We’ve all read those viral stories of Poshmark sellers clearing hundreds of thousands (and occasionally millions) of dollars selling their old clothes. And we’ve all thought to ourselves, “Hey, I can do that.”

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But as many resellers know, just because a platform works for some businesses doesn't mean it'll work for your business.

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Each one has its advantages and disadvantages, and Poshmark is no exception. For every success story, there's a seller who's closing their closet for good — and denouncing the app on their way out.

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“The era of Poshmark is 1,000% over,” Emmy-nominated journalist Mariya Moseley declared in a TikTok video that went viral in April. In it, she says the time spent staging clothes and negotiating with potential buyers was no longer worth the payout.

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Lauren Eager, who posted the original video Moseley stitched, has also noticed a shift in what customers are after.

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Pieces that Lauren says used to “sell like hotcakes” now take so long to move that she questioned whether or not anyone was still using the app.

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“Poshmark used to be a bit more like a garage sale,” Lauren tells us.

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“People understood that items were used, and things weren’t overpriced. Today there are a number of people who expect things to be like new — and that’s fine, except [as a shopper] you’re buying it at almost retail cost and from someone who’s going to take a while to ship. Plus, Poshmark is taking a percentage from the seller. So both people feel like they’re getting a bad deal.”

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But it’s not enough of a bad deal to keep Lauren, who’s based in the U.S., off the app.

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In her 15 years of reselling (which she does mainly to promote sustainable shopping), she’s spent eight of them on Poshmark and has no plans to close her closet anytime soon.

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On the other hand, fellow reseller Ashlee Mueller of Lemon’s Loot, based in Kingston, Ont., gave the app a fair shot for four years before closing up shop in April due to a lack of sales. In the entirety of their time on Poshmark, Ashlee only sold 291 listings — the same amount they make in a month on platforms like Etsy.

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With over 130 million users across the United States and Canada, Poshmark is by no means dead.

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But finding success there today does require more hustle than listing a vintage tee and hoping for the best.

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To help you determine whether it’s worth your time and effort, we asked Lauren and Ashlee to share their pros and cons of selling on the platform.

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Here’s what they had to say.
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Pro: It’s free to list on Poshmark.

Some e-commerce platforms like Etsy charge a fee to list items, but Poshmark offers a free, no-risk way to test the selling waters.
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Ashlee appreciated this, as they were only a year into their reselling biz when they joined the platform in May 2020.
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Being able to move low-cost pieces that were taking up inventory space without paying a listing fee was a nice perk.
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Con: Buyers don’t love the shipping rates.

Shipping costs are the chief complaint on Lauren’s TikTok. In the U.S., Poshmark currently offers a flat rate of US$7.97 on all orders, and a Poshmark spokesperson told us that the platform recently reduced its shipping fees in Canada from CA$13.49 to CA$12.49 for items weighing less than 2.5 kilograms (5.5 pounds).
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When items are listed at a similar (or lower) price point to the shipping costs, it can be a turnoff for potential buyers. However, Lauren says that she prefers Poshmark's flat rate over Depop's calculated shipping.
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“For the most part, [Poshmark in the U.S.] does it at cost with its partnership with USPS,” Lauren says. “I would rather do it that way than like Depop does it, where it’s inconsistent, and you don’t know what to expect.”
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Sometimes, that shipping falls onto the seller. Ashlee listed a lot of heavy home decor items and said they frequently had to cover extra shipping costs when an item weighed over 5.5 pounds, as there is no option to charge the buyer.
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Pro: You can grow a large following really quickly.

As any online seller knows, the first major hurdle is visibility. While Instagram growth tends to be a slow burn, Poshmark can be a wildfire.
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Ashlee clocked in 45,800 followers by the time they closed their shop — and somehow gained 2,200 more even after they stopped listing new items.
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Followers, however, don’t necessarily mean buyers. “I do think it’s a very inflated following,” Ashlee says, noting that comparatively, they have 2,072 followers on Instagram while posting there almost daily.
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“But I also think it speaks to the growth of the platform.”
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Con: There are too many wholesalers.

While a Poshmark spokesperson says that wholesale sellers (which are currently not enabled on Poshmark Canada) only make up a “small fraction” of U.S. users, Lauren disagrees.
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She says there are a lot more “online boutiques” than there used to be and that the influx makes it harder for smaller resellers and people who sell out of their closets to stand out — and for buyers to find items that fit.
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Wholesale sellers offer new or like-new items in multiple sizes, usually procured from fast-fashion manufacturers. Sizing and quality varies — and listings that mention a range of sizes surface in search results, even if the buyer’s requested size is not in stock.
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This goes against what Lauren says she believes was the app’s main draw: an easy way for eco-conscious buyers to find their favourite quality brands secondhand, and at lower prices.
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“The best things for resale are known brands that have consistent sizing,” she explains.

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“Because Poshmark doesn’t have a return policy, it’s really important to be able to sell clothing that is consistent in size. If there are fewer sellers selling those types of items, then buyers get confused and frustrated and leave the app.”
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Pro: There’s more opportunity for repeat buyers.

Lauren believes it’s possible to build a community of repeat buyers on Poshmark if resellers focus on holy-grail contemporary and vintage brands with consistent sizing that buyers can count on, like Everlane, Ralph Lauren, Levi’s, or Lilly Pulitzer.
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“Brands with consistent sizing are the easiest to resell and the easiest to buy,” she says, adding that listing consistent sizes also helps to build a buyer’s trust.
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If you continue listing Levi’s in a size 24, you’re more likely to find buyers who are also size 24 and will keep coming back to your closet because they know what to expect.
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Con: Buyers will haggle — even if the price is already low.

Poshmark is not the kind of app you can set and forget. Ashlee says sellers should prepare to spend a lot of time negotiating prices.

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“People would add a bundle of, say, five $5 items, and they would want it for $10,” they say. “Sometimes, the resulting amount would be a dollar or something. And when you factor in [the price of an] envelope and driving to the post office, it’s not worth it.”

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But that low-balling is what leads to sales. A Poshmark spokesperson told me that 67 per cent of all sales on Poshmark come from offers.

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So buyer discounts are an important factor to consider when setting prices — as is Poshmark’s commission fee. In Canada, it’s CA$3.95 for items under CA$20 and 20% for items over CA$20. In the U.S., the app charges US$2.95 for sales under $15 and 20% for items over US$15.

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Considering those extra costs, it’s easy to see how selling a $5 item could be a loss for the seller.

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Ashlee says focusing on higher-end, designer things or sourcing items for just a few cents from places like the Goodwill bins could yield more of a profit for those looking to sell on the app.
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Pro: It’s very social.

Between the live selling broadcasts, the parties, and the push to share other sellers’ items, Poshmark is probably one of the most (if not the most) social e-commerce platforms — which underscores the fact that it’s not a passive selling experience.

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While your DMs will likely revolve around sizing more than anything uber-meaningful, there is something to be said about the camaraderie.

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“It's built more of a marketplace to be social versus stand-alone e-commerce,” says Ashlee.

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“They’re very focused on parties. They’re very focused on sharing your closet, following people, bartering, etc. They sometimes do competitions for listings [via the Poshmark Ambassador program]. It’s really nothing tangible. But it’s the psychology of it, I think, that drives people in.”
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Con: The app can be difficult to use.

Sellers who love, hate, or are ambivalent toward Poshmark all agree on one thing: the app needs an overhaul.

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A spokesperson told me that it got one in 2023 — but apparently, that update didn’t address the amount of time it takes to list things, the obnoxious number of notifications, and the seemingly obsolete search bar.

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At the time of this writing, a search for a “black pencil skirt” on the U.S. app was met with a result page of black-framed sunglasses.

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“We have all kinds of AI now, so you should be able to take a picture, upload it to Poshmark, and the app just fills in exactly what it is,” notes Lauren.

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“With changes like that, I think it could be a place where people find community again.”

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Emily Blackwood is a freelance journalist based in San Diego, California. She covers entertainment, wellness, travel, home, food, culture—all the things that make life interesting, tantalizing, and just the right amount of weird. Her work has been published in SELF, Apartment Therapy, Stylist, HuffPost, and National Geographic. Learn more at emily-blackwood.com.

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