Just like any other small business, if you want to turn a healthy profit on online resale platforms, you have to spend money to make money… or at least fork over the fees that these websites require.
With a whopping 80 million users, one of the most familiar names in resale e-commerce is none other than Poshmark. The site and its companion app changed the game with their groundbreaking “social marketplace” interface model, allowing users to interact with one another in a more personal way than just simply exchanging money for goods.
Although Poshmark sets itself apart from the competition in terms of the user interface, the platform still operates similarly to other resale platforms in one very important way: the fees.
Whether you are a seasoned Poshmark seller or have just begun to peruse the platform in search of the perfect pair of pants, it is paramount to fully understand these additional costs. Follow along for our definitive guide on Poshmark fees: what they are, why the platform charges them, and how much they will cost you.
At the end of this article we will give you SECRET tips on how to deal with poshmark fees (make sure you read the end)
What are Poshmark fees?
When we talk about Poshmark fees, we don’t mean the price of that adorable Marc Jacobs sweater that you have had your eye on for months — we are talking about everything Poshmark charges its buyers and sellers outside of item price. Just like other e-commerce platforms, buying and selling on Poshmark comes with fees other than item price and sales tax.
Poshmark charges a number of fees that are incurred by either the buyer, the seller, or both, depending on the situation, which includes:
- Flat commission fee of $2.95 for items sold for $15 or less
- 20% commission fee for items sold for more than $15
- Flat shipping fee of $7.67 for items under 5lbs
- Additional shipping fees for items over 10lbs
Poshmark does offer more straightforward commission and shipping fees than other platforms, but they can still seem complicated depending on the price and weight of your listed items.
Why does Poshmark charge its users so many fees?
Especially as a seller, it can be difficult to understand why such a large e-commerce platform with millions of users like Poshmark would need to charge its users fees — they can seem steep when you are not selling big-ticket items. There is a method behind the fee-related madness, though, and it makes sense when you think about how easy Poshmark makes selling your gently used items. This is why Poshmark fees exist:
Operating a massive platform like Poshmark is not cheap.
If you have ever looked into purchasing a website domain, you know that it can be expensive. Now multiply that price by how much it costs to hire hundreds of employees to assist with web design or customer service, operate high-powered servers that can handle millions of users across the globe, and pay for (or pay experts to create brand new) software that has the ability to keep the personal information and bank details of that many users secure and out of the hands of nefarious hackers… As you can imagine, keeping Poshmark up, running, and secure is not cheap. Poshmark fees help the platform manage all these expenses and stay up.
Poshmark offers sellers a useful service.
Without Poshmark, sellers would not have access to a large audience of buyers who are interested in their items. Think about it like this: when you want to buy a house, it is much easier to hire a realtor to make the process simpler — they find suitable houses and have the legal know-how to prevent any mistakes. Poshmark does the same thing for sellers, bringing buyers to them and offering security by reimbursing sellers for the value of their items should anything go wrong. Additionally, Poshmark takes the guesswork out of shipping, providing sellers with prepaid and pre-addressed shipping labels.
Last, but not least: Poshmark wants to make a profit.
The most obvious — but most rarely mentioned — reason that Poshmark charges its users fees is simple: the people behind the platform need to make money. Running a successful business is about more than just breaking even, and Poshmark’s fees ensure that the platform’s employees can make a living.
Poshmark Commission Fees
While listing items on Poshmark is completely free, sellers are charged a commission fee after their items are purchased which are deducted from the sale profit. Luckily, these fees are rather straightforward and are based on the price of the item sold, with two different scenarios:
- Poshmark charges sellers a flat commission fee of $2.95 on all items that are sold for $15 or less.
- For items that are sold for more than $15, Poshmark deducts a 20% commission.
These fees may seem steep, especially for sellers who are just starting out, but Poshmark’s unchanging costs (so far, at least) make them easy to work around. In fact, most sellers actually consider these fees when pricing their items, adding the costs into the sale price so that they won’t cut into their profits. For example, if you sell an item for $50, your profit will only be $40 after Poshmark deducts its fees. However, if you account for these fees beforehand and price the item accordingly at ~$65, your final profit will be around $50 — the price you originally wanted to earn — even after the fees are deducted.
Poshmark Shipping Fees
It goes without saying, but we’ll say it anyway: shipping costs money! Fortunately, Poshmark offers relatively standard shipping costs, but it can get a bit confusing for heavier items.
For packages under 5 pounds, Poshmark charges a flat rate of $7.67 for expedited shipping. This cost is incurred entirely by the buyer (you’re welcome, sellers) and covers the prepaid and pre-addressed shipping label provided by the platform, removing any guesswork at the post office.
Things get a bit trickier when you are shipping a package that weighs more than 5 pounds. While many Poshmark packages will weigh less than that, bundles or heavier items like shoes can tip the scales. In addition to the $7.67 already paid by the buyer, sellers will have to pay an additional fee for an upgraded shipping label, price depending on how far the package goes over 5 pounds. Here is the cost breakdown for sellers:
- 5 pounds or less: free for sellers (flat shipping rate of $7.67 already paid by buyers)
- 6 pounds: $4.50
- 7 pounds: $9.00
- 8 pounds: $13.50
- 9 pounds: $18.00
- 10 pounds: $22.50
Wholesalers on Poshmark may cringe at these prices, but luckily the platform makes special exceptions for sellers who meet the criteria, which you can read more about here.
Does Poshmark refund with fees ?
It’s an easy assumption to make that Poshmark would not refund fees when they issue funds to a seller. Imagine viewing a listing of a perfect sweater to gift your best friend and it turns out to have several holes in it! It would certainly suck to only get a bit of your money back.
Fortunately for everyone who makes a purchase on the Poshmark platform: all refunds include all fees that have been collected. It definitely wouldn’t make sense for Poshmark to keep these fees after an unsuccessful sale!
On the other side of the coin as a seller you may be wondering who pays for the return label on specific products, once again you will be relieved to hear that this is something that is taken care of by poshmark.
How to deal with Poshmark Fees
If you balk at Poshmark fees, worry not! You can still make sales on Poshmark and turn a decent profit.
Be aware of the cost because it matters
The key to managing Poshmark fees is to be aware of them. The platform’s commission fees can be easily worked around by adjusting the prices on your items, and unless your packages are seriously heavy, shipping is covered by the buyer. Even better, if you are selling an item that you know is over 5 pounds, you can adjust your prices to cover the additional shipping costs, too.
Once you have the awareness part down then you need to factor them into your item prices. In our Poshmark tips article, we talk about the importance of pricing wisely. If you know that your fees will be a certain amount then when you calculate your expected profit you need to deduct the fees that you will incur. This is very simple to do with an online Poshmark fee calculator or by calculating manually yourself.
This is especially important if you plan on discounting your listing prices later on with the poshmark offer features. Setting your prices too low may result in you having little room to discount your prices if needed at best, at worst you could be selling your items at a loss if you fail to take this into account.
Utilize bundles
Poshmark fees make it seem like you have no choice but to pass the burden onto your customers. When sellers do this they are right to worry that they may experience slower sales due to higher prices. However, there are ways that you can still give your customers a good deal without eating too much into your profits.
One way to do this is to utilize bundles on Poshmark.
Bundles simply refer to items that are shipped together, this allows the buyer to get discounted shipping for purchasing a larger volume of items from your store. This does wonders in increasing the average order value (AOV) and boosting profits. It also allows you to work around Poshmark fees by giving your customers and option to save some money.
You can use bundles on Poshmark by setting up bundle discounts on your profile or by sending offers directly to your potential buyers.
Automate Your Closet
We’ll let you in on this special secret for increasing sales on poshmark, a secret used by the best poshmark sellers around: Automation
Automating your closet is the best way increase your revenue on poshmark. Our poshmark automation guide lists many ways you can automate your shop. We’ll go through a few things you can do:
Automate Listing
Listing to poshmark probably takes a large amount of your time. You can list your items very quickly using a crosslisting app. Crosslisting allows you to manage your inventory from a central point but most importantly it helps you list to other marketplaces
The best part about this is if you don’t like the fees on poshmark you can list your items to other marketplaces in no time, while keeping your listings on poshmark in tact. If your items routinely sell on marketplaces with lower fees then you will be able to make a lot more in the long term.
Selling on one platform is not the game anymore, why would you when you don’t have to ? Listing on several marketplaces gives your listings more chances to be seen and alos helps stabilize your income as a seller. This is key if you ever plan on becoming a full time reseller!
Try the best crosslisting app for free by clicking here
Automate Sharing
As a poshmark seller you know that sharing your listings is gospel when it comes to increasing your sales! Poshmark fees or not!
Sharing can be very tedious, the time it takes to share your listings on poshmark drastically increases with the number of listings you have. You have better things to do I’m sure than take part in this, no matter how valuable it can be. You can use a poshmark compliant automation tool to share your listings. Bots on poshmark are a discouraged by the platform, however our poshmark automation tool allows you to speed up actions without using any “bot” features (although full automation is still an option if you want it). With this tool:
- You can take better advantage of bulk listing actions, rather than clicking the checkboxes manually our tool can click them for you and you can share via poshmark’s bulk listing feature.
- You can speed up manual following and sharing
Try the best poshmark automation tool for FREE by clicking here
Happy Poshing and good luck avoiding those pesky Poshmark fees!