Poshmark Shopify

Poshmark Shopify? Pros & Cons? Which platform is best for sellers?

Let’s start by defining the two platforms:

1- Poshmark:

1.1- What is Poshmark?

Poshmark is a social ecommerce marketplace for fashion, where anyone can buy, sell, and share their personal fashion style.

Poshmark is different than the other well known online marketplaces such as Ebay and Mercari because it focuses on fashion, and because of its social aspect that allows members to be active in the community.

In 2019, Poshmark started adding more categories. Now sellers can sell men’s, women’s and kids clothing and accessories, and home goods.

1.2- Pros & Cons:

Are you still undecided about selling on Poshmark? Check out its pros and cons based on my own experience as a seller.

Pros:

• You don’t need to buy a domain name.
• You don’t need to purchase a hosting account.
• Membership is free, you can sign up today, create your closet, and start selling.
• Listing is free, you can start listing your items immediately after sign up.
• You can list on Poshmark website using your computer or Poshmark app using your smartphone.
• Easy to list items, just add photos, title, description, and price.
• You don’t need to pay for advertising and search for customers to sell your items. When you list an item, it becomes available to poshers immediately (Poshmark members).
• Poshmark focuses on Fashion, which makes poshers a targeted audience for your fashion style.
• You can build an audience and followers who like your fashion style and will buy from your closet over and over again.
• You can edit and update you listing information anytime. You can change title, description, price, etc.
• You can communicate with buyers, answer their questions and provide customer service.
• You can make offers to other poshers, and accept or decline offers from them.
• Unlike having your own store, Poshmark is trusted by buyers.
• Poshmark protects buyers and sellers information and privacy.

Cons:

• You don’t decide the terms and conditions. You have to follow Poshmark rules.
• Poshmark is not a “List it and Forget it” type of platform. You need to follow other members, share their listings to your followers, share your closet to your followers and share your closet to Poshmark parties in order to make sales.
• Poshmark focuses on fashion and just added home goods. You are limited to categories decided by Poshmark. If you sell Electronics for example, Poshmark is not for you.
• Poshers prefer high end items. You can’t just purchase some cheap items from chinese manufacturers through Aliexpress or Alibaba to resell on Poshmark like some do in other online marketplaces. You need to do the work of searching and finding high end items to resell.

As a seller on Poshmark, you should always think about buying items that will sell fast to grow your closet and make money.

Following are some brands that can sell fast on Poshmark (This list changes based on customers demand. So please do your research based on when you are reading this post).

• Michael Kors
• Vineyard Vines
• Nike
• Adidas
• Patagonia
• Tommy Hilfiger
• Under Armour
• Forever 21
• Gucci
• Chanel
• Kate Spade
• Louis Vuitton
• Lululemon
• Vera Bradley
• Victoria’s Secret

2- Shopify:

2-1 What is Shopify?

Shopify is an all-in-one commerce platform to start, run, and grow a business.

Businesses of all sizes use the platform, whether they’re selling online, in retail stores, or on the go. From 2016 to 2018, businesses on Shopify contributed $183 billion in economic activity worldwide.

The difference between managing your own Shopify store and creating a store in platforms such as Ebay, Poshmark and Mercari, is that the Shopify store is yours and under your control. You decide your own rules and policies instead of following other platforms rules, or get suspended when you don’t.

Pros:

• You own your eCommerce website, you decide your terms and conditions.
• You don’t risk getting your account suspended for not following Poshmark rules.
• You can sell in all categories instead of being limited to fashion.
• You can save on cost of inventory if you decide to drop ship and sell other vendors merchandise on your website.
• You can choose affiliate marketing and collect commission when you sell other vendors merchandise.
• You can brand and customize your online store.
• You can sell digital products.
• You have full control over what to list, how to list, and how to advertise your merchandise.
• You don’t need to pay Poshmark a fee to sell on their platform.
• You can use the Shopify app on your smartphone to update your store, manage inventory, fulfill orders, and contact a customer.
• Shopify integrates with apps like Ordoro, Inventory Source, and eCommHub, making it easy to set up your dropshipping business.

Cons:

• You need to purchase a domain name.
• You will have to pay a monthly fee to use the shopify platform.
• You will be limited to classic templates unless you spend more money to purchase more advanced templates and plugins.
• It is easy to start a store on shopify, but registering a domain name, deciding the right hosting plan and creating a store won’t be easy for everyone.
• In addition to the upfront fee, you may need to pay more money to advertise your store online, unless you understand SEO (search engine optimization) techniques that can help your store receive organic free traffic.
• You need to protect your customers privacy and make sure hackers don’t have access to their personal and financial information.
• You need to understand and follow the laws in your country concerning consumer’s protection.

Poshmark Shopify. Which one is better for sellers?

As a new seller, Poshmark can help you start selling immediately, easily and for free.

As an experienced seller, you can use Poshmark to benefit from its ease of use and the large number of customers ready to buy your merchandise, or create a store on Shopify to get more control and decide your own rules, as long as you know how and you can afford advertising cost to reach more customers.