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7 Things To Do When Poshmark Sales Are Down
Every business experiences ebbs and flows in sales. Depending on the items you sell, seasonality, popularity and scarcity can all impact your numbers. It’s easy to become depressed and feel like a victim of circumstances out of your control when you aren’t so busy packing up things to ship.
Luckily, there are plenty of things you can do while experiencing a sales slump to not only keep your mind busy but also increase your sales.
1. Tackle Your Death Pile
From time to time, every seller makes questionable purchases. Maybe an item looks interesting even though you aren’t familiar with the brand or style so you rolled the dice only to discover you now can’t find any comps. Perhaps an item really had you excited upon first glance, but now that you have it home it’s not so appealing. Maybe you discovered some damage to a few items and put them aside to deal with another day.
Today is the day.
It’s not so uncommon for resellers to have a “death pile.” You’ve been avoiding these items like the plague while in constant search of something more exciting to do. Deep down you know these items aren’t going to sell themselves. And they can’t sell if they aren’t listed.
Set a reasonable goal for tackling your unlisted inventory. Listing 100 items per day probably isn’t reasonable, but maybe 20 items per day is until it’s gone.
Batch work for the win
If you aren’t familiar with batch working, it’s simply dividing your workflow into highly focused, separate tasks. My batch process typically looks like this:
- Separate unlisted items into similar categories. Ex. jeans, shorts, bags, shoes, etc. As you are separating items into smaller piles, look for damage.
- Launder, steam and prepare for photographing. Hang items that will wrinkle or can be photographed on a hanger. Line up your shoes or flat lay items in an area where you can quickly and seamlessly photograph them and move them to the side without taking a lot of extra steps.
- Photograph items, take measurements, make a note of any damage
- Once all items are photographed, put them away into your preferred inventory system
- Start listing the items. Check comps. Write descriptions. Put them into a spreadsheet with location for easy finding when sold.
2. Revisit Your Existing Listings
If you don’t have any new items to list, there’s still plenty of work you could be doing revising your existing listings.
- Make sure your descriptions are thorough and detailed. Did you provide measurements? Color? Style name? Add a few descriptive tags.
- Are your titles searchable? Use better keywords. Use the brand and style name.
- Take better photos. If your photography skills have become better with time, maybe it’s time to make sure your first listings are as appealing as they could be.
- Make sure your items are tagged correctly with the right brand, size, category.
3. Relist
A lot of shoppers sort results by “Newest First” or “Just In.” And many selling platforms send emails and notifications of new items a seller might like. That means if your item has been sitting for a while, it may be at the bottom of the search results regardless of the keywords you used or how many times per day you share it.
Because Poshmark’s Copy feature does not list items as “Just In” unless they have been stale for an extended period of time – which timeframe may change at any time without your knowledge – you may want to enlist the help of a tool like List Perfectly. This will allow you to copy over all of your photos and item details within a few clicks. Just don’t forget to delete the old listing!
4. Crosslist
While you are relisting old items, you should also consider crosslisting them on other platforms. Not everyone is on Poshmark and someone may be on Mercari, Etsy, eBay or beyond right now looking for the exact item you have for sale. The more eyes on your item, the better chances it has to sell.
Again, tools like List Perfectly will help you crosslist a bunch of items in just a few minutes time. Just make sure you take note in your inventory system of where you have items listed so you can remove them when they sell.
5. Check In On Your Business Finances
A lot of online sellers run their finances blind until tax time rolls around. I hate accounting as much as the next guy, but it’s so important to keep on top of whether you are running in the black or the red.
At least once per month, take a good look at your numbers.
- What’s your sell-through rate?
- What categories and brands are selling best?
- What’s your average investment per item?
- What’s your average sale price per item?
- What can you do to make more money?
There are several spreadsheets available online that will do these calculations for you, but you have to have up-to-date information first.
6. Stay Active
If you are feeling down in the dumps, it can be easy to let things slide. During slow seasons, it’s more important than ever to remain active in your sales apps.
- Answer questions
- Send offers
- Share your closet
Many apps show on your profile the last time you were active. If a buyer sees you haven’t checked into the app in weeks, they may be less inclined to buy from you.
7. Take Inventory
Even with the best inventory system, items will go missing from time to time or sell twice by mistake. This can especially be the case when you are crosslisting items on several platforms.
When things are slow, take time to make sure everything is accounted for. If you haven’t been keeping a spreadsheet of your inventory, now’s a good time to get that going. Do some research into what systems other sellers are using. Implement one that works well for your space and personality.
You may have noticed this list does not include “Go buy more stuff.” While that may be something to do if you are running out of items to sell, it’s not the best advice if you are already sitting on a potential mountain of money. Other than avoiding a potential problem, it may be time to take a good hard look at why the items you have been sourcing up to now aren’t selling. Are you buying just to buy? Are you really ever listing what you have purchased? Are you living under the guise of being an online seller just to cover up a bad shopping habit? Those are hard questions many people have to ask themselves at some point.
