Poshmark Algorithms: The Do’s & Don’ts for a Successful Closet

What do you do everyday to run your closet & how can you leverage the Poshmark algorithms to reward good behavior? I’ve talked about the algorithms before: it’s the heart of what runs Poshmark, the fun code that watches what everyone is doing and acts accordingly. I want to discuss all the actions that you can take in your closet and how the algorithms will see your activity as positive or negative. You might just be surprised at what can help or hurt you!

First, a small explanation. When I talk about the algorithms I’m talking about the automated code that monitors everything that’s going on in PoshLand. It’s what will send you new followers as a Poshmark Ambassador, what sees people who are putting “PayPal” or “eBay” in their comments and popping up a message preventing it, what will find people who are putting email addresses in comments and flagging them as spam, and hundreds (thousands) of other things to which you may not even give a passing thought.

Here’s the deal: Everything you do is monitored. It’s how Posh learns, operates and helps us run our closets, how they gather data for future enhancements, how they try to keep scammers (bots) off the platform. Poshmark is no different than any other software in this regard; they aaalllllll have these. But when we are talking about running a business on an e-commerce platform we have to figure out how to leverage them and make them work for and with us to keep us as successful as possible. Through recent conversations with some fellow Poshers I’ve realized that many don’t understand which everyday activities are the most important so I wanted to provide a list of both positive and negative activities and their benefits/consequences. What happens on Poshmark is different from any other site so it’s really important to know how to conduct daily business so you can be as optimized as possible.

Positive Behavior

• Following & Sharing – Clearly this is a #1 activity. Poshmark is networking! If you aren’t following and sharing other closets you can’t expect to be successful. Get out there and mingle! Visibility is everything.
• Listing – Try to list as much as possible throughout the week. I know it’s tough, especially if you’re a part-timer, but getting fresh, new listings out there gives you a great boost. Also, re-list those stale listings that haven’t gone anywhere! Don’t worry about losing likers; if they were going to buy they would have done it six months and ten CCO’s ago. You’ll benefit much more from appearing in the Newly Listed category which provides you more visibility.
• Welcoming new Poshers – Not only do the algorithms love this, it’s more visibility. Be willing to be a mentor, offer your help to a new Posher who needs it, but, for goodness sake, do NOT promote your own closet when doing so!

• Buying stuff! Shop from your fellow Poshers! Not only do you support your community, the algorithms see the fact that you’re both buying and selling as a huge positive. If you don’t believe me, give this a little test. Spend a day doing some following and sharing and then buy something. See what happens in the next couple of days. You’ll see increased followers & a general increase in closet activity. And don’t forget to leave a Love Note!
• Reviewing Reported Listings – Not everyone will receive this option, especially if you haven’t reached Ambassador status or aren’t a well-established closet, but, if you do, don’t ignore it. You don’t have to be an expert and know if everything is a replica or not, but you will be tested on what’s compliant and if people are breaking the rules. This is giving back to the Posh community and, again, algorithms love that. One thing to remember is, if you’re not sure, click “Not Sure”! The person on the other side of that listing is going to have a consequence (or not) based upon your answer. If you don’t know whether that Gucci belt is a replica then say so, but if someone is advertising for transactions off Poshmark and it’s reported as such then click “Yes”. If they haven’t broken any rules, click “No”.
• Change-up your routine – If you have a regimented system where you’re doing all your following/listing/sharing from 9am – 2pm and then you don’t touch the app for the rest of the day this will definitely hurt you. The part of this that makes it a positive is, by changing-up your patterns, you will find un-tapped markets that you didn’t realize you’re missing. Depending upon your time zone you could be missing out on a TON of people! It’s not going to hurt you to have your daily routine, just don’t be afraid to try something new. Doing so will give you much more insight into where your buyers are. Also, get out there during the evening parties! This is a peak time on the app.
• BE COMPLIANT! – For goodness sake, Poshmark is a fashion/home app. Do not try to sell DVD’s, toys, your TV… Make sure you read the Community Guidelines and know what’s complaint and not compliant.
• Share to Social Media – I have spoken on this quite a bit on the SEO method and search engine posts but I want to reiterate how important this is. The more you’re out there the more visibility you have and the more likely you’re going to be picked up by a search engine. Plus, the algorithms love to know that you’re using those relationships that have been created between platforms. This is one item, however, that can move into a negative. If you’re sharing to Twitter it’s been proven that they’ll lock your Twitter account down for too many posts. Pinterest and Tumblr are fine, no known issues, and Instagram is great, although will require you to manually post since there’s no link yet. Do your research and know the platforms along with their limitations & regulations. (FYI, I plan to do a social media post soon. 😉)
• Ship Time – No, Poshmark isn’t Amazon Prime and we do get seven days to ship, however, PMHQ has verified that the faster you ship, the happier the algorithm Gods are. Ideally, you should ship within 24-48 hours. Consistently letting items sit for 3 or more days will have a negative impact on your closet. Additionally, if your average is more than 2.5 days you will not be eligible for Ambassador status. Life happens sometimes so don’t stress if you have a late package here and there, just don’t let it be a practice. Procrastination is not your friend with shipping!
• Responding to offers – This is activity. You’re engaging! You’re showing the algorithm that you’re willing to play ball.

Negative Behavior

• Blocking – There is a time and a place for blocking but excessive use of it will get you on the naughty list. If someone is harassing you, flag their comment as Harassment. If they are spamming you (“I have the same item in my closet for $20!”) flag their comment as Spam. If they are a scammer who is asking you to email them for an off-Posh transaction, again, mark their comment as Spam. In most cases, the app will remove their comments immediately. You don’t need to block them unless it is excessive and unrelenting. The algorithms are trolling for this behavior so let them do them work! There are a lot of Facebook groups that are dedicated to reporting people who scam and people are very quick to run out and block because sumbody dun sumbody wrong, but it’s really unnecessary unless you truly think that person is going to come find your closet amongst the millions of other closets.
• Excessive Following/Sharing – I know, I know, this sounds crazy but it’s true! One of the biggest threats on Posh right now are the bots – the coded software that people buy/use to do the following and sharing for them instead of doing the work themselves. Because of the massive influx of bots, and Posh’s necessary action to combat them, the algorithms have to watch for activity that can be seen as “bot-like”. If you’re a super-fast follower/sharer and are getting the Captcha popping-up on you every few minutes, slow it down! Posh is going to think you’re a bot and it could throttle your closet (slow the incoming activity way down). There is a 10,000 follow/day limit on following. Kudos if you’re hitting this, but don’t do it all in one run and take breaks. Same for sharing. Change it up – share some, move to following, do some listing, go back to following, you get the idea. Focusing on any one activity for any significant length of time can significantly hurt you.
• Straight-up Declining or Ignoring Offers – Lowballing sucks. We all know it. It’s annoying, but don’t take it personally! Someone is just trying to get a deal. If you receive an offer always counter, never decline. Ever! Don’t ignore offers either. Always counter. Build your listings so there is room for negotiation and, even if lowballed, counter. People do this to see where your bottom price is. It’s not personal; it’s business. It is data-proven (and confirmed by Poshmark) that declining offers has a negative impact. Don’t do it. Tee up!
• Spamming Closets – I’ve touched on this in the welcoming new Poshers item but I want to reiterate: never, ever, ever go into someone’s active listing and promote your closet. People will report you and you will get throttled.
• Canceling Orders – We’ve all done it. We have an item listed for a long time and it sells. We tear apart our death piles for two days trying to find it and it’s nowhere to be found. Don’t worry, it happens to everyone. In this instance, explain what happened in a very nice way, apologize profusely and cancel. However…if you are doing CCO and you dropped a price to $49 and BAM it sold! But you realize, OMG, I hit $29, not $49! Honor the sale. It was your mistake and the buyer should not be penalized for it. It’s poor customer service (and unethical) to cancel, and guess what? That buyer just got a smokin’ deal and will very likely come back to your closet.
• Slow ship time – Consistent, slow shipping time is seen as a negative by the algorithm. Try to ship same day or next. Your closet will thank you!

This list is not, by any means, complete. There are a lot of things you can do on a daily basis to help (or hurt) your closet. What it boils down to is using common sense, ethics and learning from your mistakes/successes. What I can tell you is that this list has been proven by people testing different methods, not just by me. There are communities of people out there who are dedicated to researching what is successful on Poshmark (such as the Poshmark Analytics group. Note: If you want to join we are happy to have you but you’ll need to do some learnin’ in the Analytics Sandbox first.). All of these activities have been talked about at PoshFest over the years and confirmed by Poshmark. If you always keep in mind both the Positive and Negative behaviors that the Poshmark algorithms recognize when doing daily activities you’ll be good to go!