There’s no getting around Poshmark’s shipping fees, whether they’re paid by the seller or buyer (or both). However, in this blog post, we share three little-known facts that will help everyone come out ahead.
1. Free shipping isn’t actually a good deal
Sometimes sellers offer free shipping on certain items. While this does effectively reduce the mental barrier associated with a non-refundable purchase, it actually ends up being more expensive than it could have been!
As an example, say you’re selling an item for $60 with free shipping. Because Poshmark takes 20% of the item price itself, you’ll receive $60 - $18 (20% commission) - $7.67 (shipping) = $40.33.
Now, working in the other direction, if you wanted to receive a profit of at least $40, you could have listed the item for $50 without free shipping. In this scenario, the buyer would have paid $50 + $7.67 (shipping) = $57.67 and you would have made $50 - $10 (20% commission) = $40.
Though the difference is on the order of dollars, sometimes that’s what a sale comes down to! If you have an item with free shipping that’s not selling, we’d recommend dropping the price and removing the shipping discount – likers will get notified of a price drop and ultimately pay less, and you’ll still make the same profit! Win-win.
2. You can send offers without discounted shipping
When you send an “offer to likers”, you have to specify discounted shipping, further eating away at your profit (as described above)! One way to get around this is to instead use “My Shoppers”.
In the Poshmark app, if you click on “My Shoppers” followed by “Likers”, you’ll see a list of people who have liked one or more items in your closet. Clicking on an individual will then allow you to construct a bundle using their likes, and send them an offer without discounted shipping! A bundle also allows you to have a private conversation via the comments, so this is a great opportunity to mention how fast you can ship the items, and ultimately close the sale.
3. Poshmark occasionally offers discounted shipping
Poshmark has periodic “Closet Clear-Out” events, where you’re prompted to lower the prices of your items. What you may not have known about these days, though, is that if you drop the price at least 10% from the historical low, and the final price is $10 or more, the item gets discounted shipping for 6 hours. This difference is covered by Poshmark!
For most items, shipping will be discounted to $4.99 or $3.99. For higher priced items, this discount could be even steeper, and possibly even free. If you edit an item such that it’s eligible, it’s a good idea to comment on the item and let likers know that they can take advantage of this promotion for a limited amount of time. Again, although the savings are only a few dollars, sometimes it’s just enough to convince a buyer to take the leap.
Have another tip you’d like to share? Get in touch at [email protected].