A Reseller’s Guide to eBay vs. Poshmark

Whether you’re a dedicated eBay seller or a diehard Poshmark gal, you might be curious about the other side of the fence. Which is the better platform for the savvy clothing reseller? Poshmark or eBay?

Great news: Boutique by the Box is here to break it down for you! We’re going to get into the details of what makes eBay special, and what might make a seller choose Poshmark. Each platform has its own costs and benefits that might make it a great (or bad) fit for you!

1) Selling Fees (Your Cut)

Our Winner: eBay

When it comes to your bottom line, eBay beats Poshmark handily with its lower selling fees.  

Here’s the sitch: Poshmark takes 20% commission from each of your sales, while eBay takes a total of 13%

eBay takes 10% for each of your sales, plus a 3% PayPal transaction fee, making your final take-home amount from eBay significantly higher than selling through Poshmark. This makes selling clothing on eBay markedly cheaper, and that’s a fair rate considering eBay’s huge market! On top of this, eBay doesn’t ask you to constantly share, follow, share, follow, and share as Poshmark does. Time is money, and eBay saves you money in that way as well! The thing that might eat into your profits is shipping, which is left up to the seller. You may end up losing funds if you decide to go the free shipping route to draw in more buyers.

The fine print: on eBay, your first 200 listings per month are free. After that, you’re charged a fee of $0.35 per listing. That’s something to note if you’re a prolific full-time seller!

Poshmark takes a hefty 20% commission for each of your sales over $15 (they take $2.95 for sales under that). It can be pretty disheartening to see $20 of your $100 sale go to Poshmark, after spending all that time hustling, sharing, and relisting! 20% is a big chunk whether you’re a casual seller or a Poshmark guru.

The flip side of this: Poshmark passes on the cost of shipping to the buyer. Once you’ve made the sale, you ship out the order and wash your hands of the whole thing. Poshmark includes shipping in the cost of the item for the buyer, so the clothing reseller never has to worry about shipping costs! Removing shipping from your equation is a big help, but it’s up to you if it’s worth the extra commission that Poshmark takes.

2) Target Audience

Our Winner: Poshmark

It’s always important to consider the market when choosing a platform for your reselling business. Think about what kind of reach you want your item to have. What demographic are you hoping will see your online store? Are they looking for what you are selling?

It can depend on the seller, but Poshmark is our choice when it comes to reselling platforms with a great target audience for clothing resellers. Poshmark is newer and trendier than eBay, and is limited to selling clothes, shoes, and accessories. Although Poshmark has a smaller community of users, those users are coming to the site for one reason only: to score great deals on trendy, in-style clothing. Someone logging on to Poshmark is definitely looking for a discount on their favorite clothing brand -- and you are happy to provide a sale! 

The other big draw to Poshmark is the sense of community. Poshmark is a much more social app than eBay, and users are interested in fashion and looking for top brands that are in style. These potential buyers are looking for a great deal on clothing, but are also willing to spend big on something high-quality and in fashion. 

eBay has a huge marketplace that reaches around the world, but it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle. When someone thinks “eBay”, they’re more likely to associate it with buying collectibles, hard-to-find products, and great deals electronics than clothing. That being said, eBay does have a huge international audience base of 150 to 200 million users each year. The catch is that only a portion of them are looking to buy resale clothing and accessories, and eBay buyers are really on the hunt for the lowest possible price. With so much competition, it can be hard for a seller to attract a buyer. 

3) Listing and Selling

Our Winner: Toss Up

This was a tricky one! When it comes to listing and selling, we looked at how difficult it is to list an item for sale, and the amount of effort it takes to move items through your store. 

We found that while it can be more complicated to list items on eBay (and costly, if you list more than 200/month), Poshmark requires a huge time commitment to get items to sell. 

When selling clothing on Poshmark, you can list as many items as you want each month at no cost. Free is our favorite price! You can get a listing posted in a short amount of time, and with relatively little brain power. Poshmark also offers a lot of useful selling features that eBay does not have. A seller can bundle items to offer discounts, message users who liked their store with private discounts, and directly share their listings. There are also selling parties and more, which helps your items get in front of potential buyers!

On the other hand...if you’ve sold on Poshmark before, you know what a HUGE time commitment it can be. When a user logs on to the site and does a search, the first things they see are the items that are the most recently posted. This means that if you’re trying to sell a really common or popular item, you might be pushed to page 2 within an hour! Poshmark demands near-constant activity from you and your closet, or your items will sit unsold until the end of time.

When it comes to eBay, getting your item listed can be a lot more labor-intensive than on Poshmark. Since eBay sells everything under the sun and not just clothing, you have to be extremely specific and careful with your description and categorization (which is why you sometimes see such crazy titles on eBay listings!). This is an important factor for a seller who lists a lot of items each month. And, as we mentioned before, if you go over 200 items for the month you’ll be charged a $0.35 fee for each listing thereafter. Not nice! 

The benefit of listing on eBay is that you won’t spend all day glued to your phone until your item sells. If you like to “set it and forget it”, eBay is the option for you, since it’s a smaller time commitment once you’ve got your item listed. There’s also the option to turn on Easy Pricing, a function that lowers the price every 5 days until your item sells. Great for getting rid of old inventory! 

4) Shipping

Our Winner: Poshmark

Poshmark runs away with this category. It’s no surprise since Poshmark offers a super-simple shipping process with fees that are built into the buyer’s purchase! 

When reselling on Poshmark, you’ll be provided with a shipping label. All items are shipped with USPS priority mail -- which is great because you can get USPS boxes for free! Just order them through USPS.com or visit your local post office. Once you’ve made the sale, simply print out the shipping label that Poshmark generates for you and drop it off at any USPS location!

Shipping on eBay gets a bit more complicated. Since the seller can choose how they want to ship their item, it can be one of three options:

1. Fixed flat rate shipping cost
2. Calculated off of the buyer’s zip code and the weight of the package
3. Free shipping

 The inconsistencies with shipping can make it more challenging for the seller to choose the best way to get their item to the buyer. And it makes it more complicated for the eBay user to browse for the best possible price! 

One caveat: When eBay is compared to Poshmark, it’s a lot easier to drop shipping prices to sell individual items at a low rate. Someone buying a $5 tank top on Poshmark might balk at paying double when shipping is included! That’s the benefit of shipping through eBay, it allows you the flexibility to offer deals. 

When looking at Poshmark vs eBay, we can’t really say that one definitively tops the other. The pros and cons are different depending on each unique seller! Whichever platform you choose, you have a ton of great features and benefits at your fingertips. Just don’t forget to follow our Boutique by the Box blog for great tips on maximizing your listings, taking pro product pics, and more!