Today, I cover some hidden features that will save you time and make shipping out your packages easier. More at www.bemovingforward.com.
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From idea to blooming business
Last week, I looked at my friend's new Poshmark store as a case study. I recorded the episode on Tuesday and predicted by the time it would air on Thursday that they would be at 1000+ followers. That first prediction came true and then some. By Thursday, @izzyandrose hit well over 1000+, inching into 1100+. Today, as I'm writing this they have 1600+ followers and growing daily. The second prediction was that they would close their first sale soon. I didn't explicitly say on the episode but I predicted it would come within a week or two.
I was wrong.
Izzy and Rose closed their first sale the very next day, just barely a week and a half in. On top of that, they closed two more sales that Saturday!
Seems like yesterday or two weeks ago to be exact.
Izzy and Rose are proof positive that hard work can pay off. I'm thrilled that they could benefit from some of my experiences, and save a lot of time and headache in getting started. Moreover, it's absolutely gratifying to see them come into their own as business owners.
Secret Poshmark marketing and time saving hacks
Over the past few weeks, we've discussed some of the big enhancements to the platform, including video and bulk listing actions. Today, I wanted to share some of the smaller changes that may fly under the radar, but which can save you time and up your seller game.
Mark all sold items as shipped
This one is a corollary to the bulk listing actions we've discussed recently. As covered on the mini-series, when you sell an item, you have to confirm it on the platform once you ship it out. As a reminder, go into your sales queue and check off three boxes:
Pack the item.
Print out the label and affix to the box.
Drop off at the post office.
Once you check these off and confirmed, the status will change from "sold" to "pending shipment scan" to eventually, "shipped." For more on this, check out the mini-series.
For one-off items, this only takes a few quick seconds. However, if you sell a lot of items, you have to go through this confirmation process with each one. In November, 2018, we ran our first Black Friday sale and had a number of items to take to the post office. Confirming them required me to go through the same process listed above with each item. While it wasn't terribly inconvenient, for Poshmark sellers that regularly ship a lot of items at once, this can get tedious and time consuming.
Recently, Poshmark added the option to mark off all of your items as "shipped." In your sales queue, you will now see an "Actions" button. Clicking on it will bring up a menu with two options.
Sometimes the joy is in the little things.
Sellers can now:
Download shipping labels.
Mark sold orders as shipped.
Option 2 will display a list of your recently sold items with checkboxes. You can now select all and confirm them without having to go through the three-checkbox process for each one.
Secret shipping hack
Speaking of shipping, I've covered how the USPS kiosk can save a lot of time when there's a long line at the post office. The best feature for Poshmark sellers, in my opinion, is the ability to self-scan the barcodes on the labels. This ensures that the status will change from "pending shipment scan" to "shipped" without any unnecessary delays. In our experience, simply leaving the box at the counter or dropping it into the package tumbler can be a little hit or miss when it comes to the shipping status change. Depending on the post office, some will scan the packages before shipping out to the distribution centers, others may not. This will impact how quickly the shipping status changes on Poshmark. For the most part, the status updates that day or later that evening. However, sometimes it can take up to two, even three days. For your and your customer's peace of mind, it's better to have that status confirmed as soon as possible. Moreover, if you're gunning to become a Poshmark ambassador, you want to keep your average ship time to under 3 days.
If you don't have time to wait in line and get it scanned at the counter, the kiosk's self-scan option is a great alternative.
To do this, simply hold the package label up to the scanner once you select the self-scan option. Again, for small one-off packages it's pretty straight forward. However, if you're doing this for larger packages or a stack of them, this can get cumbersome.
Save your back and simply scan a photo of the shipping label.
To shave off a couple minutes, you can simply take a photo of the label and scan the barcode off the photo. This will work just as well as scanning the actual label.
Not yet but coming soon
Traditionally, when you create a listing, you have two status options. You can choose "For Sale," which will activate the listing upon creation. Conversely, "Not For Sale" will display the listing but not allow anyone to purchase it.
As I covered on the mini-series, we use the "Not For Sale" status for items that have sold in store. We change the status rather than delete the listing to keep it visible as a marketing tool.
Recently, Poshmark added a third option: "Drops." This allows sellers to list items that will be available for sale as of a certain date and time. This can be a great way to create early buzz for an upcoming listing. Think of it as the equivalent of a movie preview.
Coming soon to a Poshmark store near you.
Tagging brands in your stories
Finally, one other marketing hack that we'll cover today is tagging a brand within your story. When you upload a photo of short video of a listing, you can tag the brand.
Click on the shield icon.
Type in the brand.
Add to your story.
Easy as 1-2-3.
Tagging brands can focus your story towards buyers who are fans of that brand. The tag will be a live link that searches other listings within that brand. This means if someone else has tagged it in their story, your listing will be included in the search result.
Poshmark is continually adding updates and enhancements, big and small, that make it a powerful, sophisticated selling and marketing tool. Keeping abreast of these changes and applying them will help you stand out as a seller.
Additional resources on Poshmark
The Poshmark Guide for Individuals and Small Businesses (Paperback and Kindle)
The Poshmark Seller Journal for Individuals and Small Businesses (Paperback)
Get started on Poshmark (referral link with sign-up bonus)
You can also book a coaching call
Check out the Moving Forward mini-series collection
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