The Poshmark experiment

As FBA sellers, we’re spoiled. I sold on Ebay way back when you had to write the raw html for your own listings, so I know the struggle, and I’m lazy.

We’re not fans of creating a new listing for individual items or fulfilling our own orders, but we have a big pile of unfulfillable returns. These are items that were returned by customers in more-or-less newish condition, but not Amazon New. Most are apparel returned without manufacturer tags, or shoes without shoe boxes.

What do you you do with items like these? Do you have a death pile growing in the corner of your prep area?

We used to liquidate all unfulfillables sight unseen, but experience has taught us that roughly half are in perfect condition and can be sent straight back to Amazon. That’s a big leak in our Amazon boat. But what to do with the remaining half?

A few months ago we decided to try out Poshmark. Friends told us clothes and shoes sold better than on Ebay, with less drama. In true Coghlan fashion, we dove right in. We started listing shoes because they were taking up more space in our warehouse.

I was a Posh Ambassador in less than a month, and we’ve been selling about 2% of our listings each day.

Sounds great, right?

It’s not all great, and the experiment isn’t over. We’re still undecided about whether we’ll continue.

Pros

• Inventory is moving reasonably quickly
• No returns
• We’re close to recovering our full cost on the items that sell. No profits, but losses are much smaller than other liquidations avenues we’ve tested.

Cons

• It’s time consuming. It takes a minimum of 6-8 to create a listing, and several minutes to pack/ship one when it sells. This incurs a labor cost we haven’t accounted for yet.
• It requires social networking – it’s easy, just a few minutes a day, and can be outsourced. But it really needs to be done.
• It has a large footprint. For the amount of money we make, our Posh corner takes up a lot of space that we could probably be using more profitably in other ways.

What platforms do you sell on? What platforms have you tried and quit?