How To Make Money Selling Your Old Stuff On Social Media

The way people do shopping has changed a lot over the past decade. The era of gigantic malls is disappearing. We don't choose to spend hours in stores anymore, sometimes leaving without any purchases, now we want it to be quick and convenient.

This is how the era of online shopping has started, with many brands opening their virtual doors and immediately increasing the number of customers. Now the opportunity to sell stuff on the Internet is available not only for popular brands but for everyone. It's quick and easy. With the development of different platforms, there are more and more ways to make money.

The Rise Of Selling On Social Media

With the growing success of social media and the amount of time people spend scrolling pages after pages, watching videos, photos, and sharing their own content, it has become apparent that social media might serve as an efficient way of advertising. It has changed the way people interact with each other and businesses they like.

Being surrounded by content based on our relationships and interests, it has become easier to find something that match our criteria. Users started following brands to see the newest updates and releases first, and later it became possible to buy a desired item without even opening a website. That was super convenient for both customers and sellers!

What has made it possible?

An aspect that has made social media a mass tool for marketing and selling is its influence. People don't watch TV anymore to get reliable information, neither they read newspapers or magazines as much as they did before. Why bother if you can have it all in one place: latest news, independent opinions, updates on your friends lives and even a shopping place? A small business now doesn't have to create its own website, in fact you don't need to own a business at all. Everyone is able to sell their stuff using social media, making money and getting rid of unnecessary clothes and accessories.

However, if you still want to sell clothes on a website, here is the list of 40+ best places to sell your used clothes online for cash. 

What Is The Best Social Media To Sell Clothing?

Selling on social media has become normal, since it allows to interact with audience more. Potential customers can ask questions and you can attract new people to your online boutique or profile by posting content they are interested in. The choice of social media to sell old stuff on depends on your target market. Also, it's important to invest time in taking good pictures of the product you're selling. Most people decide to buy clothes or accessories only judging by the way they look (sometimes looking at another person in some dress or with a certain handbag and picturing themselves instead).

Keeping that important criteria in mind, there are three platforms that can be used to help you make money while selling old stuff:

1. Facebook
2. Instagram
3. Pinterest

Pinterest might be not as powerful as the two other tools, but it can still be helpful. Facebook and Instagram are international leaders in the world of mass media, their monthly audience combined is more than 3.5 billion people (and that's half of the planet population!). Impressive, isn't it?  Taking into account that, in average,  every person has 5 different social media accounts, Facebook and Instagram undoubtedly exist on millions of smartphones. Moreover, these two apps are among the most downloaded by people. Every American typically spends at least 2 hours a day scrolling through the pages, so there's a high chance they'll see your products, too.

We'll take a closer look at two most popular platforms and learn how to successfully sell your stuff and attract more people.

How To Sell Clothing on Facebook: Pros and Cons

Facebook is being constantly updated, new features and possibilities are added to the platform. It's not not only the place where you share pictures with your friends, it's a whole virtual life. No wonder it's considered to be the most popular social media platform in the world. Millions of companies, both big and small, have registered their businesses on Facebook. People are following them and sharing posts to have a chance to get an exclusive offer or a discount. Starting reselling business with Facebook is a very good idea. For people who want to sell some stuff occasionally this social media has useful tools, too.

However, nothing is perfect and Facebook has its advantages and disadvantages, when you aim to use it as a selling platform.

Pros:

• Huge audience. As it was already mentioned, Facebook is the most popular social media platform. With the amount of people using the app and the website, there are better chances they'll see your items displayed.
• Wide range of items to sell. Do you have a vintage Versace dress or old jeans that your son no longer wear? Facebook doesn't care! You can sell basically everything.
• All users are connected. Have you heard about the six handshakes rule? It says that that all people are six, or fewer, social connections away from each other. The same works for Facebook. People are united by joining the same group, having mutual friends, visiting the same event. Clever algorithms of the platform show posts of people you might know.
• Convenient tools. Famous  'like', 'comment' and 'share' features were first created for the purpose of entertainment but now can play a decisive role in advertising. Comment section is a perfect place to interact with customers and answer their questions.
• Direct sales. You don't pay any third side for selling your stuff, it's only you and the customer.
• Local sales. Once you post a location plenty of people around you will see your item.

Cons:

• You deal with complications yourself. A customer decided not to buy an item at the very moment? They are asking for a free delivery or even to give an item for free? They didn't show up? Yes, you might have lots of potential customers, just don't expect everyone to be nice and honest.
• It's a time-consuming process. The item might not worth it at all but you would take pretty pictures and endlessly answer questions and interact with customers.
• You have to find a space for storage. You started selling to get rid of things you don't need and to earn extra money? Well, some time might pass before you can actually empty your storage.

Now let's look at four ways to sell your old stuff on Facebook, each of them has its own peculiarities.

1) Facebook Marketplace

Selling on Facebook Marketplace is easy. You just need to follow the instructions of the app while listing your item. You define the price, set your location, write a description, mention size and conditions, providing as much useful info as possible, and post it. Buyers will contact you directly. This is a perfect tool if you plan to sell not too many items or do it occasionally.

2) Product Catalog

For regular sales, you can create a product catalog. It's like a virtual warehouse for all the stuff you want to sell, including images, names, prices, quantity, and descriptions. After adding them Facebook will use its algorithms to advertise specific products from your list to people based on their interests and activity. For example, if someone was searching for sunglasses in Google and you have this item in your catalog it will be most likely shown to a potential customer.

3) Facebook Ads

Facebook Ads unite multiple tools to show your products to a wider audience, and what's even more important, they show them to the right audience. Using techniques and tricks, choosing your target audience yourself you can get more clicks, find more buyers, and as a result, increase your sales. Ads promote not only items but the whole page itself. Facebook uses location and profile information to show ads to the right customers. You can select options depending on your potential buyers: age, gender, family status, wealth, interests, age of children, etc.

4) Facebook Groups

As an addition to Marketplace, people often sell or buy their items in Facebook groups. They are created for local deals or specific items or brands. Plus size clothes, backpack lovers, gardening tools - there's a community for literally everything. For example, you live in Seattle, so you can join a local buy/sell group to list your items there. To make money from selling old clothes of some brand, you subscribe to the its secondhand buy/sell community. As a seller, you create a post with a price, a picture, and a description and wait for potential customers to comment or to contact you directly.

How To Sell Clothing on Instagram: Pros and Cons

The second-largest social media platform has also been turned into a marketing place. People create new profiles to start reselling business and work hard to promote their products. Instagram now is not about wishing everyone good morning with a blurry picture of coffee, it has become an app for making money where everyone can have a piece of a pie. It's connected to Facebook in many aspects, and you can use it as an additional promotion tool. As any platform for selling it has its own pros and cons.

Pros:

• It's free. All basic features, except for advertising are free of charge.
• Local audience. Using geotags and location you can sell to people around you.
• Targeted customers. 71% of users are under the age of 25, who most likely buy items via social media.
• Interaction with audience. Comments and direct messages will help you answer all questions.
• Trust and influence. Instagram has already proved to be a massive influence tool. People want to be like their favorite celebrities, to have the same clothes, to visit the same places, to use the same cosmetics. Lots of people are buying something blindly just because they see it in celebrities' posts.

Cons:

• Lots of competition. After several successful stories when a person earned a fortune by selling things on Instagram, everyone wants to gain from it too.
• Plenty of work to do. If you don't hire a team to help you with your page you need to do everything on your own: taking pictures, writing descriptions, answering customers, and shipping.
• You need to be creative. If you want to stand out on this platform you need to be unique and have plenty of ideas in your head. Today's audience with an endless choice of what to watch and read gets bored easily.
• Instagram lacks some features. There are some restrictions when you switch your account into a business one, like a certain amount of followers to start using some tools.

You can begin your selling career with a simple post but the larger audience you want to reach the more creative you need to be. Try to use all the features below for a convenient and easy selling. They have been designed and tested to see how users would respond, and as a result, have been added to the app for permanent use.

1) Shoppable posts

The idea of creating such a useful feature both for customers and businesses appeared in 2016. To support online commerce, Instagram launched the so-called shoppable posts. It's a picture with native integration that makes it easy to shop directly from the app. Such a post features tagged items, so that a customer can look at their price, and go to your store to buy them. You need to have an existing Facebook catalog to use this feature.

2) Link in bio

If you have an online shop and wish to attract traffic or new customers, you might find a feature called 'link in bio' very useful. As Instagram doesn't allow people to put clickable links in the texts, this thing is actually a true gem. A link in bio is not a permanent feature. You can also add some product pages you're currently advertising in your posts, so your potential customers reach the necessary page easier.

3) Instagram stories

Another useful tool is a short post disappearing in 24 hours. They are called stories. Selling via stories can be done in two ways. First, you can draw the attention of the audience to some posts and products you have in profile by adding them to the Instagram story. Second, you can create a story for additional advertising. For example, when selling an old dress, a beautiful video or a picture of you wearing it will definitely attract attention. As a bonus, a story is a brilliant way to interact with people, ask or answer questions, express opinions, create polls, etc.

4) Hashtags

Nothing can be as helpful as properly used hashtags. If you imagine Instagram as an ocean of good products to buy, hashtags are nets to find a proper thing. A hashtag is a keyword that best describes your stuff. It can be a brand or city name, the name of your item, or even a personalized phrase. People who are scrolling Instagram using hashtags are more likely to see your shop. It makes the process of searching easier.

5) Shop now button

The 'shop now' button is a great feature for business accounts. It makes access to your product catalog easy and fast for customers. Introduced only in 2019 the button will send a user to your website without any effort or need to close the app. This feature works only for merchants and businesses, you can't add it to your personal profile.

Tips For Selling Good On Social Media

In most cases, you need to use both social media to be successful in selling. Some of the features, like shoppable posts and shop now button on Instagram, are connected to Facebook. Before you start your business you should clearly understand that it's not a job where you do nothing and get money. Being active, polite and responding all alone is a hard job. Competition is high, and you have to be creative to find customers and make them buy your stuff. Here are some useful tips to guide you through the world of social media selling.

1) Consider Your Target Audience

Picturing your perfect customer won't only help understand their needs and desires but will also give you some ideas about what they want to get from products. There are countless types of people, and you need to have a clear understanding of all of them to interest a particular audience. It is always easier to create targeted content, than randomly posting stuff. Ask and answer questions about the age, gender, lifestyle, occupation, salary, and hobbies of your potential buyers.

2) Make A Content Plan

A huge mistake of all the beginners is the absence of a content plan. Sharing pictures from vacation or weekend can be suitable for a personal account, but for merchandising purposes, you need to think of posts to create beforehand. Both Instagram and Facebook are visual social media, so your task is to make the profile interesting and attractive. A good content plan always answers one simple question: what do you want to achieve? You need more followers or more sales? Do you want the customers to learn about your shop? A certain goal is vital as it defines the content plan.

3) Post High-Quality Visual Content

Visual content is the first thing that people see opening social media apps. They don't know anything about the topic of a post, but are already captured by a picture of a video. Our brains are naturally attracted to bright colors, aesthetic compositions, and catch the smallest details. It's one of the most important features for selling. You need to get rid of an old vase? Make a picture placing it on a balcony or in a garden, show your potential customers how alluring this very vase would look in their houses, add cozy elements, play with light and decorations. Your pictures should not be just an image, they need to appeal to people's feelings.

4) Balance Your Content: Don't Just Sell

Creating a business account don't make it about selling only. Add some personality in what you are doing. Balancing between marketing and lifestyle is a key to keep your followers engaged. Remember your target audience? Try to interest people, to make them feel closer to you, to find some traits and characteristics you both share. Sometimes people don't want another selling post, they want a conversation. Make a room in your content plan for some personal posts, and you can still advertise through them. For example, selling a prom dress share some funny moments from the time you were wearing it, make people remember their own proms.

5) Don't Ignore Comments

Owning a business on social media, always keep in mind that the primary goal is not selling but connecting people. Be polite and kind, answer questions, respond to comments. Maybe for some users it was hard and stressing to ask or write something, and you just leave their thoughts unattended. Reply to everything, even to interjections and smiles, emojis, and short sentences, make users see that you care. People is an important part of every business.

6) Share User-Generated Content

To build trust between you and customers post user-generated content (UGC). How it works? Encourage customers who have already purchased your products to post their experience and thoughts and then repost it.  Always react to such feedback on social media, it will make your business more credible. UGC can play a decisive role in buyers decision. True pictures that look vivid can sometimes be more helpful in increasing sales than a picture with a flawless composition that we often see on business profiles.

7) Work With Social Media Influencers

We already know that so-called social media influencers have an enormous impact on people's minds. An item seen in the hands of a famous media person will be promoted better than having an expensive marketing campaign. Just remember the story when Dior Saddle bag was given a second life after being promoted by celebrities on Instagram! Collaboration with influencers will attract a new audience to your profile. Don't choose to work with users just because they have a huge amount of followers, choose a celebrity that is popular among your target audience, learn about their expertise and status. If the influencer's page is full of other ads maybe it's not the person you are looking for.

How Much Do Resellers On Social Media Make?

Reselling is a job that requires creativity and time. But the main goal of it is to make profit by getting rid of old stuff. The size of your income from social media depends on the types of products you sell and your price policy. If your shop is full of basic clothes, you won't make millions. Vintage and high-end things will bring you more money, as you don't need to share with consignment stores and decide price yourself.

The other aspect to be taken into account is your methods. Do you use basic free tools or do you invest in ads and collaborations with influencers? Do you want to get rid of a pair of boots (check how to clean out your designer closet and make extra cash) or create your own online shop (learn how to start a luxury consignment business even if you have zero investment)? The bigger your goal is, the more money you can make. As life shows, there are no limits!