Listing your products on multiple online selling platforms like eBay, Poshmark, and Mercari is a viable approach for a small business owner to expand his customer base and increase his overall sales.
Academic research has shown that listing your products on multiple online marketplaces increases the velocity at which you sell items by over thirty percent! That being said, reselling your goods or products on multiple marketplaces is a time-consuming process.
Without the necessary tools and guidance, you’ll quickly find yourself giving up on completing multiple listing forms and thus not generating the profit you are looking forward to.
However, we’ve recently stumbled across an excellent productivity tool that has helped us tremendously with listing on multiple marketplaces.
It’s called Crosslist and it allows you to list on multiple marketplaces by simply completing just one listing form. After doing so, you can post this form to a plethora of online marketplaces, saving you time filling in the same repetitive information!
In particular, they also allow you to quickly relist your existing inventory on another marketplace. This is called crosslisting.
Check out this handy guide on how to crosslist from Poshmark to Mercari and vice versa. They’re currently running a free Public Beta and will allow for a short trial after launching to test the waters. Now, let’s have a look at some other handy tips for resellers.
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1. Search Thoroughly
A common mistake that people make nowadays is that they do not have enough patience when it comes to looking for inventory. As a consequence, they’re buying the wrong things or they’re overpaying.
As a result, they struggle to increase their revenue and ultimately their profit, which in turn makes them even more impatient. As you can see, you need to be wary about falling victim to this vicious circle.
Thrifting and looking for inventory is a job that requires a person to be patient. Skimming through a thrift store to find quality items that can be sold at a higher price is a daunting task. It’s also pretty easy to get overwhelmed by the many products in a thrift store. A good tip is to also check the waste containers. Often, employees will throw away stuff without realizing there’s still value to be found.
This additional source of inventory is a good way to get a competitive advantage over your competitors. The better your searching process, the higher your chances of leaving the store with a good catch.
2. Be Selective
Secondly, you should be selective in what you’re selling. Ideally, you know your product well and you focus on things where your knowledge about the product gives you a competitive edge over your competitors because you’re able to distinguish quality from lemons. This will also give you more peace of mind, which in turn will help you with being patient and not falling victim to the pitfall described above.
A good tip is also to focus on things that aren’t too cheap. Typically, the higher the price, the higher the profit margins. This is the case for most luxury goods. It requires some initial capital sure, but once you get going, you’ll be able to get much higher profit margins than your competitors. This will help you to buy more inventory and support your business by purchasing more productivity tools, for example, Crosslist.
The superior quality will also help you with avoiding complaints from customers that may not be satisfied with the quality you’re providing them. Given you are selling premium brands, you’ll have no trouble reselling them as well, as the demand for these brands is usually high.
So moral of the story: focus on premium brands that you know.
We also want to point out that if you’re selling on multiple marketplaces, you need to pay attention to the concept of each marketplace. While some marketplaces like Mercari are used to sell a variety of goods, other marketplaces such as Grailed or Heroine focus on a more particular style of clothing.
For example, a pair of slim jeans from a famous brand is more likely going to be sold on Grailed than a baggy, bootcut fit from Walmart. Listing such items on premium marketplaces may even hurt your brand. So keep an eye out for that!
3. Consider the State of The Product
Thirdly, one of the most important aspects of reselling is making sure you’re correctly evaluating the condition of the items you’re intending to sell. You’ll need to inspect your products thoroughly (even after purchasing!) to avoid selling faulty items to your customers and thus hampering the reputation of your business.
Before selling your inventory, make sure every item has been thoroughly cleaned. You’ll need to do that to take pictures of the product as well. Pro tip: taking pictures of inventory on a white background helps your product to rank faster in Google!
4. Pricing
Last but not least, you need to think about your pricing. Earlier in this article, we stated that focusing on premium brands with a higher price tag is a good way to increase your profit margin. While this is an excellent strategy, it comes with one caveat: the risk of overpaying.
You need to be careful that the price you’re buying the item at is not too close to the estimated market price. This is why we’ve mentioned the importance of knowing your product. The better you know your product, the lesser the risk of overpaying.
Just because an item comes in handy with a high retail price doesn’t mean that it will result in a high resale price. For example, a Ralph Lauren Polo Shirt may be bought for a price of 80-90 dollars.
However, due to the saturation in the second-hand market for Ralph Lauren Polos, you may not be able to sell it for more than 30 dollars. So be careful!
5. Remove Your Personal Opinions
Another thing that some people often forget when owning a reselling business is to keep their personal opinion about a product to themselves.
It’s perfectly fine to sell inventory that you wouldn’t wear yourself. Everyone’s opinion is different. In French, there’s a nice proverb that says “Des goûts et des couleurs, on ne discute pas”, which roughly translates to: “Everyone has his or her taste”.
So if you’re selling something that you do not like, remain passionate, as your passion will surely convince a potential buyer of purchasing the item. This is especially the case if you’re selling on a social marketplace like Poshmark. Don’t be upset if someone judges your closet. In the end, it’s the profit that counts.
6. Be Consistent
Thrifting is similar to a treasure hunt. It’s difficult and requires dedication. It’s perfectly possible that not every trip to the thrift store yields in sellable inventory. Again, remain patient and be consistent.
Try to go to the thrift store every week. This will build a routine that will surely translate into results. The sole purpose of your business is to get your hands on inventory that you can sell at a higher. As a result, you cannot get lazy and skip visiting the stores, as you can be assured that a competitor will snatch that nice dress you could’ve sold with a 50% margin.
According to our experts, a good reseller visits his purchasing sources at least once a week, as you may never know when you’ll get your hands on something that will surely impact the future of your reselling business.
Conclusion
Given the rise of technology and the astonishing growth of the second-hand market, people have been selling more and more clothes on online marketplaces such as Poshmark and Mercari. The best way by far to grow your business is by listing your inventory on multiple marketplaces at once.
Given the tips and tricks outlined in this article, this should no longer be of any challenge to you. So go and create an account on a marketplace you’re not listing on yet and step up your reselling game.
We certainly wish you good luck!
