fbpx
The 5 Things You Need to Do to Sell Your Clothes Online
You look into your wardrobe and you’ve got your clothes jammed tighter than a burrito’s fillings. You’re sure you haven’t seen what sort of clothes are at the back parts of your wardrobe for over a year, and the clothes that you do use are lying on The Chair. And you think to yourself “It’s definitely time to unload my closet!”
What you probably aren’t realizing at this point is that you can make some money out of those clothes that have never seen the light of day (or have seen too much…)! Instead of throwing it out or pushing it in your basement/attic, why not sell them online?
Here’s how you can do that – today!

The 5 Things You Need to Do to Sell Your Clothes Online

1. Reorganize Your Closet

The first step into making money out of your wardrobe is knowing what’s staying and going. For that, you’ll need to reorganize your closet and group your clothes, shoes, and other accessories into four categories:
  • Clothes that you can neither sell nor wear, but you can convert into something else, e.g. rags, doll clothes, etc.
  • Clothes that aren’t sellable but are still wearable
  • Clothes that are both wearable and sellable (in great condition, which you may have only worn once or twice, or have never worn)
  • Clothes that you’ll keep
As a general rule, you shouldn’t keep more than half of your clothes, so you have more to give/sell and more room to store clothes in the future. You should also take in consideration other factors like what you need versus what you would barely use depending on your lifestyle/location/comfortability.
Michael Kors of Times Online also has this to say: “70 percent of the clothes you own should be meat and potatoes. 30 percent should be icing and fluff – that’s color, pattern, shine, accessories. Too many women get the proportions the other way (a)round, then can’t figure out why they can’t get dressed.”

2. Take Lots of High-Quality Photos

In order to convince people to take interest in your clothes, you’ll need to attract them with visuals – and high-quality photos taken with bright, consistent lighting and an uncluttered background is a huge step in the right direction. Potential customers get a nice preview of the clothes you are selling, especially if you took pictures from multiple angles.
Read up on tips and steps for beautiful apparel photography. A good picture can be the difference between a flop and a sale nowadays, especially on digital marketing and online selling platforms.

3. Set Realistic Prices

Some selling platforms are capable of giving prices for your items depending on how much you’ve declared them to be originally and their current condition now, but there’s also still the option of setting up and controlling your own prices. However, you’ll want to price realistically, especially if you’re listing your clothes as “pre-loved” or you’ve worn them before.
Consider the “one-third rule” when determining prices. If you’re selling, for example, a dress from J.CREW that was priced at $130 and has been worn a few times, you should set the price to around $40. If it’s new, hardly-worn, or has been in your closet for a while but has never been worn (it may even have its tag/s still), you can go higher – around $80-$100.
[RELATED: The Right Way to Plan Your Wardrobe]

4. Provide Ample Labels and Descriptions

Potential buyers want to know more about clothes they are buying before making a purchase, especially if it’s secondhand. They especially want to know the condition of the items they’re going to buy since it’s important for them to get their money’s worth and know in advance if they’ll need to schedule a repair or some tailoring with their trusted seamstress.
This is the common idea behind providing labels and descriptions for your items, but it has another, almost more important function as well. By properly labeling the basic characteristics of your clothes such as brand, color, measurements/size, and condition, it’s easier for your items to come up as a result for keywords that match your labels.

5. Choose Your Selling Platform

Because eCommerce has been booming in the past few years, a whole plethora of selling platforms have popped up, and even social media has joined the fray. You have a lot of options to choose from, such as signing up for an account in online consignment stores (eBay, Etsy), making your own online store if you plan on turning this into a business (and a lot of people do this!) or want the freedom of your own domain, or even go to social media and augment your efforts with their built-in marketing tools such as Facebook Advertising.
Making money out of your wardrobe online nowadays is easy and helps you declutter your closet and having something in return for your effort. Why not try it out now?

Hi, I'm Anna!

I’ll help you create a career strategy and plan so you can finally have a job or business you love that supports the life you really want.

Learn More

You might also like…

My 5 Biggest Failures Growing a Membership Site

My 5 Biggest Failures Growing a Membership Site

I often get the question of how I manage all my programs. Here's the important key: I didn't start here and you can't compare where I am now to where you are starting today. I have been working on growing my business and learning about growing a membership site since...

The Membership Experience (formerly TRIBE course) Bonus and Review

The Membership Experience (formerly TRIBE course) Bonus and Review

Updated: March 28th, 2024 I was so excited and shocked to open my email up yesterday to see that my case study for The Membership Experience (formerly TRIBE course) was in the top 5 of Stu Mclaren's membership site contest!! I'm so excited to share more about my story...

90 Day Planner