How my friend earns thousands of clothes by returning

Returning clothes can be a profitable full-time job.

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Key points

• My friend makes thousands of dollars every year flipping clothes.
• Sellers need to source inexpensively, list items, and research fashion and sales trends.

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My friend started selling clothes from her closet to earn some extra cash. Today, reselling clothes is her full-time job, in addition to raising two children. Despite her busy schedule, she earns thousands of dollars through eBay and Poshmark.

You can now start your own online store in five minutes or less. It’s cheap to start with and you can quickly earn $100 or more every month. But before we get started, consider these three lessons my friend learned in her 12 years of clothes flipping.

1. Get supplies at a lower cost

Buy low, sell higher. As a general rule, you want to make at least $5 per sale. This keeps you paid for your sourcing, listing, and shipping work. To make more money, you’ll want to find brands that sell well at low prices.

Many resellers shop at thrift stores like Goodwill. To sell the surplus, they sometimes take out bins of unsold clothes and sell them by the pound. You can buy a $100 Adidas hoodie for the same price as a $20 hoodie at H&M, a significantly cheaper brand.

Friends are also great sources of clothing. My friend sells other people’s clothes for a share of their profits. She started with her close friends, who referred her to their friends; today, she gets most of her clothes through referrals.

2. Cross Listing on Seller Platforms

You’ll want to list the same clothes on multiple platforms to reach a wider audience. My friend cross-lists on Poshmark and eBay. She keeps an Excel spreadsheet to track what’s selling. When an item sells on one platform, it removes it from the other.

She makes about half of her sales on each platform — cross-listing doubles her monthly sales!

Consider doing some research before choosing platforms. eBay and Poshmark are great for listing clothes and reaching a large audience. Mercari is great at selling fashionable shoes. ThredUp will sell your premium brands for minimal work on your part.

Point: My friend uses ListPerfectly to cross-list quickly. If you find yourself listing dozens of items daily, consider using a similar platform to save time.

If you want to start an online store independent of a reseller platform like eBay, you will have to put a little more effort into setting up a store. Discover the best e-commerce platforms to build your small business on.

3. Research Trends

What sells one year may fail the next – research what’s hot to get an idea of ​​what to sell. Last year, grandma’s sweaters sold like hot cakes. Some brands, like Nike, are still popular.

Research can be daunting — don’t be scared away! You can search for trends through Google and your favorite seller platforms. What clothes have other Fins sold recently? Plus, YouTube has a seasoned flipper economy to tell you what’s hot and what’s not.

Every salesperson starts small. My friend started an eBay store as a side business. Now it’s her full-time job (between looking after the kids).

These days, there are step-by-step instructions on how to list your first article. All you need is a checking account, a smartphone and a product. Spin a list to get started.