot more pressure.

But, if women's magazines have taught us anything, it's less IS more (especially when it comes to foundation that matches your skin tone, but that's not relevant here). In reselling, doing the right things and cutting out the not-so-necessary things can help you run a successful business in way less time. So what to focus on?

The 80/20 Principle

All "less" is not created equal, and that's where the 80/20 principle comes in.

The 80/20 principle, also known as the Pareto Principle, generally speaking, refers to the phenomenon of roughly 80% of consequences coming from 20% of causes (ie. (the "vital few").

Translating that to your Poshmark closet, that might mean:

• 20% of your inventory is driving 80% of your profits
• 20% of your brands drive 80% of your sales
• 20% of your efforts (like taking photos and bare minimum listing) create 80% of your results

As someone who loves mucking around steaming, sweater shaving, and putting stickers on things (generally the 80% of your time, 20% of your results, useless activities), this is devastating news. But as someone who is also a bit strapped for time, it's important information to have for the year ahead.

To start applying this principle to your own business, you'll need to gather some intel. Here's what to consider:

• brands and categories that perform the best, that you have access too, and can turn a profit on
• activities that matter, and those that don't make as much of a difference
• time and energy sinks that clutter up your day, bottleneck your work, and tank your productivity

That's a lot to bite off, so let's focus on that first bit for the time being:

Which Brands, Categories, and Styles Drive 80% of Your Business?

To answer this question, let's analyze your Poshmark closet for what's selling quickly, and for a profit, and what's not.

If you have an inventory spreadsheet, grab it now. And if you don't, start one! Information to include for each item is its listing date, cost, category, brand, and eventual sale price (less fees and promotions).

Meanwhile, I'll note how to get a bird's eye view of where your best sales are coming from by eyeballing your Poshmark Closet and your Closet Insights.

Analyzing Your Poshmark Closet for High and Low Performers

Open your Poshmark closet and your Closet Insights in a new tab and let's dig in.

1. Check for Old Timer Listings

A quick way to identify the best selling brands in your closet is through Closet Insights (via the "Brand Insights" table>"Sales"). But once you have this info, it's worth drilling a little deeper. Why? Because of THIS view (Available Listings):

As you can see, while I've solds lots of Lulu, I also still HAVE a lot of it, chilling in my closet, taking up precious storage space in my inventory. So let's see what's going on.

If you don't relist constantly like me, whoops) sort your closet by "just in," filter by brand and/or category and "available," then scroll to the bottom of your closet to get a sense of what's been sitting around a long time. As you do this, take note of what those items have in common.

For example, when doing this exercise for Lululemon as a brand, I can see that a lot of my stragglers have crazy patterns (particularly space dye), are men's pieces, are shorts and tank tops (seasonal), or are cropped leggings. Yeah, that makes sense.

2. Check Rough Profit Margins

[Psst: Profit Margin= [(Sales Price-Cost of Goods)/(Sales Price)] x 100]

If you don't have exact numbers from a spreadsheet, you'll be able to get a sense of this through your Closet Insights dashboard in Poshmark by scrolling down to the Brand Insights table and clicking the "Average Sales Price" view.

Here you'll see average price point of items you've sold for a given brand, and you'll be able to compare them with your memory of your cost of goods. (Super scientific!). This will give you different, more actionable sense of your numbers. Take this dashboard from my closet insights:

While it looks like Rag and Bone is a close second to Loro Piana in profits, the numbers are actually much further apart than they seem. For example, the Loro Piana sweaters I was ***blessed*** to find at the thrift store for $7 had an incredible rate of return. But my decent sales prices for Rag & Bone pieces have a much lower profit in reality, because I mostly sourced for myself through consignment for $$ then resold very meager profits because they didn't fit/I didn't love them.

To further drill down, you might also compare style notes within a brand or category in your actual closet. Here I can see that my Loro Piana cashmere pieces did better sales-price-wise than wool ones, and my wide-leg styles did way better in Rag & Bone jeans than joggers. Good info to have!

3. Top Performers

Once you get a list of top brands and categories from Closet Insights, hop back into your closet to really look at the items sold in these parameters and what they sold for. Don't just use your memory of sales--scroll through your sold listings and take note of these aspects of your fastest-selling, high-profit sold items:

• Brands that sold consistently well in a given category
• Categories with highest margins within a brand (ie. jeans for Spanx, or coats for Patagonia)
• Most profitable size ranges (but let's be for real, it's almost always the bigger sizes that do the best and we know this)
• Style attributes of great sales, ie. materials (cashmere/linen), fit details (relaxed fit), or features like "pull-on" waistbands for denim.

4. Slow Movers

Next, analyze items that aren't performing well by checking on categories and brands that have been in your closet forever, sell for little, and/or have meager profit margins. Within those brands and categories, sort your Poshmark closet by "just in," filter by "available," scroll to the bottom to take note of the following:

• Styles, colors, sizes, keywords, and seasonality of your oldest items
• Engagement (ie. fewest likes even if they're not the oldest items, or old items with lots of likes)
• Specialty items: check up on items that may be tying up capital you could use for other things (ie. formalwear you paid up for that will eventually make a profit of $100, but is taking a year + to do it).

While this exercise may be most helpful for avoiding purchasing items like these again in the future, you can also apply what you've learned about your best-selling items here to improve these listings. Are there keywords you can add, style notes you're missing, or category details you've forgotten? Noting that a merino wool top is great for travel and camping might help target your perfect audience and make a sale.

For the ~Future~ Learn to Comp!

Now that you have a better idea of what great performing items look like for you, get comfortable with comping the next time you're at the store to acquire more of that 20% inventory.

Here's how to do it:

1. Use Poshmark's Sold Items Filter

One of the most effective research methods for coming is analyzing already sold items on Poshmark. Here's how:

• Search for the item on Poshmark using brand name, category, style notes, and size (ie. Flax 100% linen button down relaxed fit shirt size medium)
• Filter by "Sold Items." Note: if your results don't pull much up, drop a search term to cast a wider net
• Note sales prices and compare with your cost of goods--would this be a profitable pick-up after fees?
• Filter by "Available Items" to roughly check sell-through: is there a ton of this item on the market available for a low price? Avoid!
• Check condition variations and price differences--if items only sell at a profitable rate when they're NWT and yours is Fair Used Condition or has a flaw, you might need to put it back
• Look for patterns in successful listings for later reference

Note: if you're on a desktop, you can also comp using our free Comp Crystal Ball tool. This can be helpful because it will show you the date an item sold on, so you can quickly identify how much an item is selling for ~now~, not 6 years ago.

Here's a quick demo:

Know When to Comp

You'll likely know by now what your best brands and categories are, but when is a wild card worth researching?

• Designer handbags and accessories: not all $$$ retailing items are worth much on the resale market (*cough* Tahari *cough* Joie *cough cough* Worth New York *cough*), but shoes and bags are often worth a check. Just be very wary of oft-copied designers like Prada and Gucci, and do your research (especially if they're marked up at the thrift)
• Vintage pieces from good brands: maybe you wouldn't look twice at Nike, but a Space Jam collab from 1996 Nike? That's a definite maybe
• Special occasion pieces: these can be hit or miss, and sit forever, or be worth bank. Check or be sorry!
• Limited edition items: again, sometimes worth $$$, sometimes worthless, ya never know

Short Cuts, ie. High-Value Brand Indicators

Comping is generally a good idea, but sometimes, a piece has multiple positive attributes that make it a clear slam dunk. Look for these characteristics as you source--the more boxes an item ticks, the better!

• Strong brand recognition (ie. you've seen yoga girlies carrying the shopping bags)
• Quality materials and construction (sturdy-feeling athletic wear, merino wool tops, goose down fill, lambskin leather, 2-ply cashmere)
• High retail prices (above $100)
• Limited availability in regular retail channels (ie. brands like Sundance and Zyia are available through catalog purchase only, so may be in higher demand)
• Loyal customer base (Flax, Peruvian Connection, Eileen Fisher)
• Substantiality of the piece (a coat or jacket, shoes or a bag, a heavy duty sweater)

Tools for Keeping Your Style Sense Up to Date

As resellers, we can easily lose track of what's actually selling new, in like, actual stores. Utilize these tools for research to keep your pick-ups on trend:

• Check Poshmark's trending items page (this can also give you great ideas for keywords for your listings)
• Social media (follow a few influencers and note the brands and styles they're wearing)
• Fashion blogs and magazines (I love a good "2025 trend forecast" post to remind me to call pastel yellow "butter" colored and keep an eye out for rugby tops at the thrift)
• Reseller community content: what's selling for other people right now? You may discover brand new labels this way

Avoid Tunnel Vision at the Thrift

Don't fall into these traps when sourcing:

• Focusing only on current retail prices and not actual resale value
• Focusing on available item pricing and not sold prices while comping (other resellers can be a tad ambitious--sold items will give you a reality check)
• Ignoring item condition and its impact on value (this is a great way to wind up spending way too much time to make way too little money)
• Not considering storage costs for slow-moving items
• Overlooking promotional discounts and fees when making profit calculations

What have we learned?

While you can apply the 80/20 principle to so many aspects of your business, narrowing your sourcing focus to the best possible brands, categories, and styles can hugely reduce waste of your precious time, effort, and resources.

To nudge more of your inventory into that high-performing zone:

• analyze your closet for what's worked in the past and what's no longer working now
• comp before buying new inventory
• keep your trend knowledge up to date
• know your value markers
• and perhaps the most important for the future growth of your business, track your numbers

Next time: we'll dive into your reselling work practices and where to cut corners, plus important tasks never to skip. But meanwhile: questions, comments, or lessons learned to share with other Poshers? Drop 'em below!

Love and magic,

Cathy@ClosetWitch

It started as a dream: shopping! Working from home! Packing cute little orders for happy customers! Thank you stickers!

But then reality crept in: piles of clothes with problems. Unhappy customers. Endlessly pricey supply restocks: tissue paper, lint rolls, and those damned Thank You stickers.

What happened? And what can you do about it?

The upside of having all the responsibility of working for yourself is that you also have freedom: freedom to work when you want, how you want, in the environment you want. So let's start reshaping things.

In this series we'll address key trouble spots of the reselling lifestyle and help you make intentional choices to boost your happiness, productivity, and quality of life.

Let's do it!

This series post is about ~space~: yours, to be exact.

A very wise woman (okay fine, it's my therapist) once said: never underestimate the power of environment.

While it's true that willpower is an important part of getting where you want in life, it's also undeniable that setting the scene can expedite things a bit.

At the risk of sounding bro-podcasty, Atomic Habits by James Clear makes an excellent case for this. He writes that reminders of who you are (ahem, who you want to be, anyway) can shape your behavior, because we as humans like consistency, and hate cognitive dissonance. If you want to run more, dressing, eating, and stretching like a runner will tip momentum in your favor, because you  start to reshape your identity as a person who runs.

Real talk: I realized about six months ago that my environment was that of a person who is overwhelmed by their death piles, is barely squeaking by financially, and hates reselling. As evidenced by said death piles, shabby work area, and ugly, messy space.

I didn't feel like I deserved a better workspace until I tackled my death piles, but I did something very out of nature for myself: I rewarded myself with environmental upgrades before achieving any of my reselling goals. And frankly, it's changed how I feel about my business, as well as how I've started running it.

Your approach may be different, but here's what I did--and I didn't spend much money:

• I emptied and cleaned my space. You'd be amazed what freshly mopped floors, laundered curtains, and dusted woodwork can do for your spirits.

• before putting stuff back, I imagined zones for what actions I wanted to do and in what areas (for example, I wanted my order-packing-table to have tape, scissors, lint rollers, and my label printer to my right, and a shelf of packing supplies (boxes/envelopes/tissue paper) directly behind me). This would mean being able to pack orders without having to walk out of my workspace.
• I made a few small, specific purchases for problems I noticed (ex: for sore feet from standing a long time, a fatigue reducing mat for the spot I put away inventory and pack orders in)

• I put back ONLY the essential stuff, like a rolling cart near my photo area for tools, and got rid of random crap (I moved my sewing stuff out because in reality, I never sew in my photo area!)
• I used the space created by removal of ~random crap~ to add in quality of life improvers, most of which I already owned: a bluetooth speaker, a stand for my tablet, PLANTS (so many plants), a mug warmer I found in a drawer (no more cold coffee!), a scented candle, and a few vintage Vogue prints I found at the thrift store and hadn't yet hung up.

The change has been huge. Now when I think about starting work, I think about being surrounding by plants, sipping a hot coffee, playing an audio book or podcast, and burning a lovely candle. You can imagine what this has done for my productivity, but more importantly, how I feel all day working.

Thinking of hitting the reset button on your workspace? Here are 10 steps to get you started.

1. Get a fresh start by emptying your space.

It's important to get EVERYTHING out, so your imagination can do its thing. Maybe a completely different set up is in order, but you won't be able to picture it without a blank canvas.

2. Clean.

Dust, vacuum, mop, wash windows, etc.

3. Envision your ideal work flow.

What activities does it make sense to do in here, and how can you streamline the movements as much as possible? Think too about what to subtract--does it make sense to prep items for photos in the same area you pack in, or right near your photo booth?

4. Arrange your space into work zones with efficiency in mind.

Invest in ergonomic upgrades as needed. You can't be happy at work if you're in pain.

5. Only put back what you need, and what you love.

Get ruthless about ditching what no longer serves you. Now is the time to donate that rug runner you always trip over, or replace your wonky steamer.

6. Find online inspo or just daydream about a space you’d love to work in.

What are the key elements you find yourself drawn to? It might be lots of open space and clear surfaces, greenery, girly touches, or artwork. How can you start incorporating elements of this right now? A few steps toward the look and feel you want can trigger a landslide over time. Don't underestimate them.

7. Use your senses to start building your ideal workspace.

What does is smell like? What’s the temperature? What amenities are at hand? What do you hear? What are the colors? A small space heater, scent diffuser, speaker set, or fresh coat of paint might make a colossal difference.

8. Tackle trouble spots.

Is there nowhere to put a drink? Are you traveling a lot for a certain task? Is the room too dark to see what you're doing clearly?

9. Plan future treats.

Make a list of a few “must have” purchases that you'll need to save up for, and for “nice to haves,” create a wish list to bring on thrifting trips with you. It's giving scavenger hunt!

10. Observe, adjust, repeat.

Your needs might shift, your tastes might change; stay in touch with what you like and how you feel during the day to keep your space functional as your business grows.

Did I miss anything? Do you believe in the power of environment, or is this sounding bratty? Please advise in the comments below. And take care of yourself--you're the magic, babe!

Love and magic,

Cathy@ClosetWitch

It started as a dream: shopping! Working from home! Packing cute little orders for happy customers! Thank you stickers!

But then reality crept in: piles of clothes with problems. Unhappy customers. Endlessly pricey supply restocks: tissue paper, lint rolls, and those damned Thank You stickers.

What happened? And what can you do about it?

The upside of having all the responsibility of working for yourself is that you also have freedom: freedom to work when you want, how you want, in the environment you want. So let's start reshaping things.

In this series we'll address key trouble spots of the reselling lifestyle and help you make intentional choices to boost your happiness, productivity, and quality of life.

Let's do it.

Part 1: Love Your Space, Love Your job

Part 2: The 80/20 Rule and Sourcing Inventory

Part 3: The 80/20 Rule and Your Workflow

New posts drop Tuesdays!

If you've ever passed on white linen or cotton at the thrift store because it was looking a little lackluster, a box of washing soda may just pay for itself in sales opportunites. Note: links to products mentioned here have referral codes to support ClosetWitch. But much of this stuff you can find at your local grocery store!

Understanding Washing Soda

What is Washing Soda?

Washing soda, also known as sodium carbonate or soda ash, is a versatile household cleaner with remarkable laundry benefits. Derived from natural sources, washing soda is a water softener and an effective cleaning agent. It boosts the efficiency of laundry detergents by enhancing their cleaning and stain-lifting capabilities.

How Does Washing Soda Work?

Washing soda raises the pH level of water, which helps to effectively remove dirt, grease, and odors from clothes. It also softens water, allowing detergents to lather more easily and work more efficiently.

The Benefits—and Savings Advantages—of Using Washing Soda in Laundry

1. Stain Removal: Washing soda is highly effective at tackling tough stains such as grease, oil, and wine, reducing the need for repeated treatments, soaks, or washings.
2. Whitening: It brightens white clothing and revives dingy items, without the yellowing or weaking risks of bleach.
3. Deodorizing: Washing soda helps neutralize odors, leaving clothes smelling fresh and clean, reducing your needy for pricey Febreze.
4. Softening Water: If you live in an area with hard water, adding washing soda to your laundry can help soften the water, allowing your detergent to work more effectively in smaller amoutns.

How to Use Washing Soda in Laundry

1. As a Laundry Booster: Add ½ cup of washing soda to your regular laundry detergent to amplify its cleaning power.
2. Stain Pre-Treatment: Create a paste with washing soda, water, and a few drops of dish soap, then apply it to tough stains before laundering. I personally *love* using a quick blast of Dawn Powerwash, and I like to work the paste in with a soft, wet toothbrush and let sit a few minutes before running through the wash. (PS. using Dawn Powerwash and a toothbrush solo is a good alternative to making a paste while stain-treating sensitive white/ivory/cream fabrics in wool, silk, or cashmere. But be very, very careful when trying this with dyed items—the power of Powerwash should not be underestimated!).

1. Whitening Soak: For whitening whites, create a soaking solution with washing soda and warm water. Start the washing machine with the hottest water the fabric can handle, then pause just the agitation is wrapping up, but before the rinse cycle starts. Leave the garments for an hour—longer for dingy whites in sturdy fabrics, like 100% cotton or linen—before resetting the agitation cycle and then letting the washing proceed as usual. I've had incredible results with this and highly recommend. Try soaking your graying white bath towels over night to get a sense of the difference this can make.

Safety Precautions for Laundering with Washing Soda

• Skin Irritation: Washing soda can cause skin irritation, so it's essential to wear gloves when handling it, especially in its powdered form.
• Ventilation: When using washing soda, ensure the area is well-ventilated to avoid inhaling the fine particles. Wear a mask while stain treating to protect yourself at close range. I use my COVID-era cloth masks for this and big sweater shaving projects.

Fabrics Incompatible with Washing Soda

While washing soda is a versatile cleaning agent, there are certain fabrics on which its use is not recommended. Due to its powerful nature, washing soda can potentially damage delicate fabrics such as wool, cashmere, silk, and items with special finishes or coatings.

Here are some fabrics to avoid using washing soda on:

1. Wool/Cashmere: Washing soda's alkaline nature can break down the fibers of wool, leading to shrinkage and distortion of the fabric at best, and a Swiss Cheese effect at worst. It's advisable to use gentle, wool-specific detergents for cleaning wool items, like Woolite. Try working in a bit of gentle detergent in with a soft, dampened toothbrush to treat stains, adding a little white vinegar for tough spots as needed.
2. Silk: Delicate silk garments can be negatively affected by washing soda, as it may weaken the fabric and cause loss of luster. It's best to opt for mild detergents, or, for big ticket items, seek professional dry cleaning. Try a little diluted white vinegar, perhaps with a drop or two of Woolite, to stain treat. But again—be careful with colors! Test an inconspicuous area first if working with dyed silk.
3. Special Finishes/Coatings: Fabrics with special finishes or coatings, such as waterproof (rain or snow jackets) or moisture-wicking garments, may be compromised by washing soda. The strong alkalinity of washing soda can affect the functionality and integrity of these coatings. Dish soap and a wet toothbrush alone are recommended, again, adding a little white vinegar if needed.

The Difference Between Washing Soda and Baking Soda

Washing soda and baking soda, while closely related, have distinct differences in composition and uses.

Composition:

Baking Soda:

• Chemical Name: Sodium Bicarbonate (NaHCO3)
• pH Level: Slightly Alkaline
• Form: Fine Powder

Washing Soda:

• Chemical Name: Sodium Carbonate (Na2CO3)
• pH Level: Highly Alkaline
• Form: Coarse Granules

In a nut shell, washing soda has more grit for stain treating and more cleaning power for laundering, so you'll want to reserve it for your hardier, dirtier items.

Opting for baking soda instead? Use in the same way you would washing soda (with water and dish soap as a stain treatment, and in half-cup-per-load ratios for laundry). Avoid using baking soda, just as you would washing soda, on delicate fabrics like silk, wool, cashmere, or items with special coatings.

The Difference Between Washing Soda and Bleach

Washing soda and bleach are two distinct cleaning agents with different chemical compositions and uses.

Bleach:

• Chemical Composition: Typically contains sodium hypochlorite (for chlorine bleach) or hydrogen peroxide (for oxygen bleach)
• pH Level: Alkaline for chlorine bleach and neutral for oxygen bleach
• Form: Liquid or powder
• Primary Use: Functions as a disinfectant and a whitening agent. It effectively removes stains and brightens whites, but can be harsh on fabrics and may cause color loss or fabric damage if not used properly.

Can I Use Bleach *and* Washing Soda?

Dang, you have quite a situation on your hands! Yes, but not together. (Honestly, don't try mixing bleach with anything but detergent, like, ever, but especially vinegar. #justsaynotomustardgas).

Since washing soda primarily enhances cleaning and stain-lifting in laundry, try using the washing soda first to lift as much soil as possible, launder, then treat with bleach as needed next. Bleach can be tough on fabric and cause yellowing with excessive use, so I like to reserve it as a last resort.

Some precautions with bleach:

1. Spot Testing: Before applying bleach to a larger area, conduct a spot test with diluted bleach on a hidden or inconspicuous part of the fabric to check for any adverse reactions. Never use bleach on wool, cashmere, or silk, and tread very carefully with colors (OxiClean may be your better bet with dyed items generally, but again, not with delicates).
2. Dilution: Always follow the manufacturer's instructions for diluting bleach (ie. see the back of bottle or box). Using undiluted bleach directly on fabric can lead to discoloration and weakening of fibers.
3. Ventilation: Ensure adequate ventilation when working with bleach to avoid inhaling fumes, and consider wearing a mask for additional protection, especially in enclosed spaces.
4. Protection: Wear gloves and protective clothing to shield your skin and prevent any potential irritation caused by direct contact with bleach.
5. Time Consideration: Limit the exposure of fabric to bleach according to the recommended duration, as prolonged contact can lead to damage or weakening of the material.
6. Rinse Thoroughly: After treating fabric with bleach, thoroughly rinse or launder the material to remove any residual bleach and prevent potential damage over time. And careful what you throw in the washing machine directly after! I like to do a buffer load of lights or whites before washing dark items after I've used bleach in my machine.

Borax VS. Washing Soda

While washing soda is best for laundry-specific applications, Borax is great for general cleaning, so you may already have it on hand. Feel free to try it in place of washing soda in the same ratio for laundry or soaking.

The Bottom Line

By harnessing the cleaning potential of washing soda, you can transform your "meh" white inventory to "aw YEAH." From stain removal to whitening and deodorizing, its impact is unparalleled. Just remember to exercise caution with delicate fabrics and always prioritize safety when using washing soda.

Have you used washing soda in washing or stain treating your items? Any tips or precautions to share? Drop 'em below.

And most importantly... are you a part of the Powerwash Cult? (I'm sorry, not a cult, an organization that promotes love!)

Love and magic,
Cathy@ClosetWitch

Got a question about working with Poshmark's provided shipping labels? We probably answered it here. Let's get into it!

How do I Det and Use Poshmark's Shipping Labels?

To use Poshmark shipping labels, follow these steps:

1. Start by opening Poshmark on your desktop computer or via the app on your mobile device and navigate to the "My Sales" tab.
2. Find the item you'd like to ship and click on it, or select multiple items and choose "action">"download shipping labels (this will email a single document with multiple shipping labels to you).
3. If you think your package might weight more than 5 pounds, check the package's weight to see if you need to get upgraded shipping. You can use a kitchen scale, or step onto a bathroom scale with and without the package, measuring the difference.
4. Download and print the shipping label/s, and affix securely to your package/s using clear packaging tape, but avoiding putting it directly over bar codes.
5. No printer? bring your package and phone to USPS and show them the QR code provided by poshmark in the item's sale details. They'll print a label for you.
6. Drop off your package at the designated carrier location or schedule a pickup, depending on the chosen shipping carrier.
7. If the item was not scanned by USPS right in front of you (ie. it was picked up or dropped off in a deposit box), mark the item as shipped in the Poshmark app to let the buyer know it's on its way.

Does Shipping Cost Anything? Do I Pay for it or Does the Buyer?

The buyer covers shipping. As long as you use the label provided to you by Poshmark, you won't have additional charges to cover. The exception is with sending offers that include a shipping discount on Poshmark: you'll cover the difference with the shipping deal you offer, and it's taken directly from your earnings (ie. you won't be charged later).

Do I have to use Priority Shipping Boxes to Send my Order?

No—though, because they're completely free, they're a good idea to take advantage of. Feel free to recycle your own boxes when packing Poshmark orders, just try to keep it clean and professional looking. And note: you cannot use Priority packing materials to send a package NOT through Priority mail.

Do I Need a Printer to Ship my Order?

Nope—bring your phone and package to USPS and show them the barcode provided by Poshmark in the shipping details. They'll print and affix for you.

What Happens if My Package Weighs More than 5 Pounds?

It my experience, Poshmark will let this slide at least once—but it's safer to pay a little extra if your package is over weight and ensure the buyer gets it on time. You do this by clicking "Upgrade Shipping Label" in your items sales details.

Should I Invest in a Shipping Label Printer?

You don't need to, but personally, I think if you're a small business seller, the savings on ink, paper, tape, and time spent cutting out and printing labels are well worth the up front investment, and cost of label rolls. I have this Dymo and I'm a fan! My only complaint is that this model has to be physically wired to your PC to work. But it's fast and reliable.

Do I Always Have to Mark an Item as "Shipped" in Poshmark?

If your item was scanned, nope—the buyer will get tracking details once this occurs and will know it's on the way. The exception is when you drop and item off and leave before it's scanned, though it's not mandatory.

What Happens if I Mix Up My Labels?

Poshmark will gently shame you! Just kidding (kinda). Reach out to your buyers through Poshmark messaging and ask them to request a shipping label to swap items with each other. Poshmark will often give you a warning about this, but will provide the new labels to buyers at no cost to you. Apologize, thank buyers for their patience, and then move on—it happens to the best of us!

What Happens if a Buyer Cancels an Order?

Buyers have a 3 hour window to cancel an order in after purchase. Therefore, it's recommended that you wait at least this long to pack and ship the item. Poshmark will note that an order has been cancel and direct you *not* to ship within the item's sales details in this case. Already shipped? Reach out to Poshmark Support for next steps. If you've shipped the item outside of this window, but a buyer reaches out via messages to cancel, let them know that you've shipped already and whether you're willing to accept a return or not. If you are, direct the buyer to file a claim on receipt and let them know you'll approve. This means the item will be sent back to you and you'll forfeit payment. Its a bummer, but I think it's nice to do if the buyer seems sincere and is polite about it. We all make mistakes!

What if I Need to Cancel an Order?

Click on "Problems/Order Inquiry" in the sales details and proceed accordingly. It's nice to reach out to the buyer via messages and explain the issue first before doing this, though. And expect another gentle admonishment from Poshmark.

So that's that on that with shipping labels and selling on Poshmark! Have a burning question we haven't addressed? Drop it below!

XOXO,

Cathy@ClosetWitch

Creating your first listing on Poshmark can be daunting.

When faced with a blank description box, it's easy to overthink it. What the heck do you say about this thing you want to sell?

If you put yourself in the shoes of a potential buyer, however, it can get a lot clearer. Here are some categories of information to provide, followed by examples and even a template you can use for listing. Let's go!

What Information to Include in a Poshmark Listing:

The brand and style name/title description from the original retailer

This isn't always going to be available, but if it is, use it!

A few ways to find your style name:

-Check your order history (lol): if this is your personal item, a quick search of your inbox should reveal all.

-Check the tag: Madewell, J.Crew, Soft Surroundings, Athleta, Theory, and so many more great brands will give you a style number you can plug into Google. Most denim brands will have a descriptor right in the waist band (ie. Highest Rise Crop from Levi's, or The Curvy Mom Jean from American agle).

-Google Image search: this is getting scarily accurate! If you've already taken photos of your listing, drop one into Google and see what comes up. Even if you can't find your exact item, you'll probably get some ideas as to how to describe it from the similar items that come up.

Use Brand-Specific Details

If your gray shirt is described as "heathered black" by the brand, it's a good idea to describe it both ways (ie.  "Lululemon Dash To Class Long Sleeve in Heathered Black (Dark Gray)") in the title and description. You may even by check both "black" and "gray" in Poshmark's fields. This way, folks searching it either way can find your item.

Gender/Size/Fit Details

Obvious, but put the item size right in the title as well as the description. If there are multiple ways to describe the size, include those--for example, Boden provides both UK and US sizes, so you'll want to note "US 6/UK 10," lest you get asked this several times, or buyers just skip your listing altogether because they can't immediately tell.

Fit Notes: Be sure to include fit notes like "curvy" (AE and Madewell), Tall/Petite/Slim Fit, or special sizing and its standard equivalent (Chico's, Torrid, James Perse, Universal Standard). If an item is unusually small or large for it's tag size and it doesn't seem intentially oversize or bodycon, note that.

If I have a size M sweater that has a chest size closer to a size S, I'll describe it as S/M in the title and in my description note: "Tag size medium, though fits closer to a small. Please see measurements below to ensure a good fit."

More on how to gauge whether an item is true to size in a moment!

Measurements

Putting yourself in a buyer's shoes, it can be a little spooky to just buy a used item that may have stretched, shrunk, or is from an unfamiliar brand that's just vaguely described as "L."

Whenever possible, include measurements. There are two common ways to do this:

1. Take photos of a measuring tape against the item laid flat at key points:

Tops/Sweaters:

• Chest (armpit to armpit)
• Length (top of the shoulder seam to hem)
• Sleeve (shoulder seam to sleeve cuff)

Dresses:

All of the above plus:

• Waist
• Hips (where the item would cut across the fullest part of the seat)

Pants/Shorts:

• Waist
• Inseam (center of the crotch seam below the fly to the inside edge of the hem)
• Rise (waistband to crotch seam)
• Leg opening (width of bottom hem)

OR:

Take flat lay measurements

To do that, grab a measuring tape and write down the following measurements down in your countery's unit (inches or centimeters (or both!)), then list them out in your description with a note on how they were taken.

Example:

Measurements taken laying flat (approximate):
Chest (armpit to armpit): 18"
Length (shoulder seam to side hem): 22"
Sleeve (estimated shoulder seam to sleeve cuff): 25"

Estimating how an item will fit based on measurements

If I suspect an item may be a bit small for its size, whether it's vintage, has unique or foreign sizing, or may have shrunk/stretched, I first check chest size.

When laying flat, I look for the following range for tops/sweaters for women:

• Small: 16-18"
• Medium: 18.25"-19.25"
• Large: 19.5"-20.5"
• XL: 20.75"-21.75"

This is a rough estimate, but will give you a sense of whether something's way off.

Exceptions:

Athletic tops: these can be designed to be very stretchy/close fitting

Oversized tops/chunky sweaters/coats and jackets: they'll likely be bigger.

If you have a sweater that you suspect has shrunk, check sleeve length, and take a closer look at texture and stretch. Shrunken items will often have short sleeves, little give, and funky texture.

An Honest, Thorough Description of Condition and Any Issues with the Item

Grab your item and put it under good light. Check seams, stain hotspots (like underarms or the laps of dresses), and generally appraise texture, color vibrancy, an overall "newness."

Your ability to trasmit an items essential condition ~vibes~ will improve with experience, but I generally choose an overall descriptive term, note why I chose that term if it's any less than excellent/very good used condition, and disclose specific issues/flaws.

For example, for an item that looks really fresh in both color and texture, but has some darkness under the arms, I'll say: "preowned very good overall condition, with a minor flaw: darkness/discoloration under the arms. Please see photos for details."

If an item looks like it's been through the wash a few times, I'll say something like "Good used condition with some overall wear (a little wash wear/texture as shown); no major flaws."

If an item's brand new with the tags still on, I'll put "NWT" in the title, and describe it as "brand new with the tags on, no flaws" (unless of course there ARE flaws--be sure to check!

Keyword Dump!

Okay this might just be me, but after crafting a thoughtful first line or two capturing the brand, style name, size, color, condition/flaws, and dropping my measurements in, I'll do what I gracefully call a keyword dump.

This is a quick way to capture any search traffic that may be on the vague side. While some customers are certainly searching "Men's Lululemon Metal Vent Tee in Heathered Dark Red," plenty of others are looking for "lululemon vneck."

So I'll look at my item and jot down notes about what I see.

Here are some general categories of what to capture for keywords:

-Neckline: crew/jewel/round neck, v-neck, boat/bateau neck, scoop neck, halter, sweetheart... you get the idea

-Sleeve/shoulder: short, elbow, 3/4, long, or thumbhole sleeve; raglan shoulders (like a baseball shirt) or dropped shoulders (slouchy/oversized fit items).

-Fit, if noteable: oversized, cropped, chunky, slouchy, relaxed fit, drapey, body-con, fitted etc.

-Use/purpose, if noteable: outdoor/active top; beach cover up; formal button down shirt.

-Special features: sweat wicking, anti-wrinkle, anti-microbial/anti-stink, stretchy, lightweight, breathable, etc.

-Noteable materials: I ALWAYS point out if an item contains a good amount of a great material, like:

• linen
• organic cotton
• silk
• leather
• cashmere
• wool
• mohair
• alcapa

But be advised: there's a different between "Wool-blend" and "100% lambswool." Avoid referring to an item as a "Wool Sweater" unless it's completely or very close to completely made of that fiber.

-Style tags: if your ideal buyer was looking for your item, how would they describe it for a search bar? There's a big different between a slim-fitting merino wool crew neck sweater and a vintage, chunky, oversized lambswool one with a Cobsy pattern, though both could be described crew neck wool sweaters.

Be sure to use a few words to capture an item's essence: is it boho, slouchy, and textured? Or chunky, room, cozy, super soft? Keep up on your aesthetic trends too: lagenlook and Barbie Pink have proved powerful search terms.

So with all that considered, let's put together a sample listing.

Here's the item--how would you list it?

First, let's google the style number on the tag: woot, it's called the Waffle Zip Thermal Hoodie. Nice! For our title, let's include the brand, size, color, and some key style details (it's cropped and boxy).

So our title would look something like this:

TNA Waffle Zip Thermal Cropped Boxy Hoodie M Light Gray

Looking good! Since we have a stock photo we can grab, we don't need to specify that it's for women (we'll also plug this info in when we list on Poshmark).

Now let's move onto description. I like to copy/paste the title again, just spelling it out a little more comprehensively, and add condition notes:

TNA Waffle Zip Thermal Cropped Boxy Hoodie in size Medium, color Light Gray. Good used condition with light wash wear as shown (see photos); no other flaws.

Sweet. Now let's plug in our details:

Details:

And lastly, measurements. I use cute lil' emojis because it flags this info for users and doesn't require extra effort since I copy/paste it in from a template.

Lastly, a component we haven't talked about yet: store policies! It's a great idea to pre-emptively answer FAQs from potential buyers, like how often you ship, whether you have pets or smoke, and whether you offer bundle deals.

My notes look like this, but feel free to do your own thing:

💲✂️ Bundle with another item from this closet to automatically save 25% on your order! 💲✂️

🚚 Items ship in 1-2 business days 🚚

Thanks and happy shopping!

One piece of advice with store policies: skip negative notes or warnings. You may get tons of low ball offers and be annoyed by it, but it's still an icky customer experience to be interested in an item and see NO LOW BALL OFFERS plastered on the listing.

Think about the kind of info you'd like to be given while walking into a store in person. Maybe the salesperson would let you know there's a sale going on on summer clothing, or give you a head's up with their apologies that their machines are down and it's cash only. They'd never tell you "DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT STEALING, WE HAVE CAMERAS." That's kind of the vibe notes like "no modeling" or "no trades" give off.

Focus on attracting great customers, not scaring away bad ones!

Conclusion

Let's take one final look at this sample listing we've put together, in one piece:

"TNA Waffle Zip Thermal Cropped Boxy Hoodie in size Medium, color Light Gray. Good used condition with light wash wear as shown (see photos); no other flaws.

Details:

• hoodie
• full zip
• long sleeves
• branded silver-tone hardware
• ribbed trim
• cropped shape
• relaxed fit
• kangaroo hand pockets
• waffle texture
• lighweight
• Style # waf3-10244-40

📏Measurements (approx., flat lay):📏
Chest: 22"
Length: 18.5"
Sleeve length: 15"

💲✂️ Bundle with another item from this closet to automatically save 25% on your order! 💲✂️

🚚 Items ship in 1-2 business days 🚚

Thanks and happy shopping!"

We made it! Now add your photos (more info on those in another post!) and you're good to go.

A last word on stylistic choices: some sellers like to really sell an item with their description, noting things like "so cute, really warm, great for a beach day," etc. I've done this in the past, and still do it for an item buyers might not have a good frame of reference for, like a no-name vintage item. But generally, I find people on Poshmark already know what they're looking for, and I don't spend the extra time punching up the details. But of course, the choice is yours, different strokes for different closets, etc.

Any other nagging questions about listing, or details we didn't cover? Drop a question below, or send us an email at contact@closetwitch.com.

XOXO,

Cathy@ClosetWitch

Confession: I've had this version a little longer than you. In fact, it's been about 6 months, though we've only offered it to the public very recently.

In that time I've been DYING to show you what we can do, and how it might make one of the worst parts of reselling–listing–a lot easier. Plus: what I think (frankly) still kind of sucks and what we're doing to fix it.

Anyway, here, in no particular order, are 5 features that have changed the way I work on Poshmark forever, and hopefully will do the same for you.

1. Tags

I love this way of entering in info about an item, because it's 100% how my brain works: show me a biege linen dress and SUMMER, LAGENLOOK, MIDI, LIGHTWEIGHT, BREATHABLE, NEUTRAL just flows from my synapses.  The cool part is, these tags can all be used to find or sort items later, for example, if you want to see all the cashmere pieces you have left in March (sale!) or anything pink you could go back into and add "Barbiecore" into the title. And then...

2. The Tags Can Generate Description Text

Y'all. This is my hands down favorite new feature: whatever you type into the tag box will appear as a bullet list in your description, under any other info you want to pull from the field you've field in, like brand, condition, flaws, etc. Which brings me to my next feature:

3. Template Support

If you though copy/pasting the same long chunk of store policy, bundle deal, and measurement disclaimer info was a hack, you're going to love having it show up in your listings automatically. My favorite part of this: being able to seamlessly integrate entered info, like measurements, into the template, right under my custom text explaining how I take the measurements. STOP IT.

4. Auto-filling Fields in Poshmark

The worst thing about listing for me, was retyping every dang thing I already typed into my inventory notes. No longer! When you create a listing from Inventory, it autopopulates most of the fields, like category, department, and brand, plus drops your description and title in for you.

5. Time Savers Built in Everywhere

Listing three pairs of jeans? Create the items all in a row to take advangtage of "sticky" departments and categories. Better yet, if they have similar tags, duplicate an inventory item and grab all the same base info.

And forget to grab measurements on something? Flag it! Labels let you leave notes for yourself about repairs or cleanings, then find all your "to-dos" later with their associated items, so you can even work offline in batches. YAS.

Can't resist researchign a little while creating your inventory item? A links dump area lets you drop in that lulufanatics URL for later copy/pasting, and, um, stock image stealing. Ya know, if that's your thing.

Now, to keep it real: we have a ways to go. Here's what we're focused on improving:

Photo Imports

Right now, users still have to upload from an outside source when they go to list. We'd love to let you dump all the photos you have for an item into the inventory system, while selecting which 16 you'd like to list with. That way, you have a complete back up of your listing info, with "insurance" images of the choses pics turn out blurry.

Better Title Generation/Autocomplete for Sizing

A good title lives in that art-meets-science category that AI is really helpful with... stay tuned!

QA/Dupe Finding/Reverse Linking to Poshmark

I have so many junky and dupe listings from my early-days-of-reselling imports. I'd love a systematic way to spot check listings quality, flag potential duplicates, and allow for retroactive linking to listed items on Poshmark.

Honestly, there's so much more, but I'll kick that over to you: what features would YOU like next for ClosetWitch, whether it's the Free, ProLite or Pro versions? Drop us a line at contact@closetwitch.com with your ideas, and you just might see them in a future iteration.

Love and Magic,
Cathy

Even if you're new to the game, you may have already heard that an important step in reselling clothing is to determine your niche. This generally means identify the types of items you want to focus on, such as vintage dishware, designer brands, or athleisure clothing. But it can also mean specializing in an age group (50+), a size (plus-sized clothing), an aesthetic (southern preppy), a gender (menswear), or a an lifestyle (outdoor wear, gear, and environmentally-friendly travel products, for example).

By selecting a niche, you can develop expertise and stand out in a specific market, attracting like-minded buyers and making bundled sales. But what do you pick, and how do you know you're on the right track?

Here's a quick start guide to narrowing your focus and widening your reach with a niche:

Start with What You Know

If you're already a sneaker head or a Lululemon afficionado, you'll already have a good sense of styles, brand history, and current trends. That's a great place to start! The same applies to a knowledge of and appreciate of vintage clothes, luxury fabrics, or technical clothes and gear.

Sell What's Available

Consider what's available at thrift or consignment stores in your area: live in Hawaii? There's a good chance you'll have access to some terrific surfing and swimwear brands. Snowy areas likely have better quality sweaters and ski gear in abundance; cosmopolitan hot spots may have higher concentrations of designer brands or flashy going-out wear. It's a good idea to find a niche that marries your personal interests with what it's possible to actually get your hands on.

Check Out the Market... and the Competition

A good knowledge of trends, popular pieces, in-demand brands, and low-supply items or categories will help ensure your success. Conduct a few general searches for sold items in your chosen category (like "Lululemon Pants") and sort by their sell price to get a sense of what's going for more money. Then take a look at the available results and note any gluts of certain sizes, colors, styles, etc. You may find that size 10 full length yoga pants are a great find--but space dye purple capri pants in size 0 are best left behind.

Know Your Customer

Who's buying from you? Why are they buying from you? What's their age, size, and what's their lifestyle like?

Having a sense of this will help guide your communication and marketing strategies, and may help you discover new categories to sell in. A closet speciallizing in Lagenlook pieces (comfy, relaxed-fit natural fiber clothing) may also want to stock comfort sandals like Birkenstocks or Tevas, for example. A seller with a closet full of formal dresses, on the other hand, may also want to include jewelry or evening bags and use wedding-related keywords.

Test and Refine

Start with a small inventory of items within your niche and test their viability in the market. Pay attention to which items sell quickly and what you make the best profit margins on. Use this information to refine your niche and make adjustments as you learn more about your target market.

Specialize and Sub-niche

Consider specializing further within your chosen niche by focusing on a specific segment. For example, if you are interested in vintage apparel, you could specialize in 90s clothing or vintage band t-shirts. This will help you narrow your focus and attract a more dedicated audience.

Just Say  "No"

Defining your niche is a crucial step in clothing reselling. It helps you focus your efforts, attract the right buyers, and stand out in the market. It can also make "upselling" (ie. bundling) more frequent, and boost repeat sales. Lastly, it reduces risk and conserves your resources: your knowledge in the area you're selling in means fewer "oops" buys, more predictable sales flows, and less overwhelm while sourcing.

But one downside? It takes discipline to say "no" to items outside of your area of expertise that you have a hunch might have resale value.

But as with most things in life, letting go of the not such-a-great-fit-stuff only clears room for more YES PLEASE opportunities. So make room, and niche down!

Love and magic,

Cathy@CosetWitch

If you're an avid Poshmark seller looking to increase your visibility and boost your sales, promoted listings can be a game-changer. While not everone has the feature yet (Poshmark is currently testing is in BetaMode), as of August 10th 2023, all Posh Ambassadors I and II are eligible to join the waitlist to get the feature.

Do I have Access to Promoted Listings?

Participating beta-testing sellers will have an opportunity to try Promoted Closet for free--but are you participating? To see if you're one of the chosen few--and if you are, to get started--take the the following steps:

1. On the Poshmark website (not the app), select your profile image at the top-right of the page.
2. Select My Promoted Closet. Don't see it? Womp womp--you don't currently have access. But, if you're a Posh Ambassador, feel free to add your name to the waistlist.
3. Are you able to click "My Promoted Closet"? Then select Start Free Trial.
4. Add your payment details and select Start Free Trial.

Note: After your trial ends, your listings will continue being promoted and campaigns will be charged to your set payment method, so mark your calendar to follow up on this! According to Poshmark, any budget changes will take effect on your next billing cycle, so make sure to be proactive if you want to cancel or lower spending amounts.

What Are Promoted Listings?

Ever see those highlighted listings at the top of Google search, marked "Ad"? Promoted listings is kind of like that!

Essentially, just as with Google Ads, promoted listings on Poshmark are a marketing tool that allows sellers to get their items viewed by a wider audience within the app, by surfacing those items first for a given search.

By promoting your listings, you can increase their visibility in searches and category browsing, ultimately driving more potential buyers to your closet.

This feature provides:

-increased exposure (ie. more people see your stuff, ideal for niche items with a smaller pool of potential buyers)

-targeted reach (ie. the people who see your promotion have searched something relevant are are likely to be interested)

-better conversion rates (ie. better sales to views ratio)

-control over your advertising budget (ie. you decide exactly what to promote and how much to spend promoting it, with preset "caps" available).

With promoted listings, you have the opportunity to showcase your most desirable and high-demand products to potential buyers on Poshmark.

Why Use Promoted Listings?

Let's revisit that list of feature benefits and see why they're more effective than the average listing at driving sales.

1. Increased Exposure: Promoted listings appear in prominent positions within search results and the Poshmark feed, giving them greater visibility to potential buyers. This would have a similar effect to having amazing SEO and getting your product on page 1, result 1 of Google search results. Or, to use a Poshmark example, it would mimic the effect of having a "Just In" listing if a user is sorting by recency while they search. The difference is, this effect doesn't wear off as the item ages.
2. Targeted Reach: You have the flexibility to choose which items to promote, letting you focus your advertising efforts on your most desirable and high-demand products, or rare vintage pieces with a smaller pool of available buyers.
3. Better Conversion Rates: Promoted listings tend to have higher conversion rates because they are shown to users who are actively searching for similar items or who have expressed interest in related categories--just, without competing with thousands of others over those same keywords.
4. Control over Budget: Poshmark's promoted listings feature allows you to set your own budget and adjust your spending based on your advertising goals. This provides you with the freedom to experiment and find the optimal investment for your return on ad spend--or scrap efforts that aren't working.

The Potential Drawbacks of Promoted Listings

Using promoted listings on Poshmark can be highly beneficial for sellers looking to increase their visibility and boost sales. However, it's important to consider potential drawbacks before utilizing this feature. Here are some cons to be aware of:

1. Increased Costs: Promoting your listings on Poshmark requires a financial investment. While you have control over your advertising budget, it's essential to carefully monitor your spending to ensure it aligns with your overall business goals and profitability.
2. Competition: Promoted listings can create a more competitive marketplace, as other sellers may also be using this feature to gain visibility. This means you'll need to strategically position your listings and continually adapt your marketing approach to stand out from other promoted items.
3. Increased Risk: Money spent on ads is a very short term investment. Unlike tweaking the description copy or photos for your listing, once the impressions are made, the value has either been captured (ie. you made a sale), or not (you spent the money but didn't make a sale). While improving the quality of your listings can continue to win you new impressions (ie. views/traffic to the item), traffic acquired through paying for it is gone the moment you stop paying. Which brings us to our next point:
4. Effectiveness Depends on Listing Quality: Promoted listings can amplify your exposure, but ultimately, the quality of your listings will determine their success. If your listings lack appealing images, compelling descriptions, or competitive pricing, promoting them may not yield the desired results. Simple errors, like having the wrong size selected, can also render your investment null.
5. Potential for Oversaturation: If many sellers within a specific category or niche are using promoted listings simultaneously, there's a risk of oversaturation. This might lead to diminished effectiveness as more listings compete for attention. Buyers may also just start tuning out promototed listings, the way we all learned to ignore banner ads. Only time will tell if promotions will consistently grab clicks--or become background static.
6. Learning Curve: If you're new to utilizing promoted listings on Poshmark, there may be a learning curve associated with understanding how best to optimize your strategy. Go slow and start with small investments. Then analyze your results and tweak your approach before doubling down.

Overall, the risks are real, but by carefully managing your budget, continuously improving your listings, and adapting to market dynamics, like trending keywords, you can maximize the benefits of this advertising feature.

How to Create Promoted Listings

To get started with promoting your listings on Poshmark, follow these steps:

1. Identify Key Listings: Analyze your inventory and select the items you believe will benefit the most from increased exposure. Choose items that are in-demand, unique, or have higher profit margins.
2. Set Your Budget: Determine how much you are willing to spend on promoting your listings. Start with a conservative budget and adjust as you gain experience and measure the results.
3. Choose a Duration: Decide how long you want your listings to be promoted. Poshmark offers different duration options, allowing you to tailor your promotional efforts according to your needs.
4. Monitor and Optimize: Once your promoted listings are live, keep a close eye on their performance. Monitor the click-through rates (CTRs) and conversion rates to understand which listings are resonating with buyers. Use this data to fine-tune your promoted listings strategy for future campaigns.

Best Practices for Promoted Listings

To make the most of your promoted listings on Poshmark, keep these best practices in mind:

• Compelling Images and Descriptions: Ensure your promoted listings have clear, clean, eye-catching images and concise, engaging descriptions that accurately showcase the item's unique attributes and answer buyer quesitons. Don't skimp on measurements, style keywords, fabric/care info, and detailed description of condition to keep interested buyers in your pipeline.
• Competitive Pricing: Price your promoted listings competitively to attract potential buyers. Research similar items on Poshmark to gauge market pricing trends and position your listings accordingly. Increased visibility on an item isn't worth the investment if the pricing is likely to turn off potential buyers.
• Keyword Optimization: Incorporate relevant keywords in your listing titles and descriptions to improve their visibility in search results. Consider getting a keyword research tool in the mix to identify popular search terms within the Poshmark community, or trending aesthetics on social media. Remember, your oversized linen pants are someone else's "lagenlook"--help your buyers find you by speaking their language.
• Test and Iterate: Don't be afraid to experiment with different listings, budgets, and durations to find the optimal combination for your promoted listings. Regularly evaluate the performance metrics and make adjustments as necessary. The easiest way to waste money on advertising is to ignore (or worse, forget) promotions that aren't performing well.

Conclusion

Promoted listings on Poshmark can be a powerful tool to reach a larger audience and achieve increased sales, if you're one of the lucky few to have access to it. By leveraging this feature effectively, optimizing your listings, and staying attuned to buyer preferences, you might just take your Poshmark business to new heights.

So what do you think? Have you tried promoted listings on Poshmark or joined the waitlist? Are you curious, or have a hunch it's not your thing? Drop us a comment below with your thoughts!

-Cathy@ClosetWitch

Read More:

Promoted Closet Beta Announcement on the Poshmark Blog

How to Reset a Poshmark Listing's Just-In Date

How to Write Compelling Descriptions for Your Poshmark Listings

Fall 2023 Women's Trend Forecasts and Style Guide for Poshmark Sellers

Let’s be clear: as a reseller, you’re not likely to find hot off the runway styles at your local Savers. But staying on top of trends can be crucial for making good choices with with on-the-fence items like bread and butter and vintage pieces. It can also get you into sections of the thrift store you often skip (hint: you’re gonna want to visit the suit section again!).

So—are those vintage Gap jeans worth picking up if they have sick wide legs? Can you finally move that peplum top that’s been in your Poshmark closet since 2017?

Read on for answers to your burning Fall 2023 fashion questions!

New Aesthetics:

Dark Romance

This is a softer take on dark academia, with some overlap with other resurging trends (Off the shoulder! Sheer! Peplums!). Look for sweet touches like lace, ribbon, and rosettes on moody-colored pieces.

80s Power Dressing

Sharp shoulders and oversized jackets, pinstripes, tailored skirts—office separates are back, baby.

Trendy Colors:

Tomato Red and Butter Yellow

Just like, not at the same time.

Spacey Silver

Moody, pewter-y shades of silver, whether in slinky slip dresses or accessories, are a thing for Fall 2023.

Fresh Silhouettes:

Circle Skirts

Think less skater skirt, more poodle skirt (midi length). Bonus points for additional trend involvement, like leather, sheer fabric, or a groovy sheen.

Denim Midi and Maxi Skirts

Specifically the kind that look frankenstein-ed together from an old pair of jeans.

Wide Leg Jeans

While straight leg is still en vogue, wider legs on jeans will be more cutting edge (and more in demand) this fall and winter. Look for mid and lower rises, cargo pockets, and “puddle” (floor-grazing) hems for extra appeal. Also back in: darker washes, including black and gray.

The Details:

Sheer Everything

Blouses, dresses, and even maxi and midi skirts are leaving a lot less to the imagination.

Shearling/Faux Fur

Bags, lapels, and full coats and jackets with a fuzz factor will continue to be good pick-ups. Bonus points for unusual animal prints or trending colors (bright red, soft yellow, unusual animal print, pewter/dark silver).

Feathers

Fun and vaguely 60s.

Pearlescent, Sheeny Fabrics and Textures

If there’s a a color-gradient effect involved, all the better.

Boho-patchwork

Especially on denim.

Fruit Motifs

Particularly cherries, strawberries lemons, and tropical fruits.

Things that are now a THING:

Duvet/Sleeping bag/quilted puffer coats

Quilted, cozy coats in more subdued textures than a traditional puffer coat will piggy back on the neutral/normcore vibes for a soft, practical effect.

Leather or Denim Coordinating Sets

Especially leather blazers and maxi skirts.

Trends that are Going Strong:

Built-In Scarf Coats

Still trendy, and still worth picking up if you find them in the wild.

Chunky Earrings

The 80s are dominating jewelry trends, with chunky, huggy-style earrings coming back in vogue (a good pairing with all the power suiting we’re seeing).

Artsy Graphics

Another 90s resurgence: artsy graphics on tops and dresses. Extra points if they’re sheer!

Eccentric Coats

Again, faux fur and shearling will be hot, but don’t overlook trench coats in interesting fabrics or colors, or with funky details. Animal print will be having a moment too, with Dalmation popping up on 2023 runways.

Wait what, this is cool again?

Peplums

I know, I’m surprised by this too. Look out for curvy tops with Y2K details, like peasant-style gathers or ties, a strapless bodice, or sheer effect. Or, lean into the power-dressing trend with a peplum blazer.

Off the Shoulder

Especially sweaters. But probably not cool just yet is cold-shoulder looks, just FYI.

And finally—the old standbies:

Elevated Basics

Classic pieces like tailored blazers, trench coats, and cashmere sweaters are decent pick-ups anyway, but seek out items with unexpected details like ruffles, cutouts, and unique textures for next-level resale value.

Luxe Fabrics

Fall 2023 is all about indulging in luxurious fabrics like velvet, silk, leather, quality denim, and faux fur. When combined with Y2K-inspired aesthetics, it’s hard to miss.

Statement Accessories

Statement accessories like chunky jewelry, oversized scarves, and embellished bags will be taking center stage for Fall 2023. Again, look for overlapping trends for your best resale bet: bright reds or butter yellows, artsy/graphic touches, interesting sheen or space-age vibes, and feathers, faux fur, or pearlescent details.

What to Do With This Info:

Perhaps the lowest risk and most immediately gratifying action you can take with this Fall 2023 trend knowledge is to hunt for these items already listed in your closet, double check the quality or their photos/listing details, add any relevant keywords, and relist them! (Psst, ClosetWitch can help you relist any and everything in your closet from scratch, automatically).

The next action to take is to keep these notes in the back of your mind as you source and let them guide you towards items you might not otherwise notice, like vintage mall brands with all the right details.

What NOT to Do with This Info:

Make sure you’re staying critical and level headed while shopping and check for flaws, look at comps, and avoid over-spending on items as much as possible. It’s easy to get excited about on-trend items at the thrift, but don’t let let them sway you into paying further up than you can stand to make back.

Did we miss any trends? Have any notes on this list? Sharing is caring--drop them below!

Wishing you love and magic and a very fashionable fall,

Cathy @ClosetWitch

Read More:

To Buy or Not to Buy: Calculating Profit Margin

Choosing What to Source at the Thrift Store for Fast, Predictable Poshmark Sales

Our Best Tips for Working With Sweaters to Sell on Poshmark

When it comes to selling on Poshmark, shipping is an important part of the process. Send your items quickly and packaged neatly, and there may be a great review and return business for you. But accidentally swap your labels, forget to ship, or allow items to get damaged in transit, and you’re in for a headache and possibly a return.  Here are some of the most common mistakes and how to avoid them—or cope if the inevitable happens!

Not Taking Advantage of Free USPS Shipping and Packaging

Let’s cover the basics: one of the most common shipping mistakes on Poshmark is not using the right shipping method. Ebay sellers, put away your scales—Poshmark’s shipping fees cover USPS Priority Mail, which is free for sellers and fast for buyers, provided you use the label issued by Poshmark. Be sure to stock up on USPS’s free priority packaging, available in person at the post office or with free shipping online, for great buyer presentation and 2-day shipping. I like the Tyvek Envolopes, large mailer boxes, and medium sized boxes best. But don’t try to use the boxes for shipping anything non-priority. The boxes can only be paired with priority labels, which Poshmark provides.

Trying to offload your Amazon boxes? You can still use Priority labels. Just make sure to use the dang label Poshmark gives you, or you’ll pay uneccesarily for shiping, and the buyer will get slower service.

Packaging Poorly

Another common shipping mistake is not packaging items properly. It's important to make sure that items are packaged securely to prevent damage during shipping. This means wrapping fragile items in bubble wrap or tissue paper and placing them in a sturdy box or envelope. It's also important to make sure that the shipping label is securely attached to the package (though don’t tape directly over the bar codes—this can make it tricky for USPS to scan them).

Got a non-fragile item in a slightly too large box? I like to roughly fold some kraft paper in with the tissue-paper-wrapped item to keep in from bouncing around and getting dishelveled en route.

Slow Shipping

Poshmark requires sellers to ship items within three business days of a sale, but most buyers will get a little cranky if you wait that long. With that in mind, it's important to ship items as soon as possible after a sale. This means having a plan in place for shipping—including having shipping supplies on hand—and having your items prepped and ready to go at the time of listing (ie. lint rolled, folded, and put somehwere safe where you can find them again).

It’s also a good idea to put a note right in your listings about ship time, such as “Orders ship in 1-2 business days.”

Ghosting Buyers

Finally, another common shipping mistake is not communicating with buyers. Buyers appreciate updates on the status of their purchase, so it's a good idea to communicate with them throughout the shipping process, especially if you’re running ate. This means letting them know when you expect to ship, and responding promptly to any questions or concerns that buyers may have. Poshmark will let the buyer know when you’ve shipped and will provide them tracking information, so once you’ve had the item scanned at the Post Office, you can consider your job mostly done!

By avoiding these common shipping mistakes on Poshmark, sellers can provide a positive experience for buyers and build a strong reputation on the platform.

Swapping Shipping Labels

This is the worst, but it does happen: shipping two orders to the wrong buyers! If you get word from a buyer that they’ve received the wrong item, file a claim with Poshmark and they’ll send your buyers labels to re-ship the items to eachother.

Then, in the future, confirm each order as you label it, labeling items immediately after packing so you don’t get confused (or write the item where the label will go so you remember what’s in there).

A Few More Tips for Successful Shipping on Poshmark

Invest in Supplies

One of the most important things you can do to ensure successful shipping on Poshmark is to invest in shipping supplies. It’s no fun running late on a bundle order because you don’t have any big boxes on hand! Standard supplies include boxes of a few different sizes, envelopes, bubble wrap/kraft paper (save and reuse these from your online shopping orders!), tissue paper/kraft paper, tape, and other materials you may need to securely package your items. (I like Thank You stickers, but they’re optional!). By having these supplies on hand, you can quickly and easily package your items and get them out to buyers in a timely manner.

Put Items in Inventory Before Listing

Doing your final inspection, lint-roll, folding, and putting away will help you avoid last minute surprises, like needing to steam a rumpled piece or not being able to find it altogether.

Have a Routine for Shipping

If you’re used to shipping Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, you’re a lot less likely to slack on sending items, or discover at the 11th hour that you can’t find something.

Treat Buyers How You’d Want to Be Treated

Listen, there are some jerk buyers out there, but in my experience, they’re few and far between. Having a hard time getting an item out the door for some reason? Communicate it! Most folks understand that we’re all human and would appreciate a head’s up if you’re running behind, or an option to swap in an item if you can’t find something they’ve bundled. Just keep it professional, and do your best to reach out ASAP if there are issues. If you’ve already waited 3 days to check in, you’re less likely to get an easy-going response.

Did we miss anything?

Have any shipping snafus to share?

I once accidentally swapped order labels, and then had one of the buyers not send the other one their order. And it was a gift. For Christmas. (Yes, I felt horrible).

It happens to the best of us, but remember in any shipping situations, put the buyer and good customer service first. The rest tends to sort itself out.

Love and magic,

Cathy @ClosetWitch

One of the most popular features of Poshmark tools and bots are their ability to send offers to potential buyers quickly and automatically. And…. drumroll please: ClosetWitch is in betamode with this feature!

We’ll break down why this is so exciting and what makes our version of automatic offer sending special in a moment, but first—why are automatic offers a thing? And are they always worth the trouble?

Why Poshmark Sellers Like Sending Automatic Offers

Sending automatic offers on Poshmark can be helpful for sellers because it allows them to quickly and easily reach out to potential buyers while the buyers are looking at items, or very soon after.

Buyers on Poshmark Have Short Attention Spans

To understand why this is important, think about the last purchase decision you made on Poshmark. For me, I was scrolling through sneaker listings, liked a few, found one pair I was OBSESSED with, and pulled the trigger immediately when they sent an offer around an hour later.

But in the hours, days, and weeks after my purchase, I continued getting offers from sellers of all the other items I liked. I couldn’t even remember why I liked these items, and I wasn’t in the market for sneakers any more.

Timeliness with offer sending can mean life or death to a sale. But most sellers would also agree that there are better uses of their time than refresh their news feed and sending (likely the same) offers over and over again.

Why Automatic Offer Sender Tools Tend to… Kind of Suck

If you’ve read any of my bot testing blogs, you know I’m opinionated about automated functions. For one thing, they tend to be developed by developers for, seemingly, other developers!

Take the obsession with feeds. Even Alan, cofounder of ClosetWitch and our chief developer, wanted this to the automatic offer home page: a giant feed of text notifications that offers have been sent.

(I pushed back on this with a simple question: what are users meant to do with this? He wasn’t sure, so now the automatic offers page looks a lot like bulk offers: photos and titles of listings with the discount and shipping deal they have, and at timestamp of the last time the offer was sent).

Step One: Make 3,000 Decisions

Another common approach to “smart” automatic offers is a mathmatical, algorithmic approach to setting “rules” around offers. For many services (the few that even give you the option to select more than one type of offer for literally your entire close), you need to make several far-reaching choices before you can even start.

Such as:

-Do you want items over a certain dollar amount to get a different offer?

-What about under a certain dollar amount?

-Do you want different offers for a specific category or item, or brand?

-And not available in any other service (aside from ClosetWitch, teehee!), how do you opt items out of automatic offers if you make a price change?

Granted, you can’t *see” items in your closet as you make this decision (unless you open them in a different tab). You just have to scan your memory and try to recall the pricing intricacies of each.

Do you have cold sweats yet?

You also can’t edit your offers at all, you need to choose one type of offer for your entire closet, then program an algorithm like a developer to hopefully make good descisions about what treat as a special case, sight unseen.

Step Two: Hit “Start” and Panic

The last time I tried this while testing a service, I immediately, accidentally sent a way-too-low offer on an item I paid up for and lost $20.

Yeah, not my favorite!

Another fun moment with a different service: an immediate tidal wave of notifications. The tool I tried (that I’ll cover more below) thought I needed to know every time it attempted to send an offer on an item, whether or not I had new likers. Friends, it tried to send an offer ONCE EVERY MINUTE. That was for a single item, and it was completely overwhelming. I shudder to think of having offers set up for my closet of 600ish pieces.

Seeing is Believing: Introducing ClosetWitch Auto Offers and the Tao of Previews

I’ll keep this brief, but I’ve been around the block with other tools, and, as a seller, this is my dream feature.

Here’s what I’m most excited about:

-Sane onboarding: add items to your automatic offers queu globally or one at a time. We make it easy by harnessing the power of our bulk offers tool. Simply keep “add to auto offers” toggled on, and the next time you get a batch of likes, the offers you set for them will simply keep sending in the future, without you having to send them.

-Preview your earnings and tweak offer and shipping discount for individual items before adding them to your Auto queu. There’s a picture of the item to reduce cognitive load and jog your memory.

-Easy on/off and opting out. Need to pause offer sending? Toggle off “auto offers.” Did you lower the price of an item for closet clear out? Automatic offers will pause so you can adjust the discount amount the next time you have a like and avoid getting in the red.

Coming soon:

-Setting customized timing for offers (it will currently send at the 15 minute mark to give buyers a chance to purchase the item at full price).

Who gets it?

-ClosetWitch Pro Users ($19/month subscription) will have access to this tool as soon as the chrome store pushes the update.

-ClosetWitch ProLite Users ($9/month subscription)will get a “lite” version of this (heh) called Offer Pinning, in which the Bulk Offers tool will remember your last custom offer for an item. The next time you get a like, your last offer and shipping discount are already there—just hit the “send” button. Ah, the beauty of making a decision ONCE.

But of course, we’re not the only folks offering this tool (though we may be the only ones offering it $19/month, double heh!). Here are a few other seller tools to consider if automatic offers are on your wish list. I’ll link to my review blogs for each service I’ve tried to include specific insight into auto offers.

ClosetPilot

Price point to get auto offers: $29.99/month

Precision: set one offer for your entire closet; no opt outs or individual offer edits.

Visibility: the feed tells you every time it checks for new offers and when an offer is sent.

Other Features: Aside from auto offers, ClosetPilot also offers sharing at various speeds (and even continuous sharing, though this can eat up quite a bit of bandwidth), plus auto social features, like auto following and unfollowing.

First Impressions: does the job; works fine for a closet with a consistent pricing strategy. But you’ll get more features for your money with PosherVA or ClosetWitch.

Review of ClosetPilot

PrimeLister

Price point to get auto offers: $29.99/month, with a 20% discount available for yearly subscriptions.

Precision: set one offer for your entire closet, with the option to set a discount in dollar amount or percentage off. You can tailor your offer’s delay in minutes; option to include flexibile shipping. Filters are also available; weed out items by date of listing, age, number of likes, historical price, current price, net earnings, or condition.

Visibility: an activity log tracks sent offers.

Other Features: Aside from auto offers, Primlisters also offers sharing, bulk actions (price adjustments and offers), and, at a higher $49.99/month price point, listing actions (including relisting from scratch).

First Impressions: this is a very good tool with useful fine-tuning options for sending automatic offers, and my favorite layout/user interface. I did want a little more visibility and ease of editing individual offers, but if your pricing stragey is consistent (ie. you don’t often pay up for items, or you generally list items at a consistent price point), this should work just fine for you.

Review of Primelister

PosherVA

Price point to get auto offers: $25/month

Precision: set one offer for your entire closet, with excusions (opt out items over or under a given price point, listed within a given number of hours, or NWT/boutique items). Tailor your offer’s delay in minutes; option to include flexibile shipping.

Visibility: see a list of which items are excluded from auto offers; see total number of offers sent.

Other Features: PosherVA is a Poshmark bot that offers a variety of automation features, including an activity returner for shares and follows, and “copy listing” relisting (ie. items won’t show up in “Just In” searches unless they’re at least 60 days old).

First Impressions: this is a solid tool with useful fine-tuning options for sending automatic offers. Again, I did want a little more visibility and ease of editing individual offers, but, same with PrimeLister, if your pricing strategy is consistent (ie. you don’t often pay up for items, or you generally list items at a consistent price point), this should do the job.

Review of PosherVA

Closet Assistant

Price point to get auto offers: $24.99/month

Precision: set one offer for your entire closet; no opt outs or individual offer edits. Offers are sent immediately.

Visibility: the feed tracks every time offers are sent, with item, discount, and shipping info.

Other Features: Aside from auto offers, Closet assistant also offers closet sharing, bulk price adjustments and offers, a community share/follow returner, auto commenter, closet organization, and “copy listing” relisting with useful filters. (Note: items must be at least 60 days old to show up in “Just In” searches as they would if relisted from scratch).

First Impressions: the auto offer sender does the job; works fine for a closet with a consistent pricing strategy/few complications or exceptions. Doesn’t give users a chance to potentially buy an item full price before sending an offer; no previews or individual edits available. Overall, this tool feels reliable and robust, the stats are useful, and the auto commenter is a unique feature among all the other tools I’ve looked at.

Review of ClosetAssistant: coming soon!

And… that’s my short list so far!

I feel like SuperPosher offered auto offers at one point, but they seem to have changed business models with a rebrand as OneShop, a b2b reselling marketplace. Interesting.

If you are a Poshmark seller looking to streamline your sales process, using a bot that offers automatic offers can be a valuable time saver--or a stressful, panicky time suck. Closet Assistant, ClosetPilot, ClosetWitch, PosherVA, and Primelister are just a few of the many Poshmark tools that offer this feature and others. When choosing a Poshmark seller aid, it is important to consider the features that are most important to you and your business. Take into account your pricing strategy, closet size, and how you like to work while making a decision.

Did I miss any tools that offer auto sharing? Are you using any of these tools and have a different take on the experience? Please share below!

And of course, if you want to try ClosetWitch, give our free extension a spin by downloading in the chrome store. Create an account and upgrade for pinned offers or our brand spanking new auto offers tools. And please tell us what you think! We love feedback, and so many of our features come directly from user requests.

Drop us a line any time at contact@closetwitch.com.

Love and magic,

Cathy @ClosetWitch

Managing inventory and staying organized are crucial for any successful Poshmark business. With so many items to sell, it can be challenging to keep track of everything. However, by implementing effective inventory management strategies, you can keep your Poshmark store running smoothly and maximize your sales potential. Here are some tips to help you stay on top of your inventory and keep your Poshmark store organized.

Store Items Safely

Clear plastic bins are my personal favorite for storing items. Within each bin, my items are pre-lint rolled and neatly folded in zippered plastic bags (which I reuse after selling items). The bins themselves are labeled neatly with their categories (or range of SKU numbers, if that's your system).

Items should be off the floor, away from harsh sunlight, and protected from moisture and bugs, especially moths. I use large metal utility shelves against a wall that's not facing a window. Some sellers, especially those that sell items quickly and keep their inventory low, hang items up. If you're doing this in an out of the way space like an attic, I recommend using garment bags and cedar balls and hang tabs to keep moths away.

Whatever storage system you use, I find it's much faster to ship if items are completely ready to go, not crumpled and linty, so give them that last once over before storing.

Categorize Your Inventory

How to arrange storage? I like to sort inventory by category. You can do this by separating your items into different bins based on their type, size, color, or brand. For example, you can have a section for dresses, another section for shoes, and so on. This will help you quickly find specific items when a customer makes a purchase and make it easier to manage your inventory. You can go as general or as specific as needed; I have "summer dresses," "special occasion dress," "mid-season dresses," and "winter dresses," which can get confusing. It's whatever works for you!

Some sellers also use SKU numbers, and group their items by number range. Poshmark supports this, even for those who don't use spreadsheets to track inventory. To attach a SKU number to an item, in "create listing," or "edit listing," scroll to the bottom of the page and expand "additional details." Here you can entire private info that helps you stay organized, including listing SKU, how much you paid for the item, and a field for additional info.

Keep Your Inventory Clean and Tidy Throughout Processing

I like using storage to keep my items separated and labeled even in their "in-between" states, like just in from the store and ready for measurements, in need or repairs or laundering, or photographed and ready to be put away.

Why all the fuss? I find that the longer items are "out" so to speak, the higher the risk something will happen to them, like a spill, color transfer from other items, wrinkling, or worst case scenario, damage. Protect and respect your investments!

I also find that clear labeling and having spots for everything reduces confusion and decision fatigue throughout the workday. The reduction in visual clutter (ie. a tidy, labeled bin of clothes instead of a pile), is much more motivating and energy-protecting to work with.

Keep Track of Your Sales with a Spreadsheet or Tool

Keeping track of your sales is important for making good decisions in your Poshmark business. For example, tracking cost of goods helps ensure that you're not selling items for less than you paid for them, while tracking item categories  helps you identify trends in your sales. You can even use inventory to note when items need special attention, should go on sale, or have exited your selling stream, ie. through donation.

So how to start? Try whipping up a simple spreadsheet, or use a Poshmark inventory management tool (like ClosetWitch Pro's!) for more targeted help. any system, however simple, should help you keep track of what items have sold, which items you haven't listed yet, and how much profit you have made. You can also use this information to identify your specific info, like where your most successful shopping trips occurred, and adjust your sourcing routine accordingly.

Bonus Tips for ClosetWitch Pro Users

Are you a ClosetWitch Pro user? Try these tips for making the most of your inventory system:

-Upload new inventory items in similar categories together: the system will remember the category of the last item you uploaded and appropriate fields will be preselected.

-Use tags to help you find items later on--and target them for sales. For example, if you've tagged items as "summer," you can quickly identify which items to mark down come September.

-Mark items as "blocked" that have stains or need repairs. This is a great way to avoid forgetting about issues you found during intake and steaming something you forgot had a tear in it.

-Mark items for special action, for example, if something that's already listed requires you to go back and add measurements later. Then sort by "action needed" from time to time to generate a to-do list!

Conclusion

By following these tips, you can manage your inventory IRL and your data as well. This will help you stay on top of your sales, ship quickly and efficiently, and make smart decisions for Poshmark business in the future.

Think about it--so many "loss" situations in Poshmark selling come down to inventory management. Has this happened to you?

-Having to cancel a sale because you lost an item

-Undercharging and losing money on a sale because you forgot you paid up for it

-An item becoming less valuable or even unsellable because of damage incurred while lying around

-Forgetting to photograph, list, or measure items.

That said, good inventory management can also lead to great gains, like:

-discovering you actually source way better stuff across town and decide to shop at that store twice a week instead of thrifting daily at the closer location

-learning that your best categories are athleisure or men's, and deciding to niche down on that

-identifying items that have "slipped through the cracks" because of good notes--so you never again forget that trendy sun dress that just needed measurements until after fall rolls around (whoops).

So, take some time to implement these tips and see the difference they make in your Poshmark store.

And want to give ClosetWitch Pro a spin?

Drop us a line at contact@closetwitch.com for a free trial.

Love and magic,
Cathy@ClosetWitch

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