The resale market is booming, and with it, the popularity of online consignment and reselling platforms. One name that often comes up is ThredUp, a well-known site for buying and selling secondhand clothing. But is ThredUp the best option for you? In this comprehensive blog post, we’ll delve into the world of reselling, comparing ThredUp to seven other popular platforms: Tradesy, Shopify, Kidizen, Facebook Marketplace, Mercari, eBay, and Poshmark. Drawing on the insights of a seasoned reseller, we’ll help you determine the ideal platform to maximize your reselling success.
Table of Contents
- Understanding ThredUp
- Consignment vs. Active Reselling: What’s Right for You?
- Reselling Platform Deep Dive: A Side-by-Side Comparison
- Tradesy
- Shopify
- Kidizen
- Facebook Marketplace
- Mercari
- eBay
- Poshmark
- Optimizing Your Reselling Strategy: Tips and Tools
- FAQ Section
I. Understanding ThredUp
ThredUp operates on a consignment model, meaning you send your items to them, and they handle everything else—listing, photography, pricing, storage, and shipping. This hands-off approach offers both convenience and potential for passive income.
Pros of Using ThredUp:
- Convenience: Say goodbye to the hassles of listing, photography, and shipping. ThredUp takes care of it all, allowing you to focus on sourcing inventory.
- Potential for passive income: While you’re busy with other things, ThredUp is working to sell your items, potentially generating income with minimal effort on your part.
- Outlet for slow-moving inventory: If you have items that haven’t sold on other platforms, ThredUp can be a good way to clear out your inventory and potentially recoup some of your investment.
- Great for decluttering: ThredUp offers an easy way to get rid of unwanted clothing while giving you the opportunity to earn a profit in the process.
Cons of Using ThredUp:
- Lower payout percentages: Since ThredUp is doing the work, you only receive a portion of the selling price, and payouts can be significantly lower than what you might earn selling actively.
- Strict acceptance criteria: ThredUp has a curated selection, and not all brands or items meet their standards. They have a detailed list of acceptable brands and provide guidelines for item condition.
- Limited control over pricing: While you can suggest price adjustments, ThredUp initially sets the prices for your items, which may not always align with your expectations.
- Potential for items to be rejected or returned: You may not receive payment for everything you send, as items can be rejected due to condition, brand, or other factors. Items can also be returned by buyers, further reducing your potential profit.
- Fees: ThredUp charges a processing fee per kit, which is deducted from your earnings when an item sells.
- Payout is primarily in credits or gift cards: Unless you opt for a cash payout (which often comes with lower percentages), your earnings will be in the form of ThredUp credits or gift cards. While this can be advantageous if you frequently shop on ThredUp, it might not be ideal for everyone.
II. Consignment vs. Active Reselling: What’s Right for You?
Before diving into a platform-by-platform comparison, it’s essential to understand the fundamental difference between consignment and active reselling:
- Consignment (ThredUp): A hands-off approach offering convenience but less control over pricing, listing, and shipping. Ideal for clearing out inventory and generating passive income, though payouts are typically lower.
- Active Reselling (Poshmark, eBay, etc.): Requires hands-on involvement in listing, photography, pricing, and shipping, providing greater control and potentially higher profits. Suitable for those willing to invest time and effort for greater financial rewards.
Factors to Consider When Choosing a Reselling Method:
- Time commitment: How much time can you realistically dedicate to reselling activities?
- Desired level of control: Do you prefer a hands-off approach or enjoy the process of actively managing your listings?
- Types of items you sell: Certain platforms cater to specific categories (e.g., Kidizen for children’s clothing).
- Profit goals: Consignment generally offers lower payouts but is efficient for clearing out inventory. Active reselling offers potentially higher profits but demands more effort.
III. Reselling Platform Deep Dive: A Side-by-Side Comparison
Let’s explore seven popular reselling platforms, ranked from least to most recommended, based on the experiences of a seasoned reseller.
Tradesy
Overview: Tradesy focuses on luxury and designer items, aiming to provide a high-end consignment experience.
Pros:
- Occasional surprise sales: While sales can be infrequent, there’s potential for unexpected profits when items do sell.
- No haggling with offers: Tradesy’s system doesn’t allow for buyer offers, simplifying the selling process and eliminating price negotiations.
Cons:
- Complicated listing process: Tradesy’s listing process can be cumbersome and time-consuming, involving detailed questions about item specifics.
- Long payout time: It can take close to a month to receive your earnings from Tradesy, which might not be ideal for those needing quicker payouts.
- High fees: Tradesy’s commission fees are relatively high compared to other platforms, potentially impacting your profit margins.
- Focuses on luxury items: Tradesy’s emphasis on luxury and designer goods makes it less suitable for selling everyday brands or vintage items.
- Difficult to make sales for non-luxury items: Tradesy’s audience primarily seeks high-end brands, making it challenging to sell lower-priced items or common brands.
Overall Rating: D-
Tradesy may be worth considering if you specialize in luxury goods, but its limitations make it less appealing for resellers focusing on other categories or needing quicker payouts.
Shopify
Overview: Shopify is an e-commerce platform that allows you to create your own online store. It’s a powerful tool for building a brand and showcasing your inventory.
Pros:
- Low fees: Shopify’s transaction fees are generally lower than those of dedicated reselling platforms, making it attractive for volume sellers.
- Easy to personalize your store: Shopify offers extensive customization options, allowing you to create a unique store that reflects your brand and selling style.
Cons:
- Requires website development experience: Building a Shopify store demands website development knowledge or the willingness to hire a developer, making it less accessible for beginners.
- Needs driving your own traffic: Unlike dedicated reselling platforms with built-in audiences, you need to attract your own customers to your Shopify store, requiring marketing knowledge and effort.
- Challenging for beginners without marketing knowledge: Successfully selling on Shopify requires a solid understanding of marketing strategies, making it less suitable for those new to online selling.
Overall Rating: 2 out of 5
Shopify is an excellent option for established businesses or resellers with strong marketing skills but poses significant challenges for beginners or those lacking website development experience.
Kidizen
Overview: Kidizen specializes in children’s clothing and accessories, catering to a niche market of parents and caregivers.
Pros:
- Cute platform: Kidizen’s platform is aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly, making it enjoyable to browse and list items.
- Niche market for kids’ clothing: Kidizen’s focus on children’s clothing creates a dedicated audience specifically seeking these items, increasing the likelihood of sales for sellers specializing in this category.
- Knowledgeable buyers: Kidizen’s audience is often well-versed in children’s clothing brands and trends, making it easier to sell popular or sought-after items.
Cons:
- Hard to make sales: Despite its niche audience, Kidizen can be challenging for sellers due to its reliance on active sharing and a lack of advanced selling features.
- Lacks features like offers to likers: Unlike other platforms, Kidizen lacks features like sending offers to those who have liked your items, potentially limiting sales opportunities.
- Requires active sharing to be seen: Similar to Poshmark, Kidizen’s algorithm prioritizes active sharing, meaning listings drop in search results if not regularly promoted.
- Cumbersome sharing process: Kidizen’s sharing process can be time-consuming and inefficient, making it a potential deterrent for busy sellers.
Overall Rating: 2.5 out of 5
Kidizen’s niche market and knowledgeable audience are attractive, but its dependence on active sharing and lack of sophisticated features make it a less-than-ideal platform for those seeking effortless sales.
Facebook Marketplace
Overview: Facebook Marketplace offers a dual approach, allowing for both local selling and shipping nationwide. It leverages Facebook’s massive user base, providing access to a vast potential audience.
Pros:
- Very low fees: Facebook Marketplace charges minimal fees compared to dedicated reselling platforms, making it appealing for sellers wanting to maximize profits.
- Large audience: With Facebook’s vast user base, Facebook Marketplace has a huge potential audience, increasing the chances of reaching interested buyers.
- Combines local selling and shipping nationwide: Facebook Marketplace offers the flexibility of selling locally (meetups or porch pickups) or shipping nationwide, expanding your reach and selling options.
Cons:
- Growing too fast, leading to customer service issues: Facebook Marketplace’s rapid expansion has outpaced its customer service capabilities, leading to frustration for sellers and buyers experiencing problems.
- Lack of manpower for handling problems: Limited customer support resources make it difficult to resolve issues promptly, potentially impacting sales and seller satisfaction.
- Difficult to make sales after the initial listing days: While Facebook Marketplace initially promotes new listings, sales often dwindle quickly, requiring frequent relisting or promotion to maintain visibility.
Overall Rating: Neutral
Facebook Marketplace’s low fees and massive audience are compelling, but its customer service shortcomings and limited sales longevity make it a mixed bag for resellers.
Mercari
Overview: Mercari is a straightforward, user-friendly platform for buying and selling a wide range of items.
Pros:
- Straightforward and user-friendly: Mercari’s platform is simple to navigate, making it easy to list and manage items, even for beginners.
- Useful features like smart pricing and offers to likers: Mercari offers features that help sellers streamline pricing and connect with interested buyers.
- Can sell various items: Mercari allows for selling a diverse range of items beyond clothing, expanding your selling options and potential inventory sources.
Cons:
- Cannot run sales on all listings: Unlike some platforms, Mercari limits the ability to run sales on your entire inventory, potentially hindering bulk discounting strategies.
- Smaller audience compared to eBay and Poshmark: Mercari’s audience is significantly smaller than those of eBay and Poshmark, potentially leading to fewer sales opportunities, especially for niche items.
- Platform lacks sophistication: Mercari’s interface, while user-friendly, lacks the advanced features and tools found on more established platforms like eBay, potentially limiting options for experienced sellers.
Overall Rating: Bronze Medal
Mercari’s simplicity and helpful features make it an excellent option for beginners or those seeking a straightforward selling experience. However, its smaller audience and limited features may be drawbacks for experienced sellers.
eBay
Overview: eBay is a long-standing reselling giant designed for volume sellers, offering a global reach and sophisticated tools.
Pros:
- Designed for volume sellers: eBay provides a robust infrastructure and advanced tools designed to support sellers with large inventories and high sales volumes.
- Huge audience: As one of the oldest and largest reselling platforms, eBay boasts a massive audience, maximizing your chances of reaching interested buyers globally.
- Global reach with international shipping: eBay facilitates international selling, allowing you to expand your market and connect with buyers worldwide.
- Sophisticated features and tools: eBay offers a wealth of features and tools, including data analytics, market research platforms like Terapeak, and advanced listing and selling options, empowering experienced sellers to optimize their strategies.
- Excellent for hobby and full-time resellers: eBay’s flexibility accommodates both hobbyists seeking to declutter and earn extra cash, as well as full-time resellers building a sustainable business.
Cons:
- Steep learning curve due to numerous features: eBay’s extensive features and tools can be overwhelming for beginners, requiring a significant time investment to master.
- Prioritizes buyers over sellers: eBay’s policies often favor buyers, putting sellers at a potential disadvantage when resolving disputes or handling returns, even when buyers are at fault.
- Potential for returns and lost items: Selling on eBay inherently carries the risk of returns, even when items are accurately described, as well as the possibility of items getting lost during shipping, potentially leading to financial losses.
Overall Rating: Solid 85%
eBay’s massive audience, global reach, and advanced features make it a powerhouse for serious resellers. However, its steep learning curve and buyer-centric policies might deter beginners or those seeking a more seller-friendly environment.
Poshmark
Overview: Poshmark is a social commerce platform known for its user-friendly interface and focus on fashion and accessories.
Pros:
- Easy to use: Poshmark’s interface is intuitive and visually appealing, making it a breeze to list and manage items, even for those new to reselling.
- Simple listing and shipping process: Poshmark streamlines the listing and shipping process, making it convenient for sellers to manage their inventory and fulfill orders.
- Automation options for tasks like sharing: Poshmark allows for automation of tasks like sharing your listings, reducing the time and effort required for manual promotion.
- Great features like Closet Clear Out and bulk offers: Poshmark offers features designed to boost sales, such as Closet Clear Out (discounting multiple items at once) and bulk offers to likers, providing opportunities to connect with interested buyers.
- Decent audience size: Poshmark boasts a sizable and engaged community of fashion enthusiasts, making it a suitable platform for selling clothing, accessories, and other related items.
Cons:
- Slow response to community needs: Poshmark has a history of being slow to implement features or address concerns raised by its seller community, potentially frustrating those seeking rapid platform improvements or responsiveness to issues.
- Difficult to get customer service: Poshmark’s customer service can be challenging to access, often relying on email communication with delayed response times.
- Reliance on third-party software for automation: While Poshmark allows for automation, it requires using third-party software (like Posh Concierge or similar services), adding an additional cost to your reselling expenses.
Overall Rating: Positive Leaning
Poshmark’s ease of use, helpful features, and fashion-focused audience make it a popular choice, especially for beginners or those seeking a social selling experience. However, its customer service shortcomings and reliance on third-party automation software may be drawbacks for some sellers.
IV. Optimizing Your Reselling Strategy: Tips and Tools
No matter which platform you choose, here are some tips to enhance your reselling success:
- Consider using cross-listing software: Tools like List Perfectly streamline the process of listing your items on multiple platforms, saving time and maximizing your reach. They also help you manage your inventory and prevent accidentally selling the same item twice.
- Start slow and master one platform at a time: Avoid getting overwhelmed by adding too many platforms too quickly. Focus on learning one platform thoroughly and optimizing your selling strategies before expanding to others.
- Research and utilize platform-specific features: Familiarize yourself with the unique features and tools offered by each platform, such as smart pricing, promoted listings, offers to likers, closet clear outs, and bulk offer options.
- Focus on selling in-demand brands and items: Research popular trends and brands on your chosen platforms to identify what’s selling well. You can utilize ThredUp’s brand list as a starting point and conduct further research on other platforms.
- Pricing strategies: Find a balance between competitive pricing and maximizing profits. Research comparable listings to determine fair pricing, and consider offering discounts or promotions to attract buyers.
V. FAQ Section
Here are some common questions and answers about ThredUp and other reselling platforms:
- What are the specific payout percentages for different price tiers on ThredUp? ThredUp’s payout percentages vary based on the item’s selling price. You can find their detailed payout chart on their website, but generally, the higher the selling price, the larger your percentage.
- What happens to items that ThredUp doesn’t accept? Can I get them back? You have the option to pay a fee to have your unaccepted items returned. If you choose not to, ThredUp will responsibly recycle them.
- Is it worth paying for rush processing on ThredUp? Paying for rush processing can be beneficial if you want your items listed more quickly, potentially leading to faster sales. However, it might not be necessary for items that aren’t in high demand or time-sensitive.
- How do I become a Very Important Seller (VIS) on ThredUp? ThredUp’s VIS program offers benefits like free rush processing and dedicated customer service. The exact criteria for becoming a VIS are not publicly disclosed, but factors like consistently sending high-quality items and maintaining a good seller rating likely play a role.
- What are the pros and cons of selling locally vs. shipping nationwide? Selling locally offers the advantage of avoiding shipping costs and potential delays. However, it limits your reach to buyers in your area. Shipping nationwide expands your customer base but involves shipping costs and logistics.
- Why am I seeing a “403 Forbidden” error when trying to access a reselling website? What should I do? A 403 Forbidden error indicates that the server is blocking your request to access the website. This could be due to high traffic, server maintenance, or a misconfiguration on the website’s end. Try again later, and if the issue persists, contact the website’s customer support for assistance.
Choosing the right reselling platform depends on your individual preferences, business goals, and selling style. By understanding the pros and cons of each platform, you can make an informed decision that aligns with your needs and helps you thrive in the dynamic world of online reselling.