How to grow your reselling business: 8 tips for marketing + scaling | 2025

After reselling for years on eBay, Poshmark, and Mercari, I learned that scaling your store requires following specific tactics and strategies and putting on a boss hat to show you’re a true pro. 

In this guide, I’ll share my insights about how to grow your reselling business by finding a niche, being methodical, and adopting an automation tool like Nifty.

8 tips on how to grow your reselling business: TL;DR

1. Commit to a niche and clarify your target buyers

Successful reselling starts with selling products you know well and knowing your target buyers. Here’s how to narrow down your selling niche:

• Focus on categories you enjoy: Selling products you genuinely understand and appreciate simplifies sourcing, listing, and answering buyer questions. Enthusiasm can give you an advantage that drives repeat buyers who trust your expertise.
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• Prioritize consistency over volume: Focus on 2 or 3 product categories and avoid spreading your inventory across unrelated items. Customers who like your categories will follow your shop and return to buy again. Loyal buyers will often recommend you to friends.
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• Always track data: Keep a record of the items that generate the most views and offers, sell fastest, and generate the highest profits. Factor in sourcing costs, fees, shipping, and travel expenses. Tools like Nifty offer an analytics suite that provides insights into crucial metrics and sales data like listing time, profit margin, and platform fees.
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• Identify high-margin products: After you have some selling experience under your belt, determine which items in your niche provide the best profit margins. Focus on selling these items the most to generate the best profit for your store. 

2. Build reliable sourcing channels

Your ability to source consistent inventory increases your chances of becoming profitable. Here are three tactics to develop different sourcing channels:.

Tactic #1: Regularly attend estate sales

Estate sales offer access to households aiming to clear extensive inventories of vintage goods, clothing, furniture, art, and electronics before they reach thrift stores. You’ll often find low prices because estate sellers must clear all items quickly.

Arrive early on the first day for the best finds. Build relationships with estate sale companies, as they can alert you to upcoming sales and share insider product tips. Research neighborhoods before you go, as upscale areas often have designer goods.

Bring cash but be prepared to pay digitally, as payment options vary by estate sale. Check with the company in advance about accepted payment methods. Many estate sales now accept Venmo, Cash App, Square, and PayPal.

Tactic #2: Partner with liquidation and wholesale suppliers

Liquidation companies sell customer returns, overstock, and shelf-pulls from major retailers at steep discounts. Buying these items in bulk gives you a steady inventory supply.

Research trusted suppliers like Liquidation.com, BULQ, or B-Stock. Start with minimum purchase orders to check quality and accuracy. Scale once you find profitable categories. 

Buying from liquidation companies requires upfront capital and includes some damaged items. But, per-unit costs can be 80% to 90% below retail, creating solid profit margins on working products.

Tactic #3: Become an online authorized reseller

Some brands offer reseller programs that let you buy wholesale inventory directly from manufacturers at discounted rates, provided you have proof of authenticity. Authorized products include authenticity guarantees that build buyer trust and avoid counterfeit risks from unreliable suppliers. 

Apply through brand sites or marketplaces like Faire and Handshake. You can also negotiate order quantities that fit your budget. 

For a complete breakdown of sourcing strategies, check out our guide on how to find inventory for reselling.

3. Crosslist and use an automation tool

Profitable online reselling often involves crosslisting, or selling the same inventory on multiple marketplaces like eBay, Poshmark, and Depop. Crosslisting increases your customer base and helps you move inventory faster.

However, manual crosslisting becomes very difficult and error-prone once you list 50+ items weekly. The solution? Get a crosslisting tool. It will eliminate hours of repetitive work, allowing you to focus more on sourcing, strategic decision-making, and connecting with your customers. 

Here are the benefits that a crosslisting tool brings:

• Simplified listing: Tools like Nifty use AI to generate complete listings from product photos, automatically filling titles, descriptions, categories, and tags in seconds instead of typing everything manually. 
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• Expansion to multiple platforms: Once you've established sales on one platform, crosslisting tools let you add your products to Mercari, Depop, and Etsy simultaneously from one interface.
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• Automation handles daily tasks: Cloud automation runs platform-specific tasks like Poshmark sharing, relisting stale items, and sending offers to likers around the clock without keeping your computer on.
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• Performance tracking: Crosslisting tools like Nifty provide sales dashboards showing which items sell the fastest, which platforms generate the highest profits, and where your inventory moves the slowest across all marketplaces.

Crosslist on multiple platforms to multiply exposure

4. Strategic pricing and promotions

By pricing your items strategically, you can sell quickly and at healthy margins. Strategic pricing can prevent your goods from sitting unsold. Follow these tips to optimize pricing:

Tip #1: Research comparable sold listings

Before pricing an item, check completed sales on eBay and Poshmark to see what similar products sold for instead of the listed prices. Review the last 10 to 20 sold listings in your niche category. 

Determine how much buyers are willing to pay for items similar to yours on average, and factor in the condition before setting a price. For instance, items in mint condition earn premiums, whereas worn items sell for 40–60% less.

Tip #2: Bundle items for more orders

Bundle multiple items into packages to encourage buyers to purchase them together at a slight discount. By bundling, you can increase your average order value while moving inventory faster. 

For example, you can offer three vintage band tees for $45 instead of $18 each, or bundle a dress with matching accessories. Buyers feel they're getting a deal, and you move more units per transaction while reducing individual shipping and listing maintenance costs.

Tip #3: Send offers strategically

Resale platforms like Etsy, Mercari, eBay, Depop, and Poshmark allow you to send offers to potential buyers. Send offers to folks who view, like, or save (depending on the platform) your items. 

Platforms like Poshmark let you send “Offers to Likers” (which you can automate with Nifty). eBay and Mercari let you send offers to watchers or likers, while Depop allows discounted offers during direct negotiation. Offering 10–15% discounts can increase your chances of making a sale.

5. Build a recognizable brand presence

Standing out among resellers requires a clear brand that makes buyers choose your store over similar competitors. Here’s how to build a strong brand:

• Consistently style product photos: Use the same photo style, background, and lighting for every listing. This consistency allows your products to stand out and helps buyers recognize your products in search results. Use quality photo-editing tools and remove backgrounds with Nifty’s Photoroom integration. 
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• Add branded packaging elements: Add thank-you cards or stickers with your shop name to create a memorable unboxing that encourages repeat buyers. 

• Cultivate reviews and repeat purchases: After each sale, gently request reviews from satisfied customers to build trust and attract new buyers. For example, whenever you sell on Poshmark, encourage buyers to leave a Love Note. To get repeat buyers, offer early access or limited discounts to past customers. 

6. Outsource tasks to scale

Once you’ve scaled to the point where you’re selling dozens of items daily, it’s time to consider outsourcing manual work. Onboard freelancers to complete these two important tasks:

Task #1: Delegate photography and fulfillment

Hire local help or part-time assistants to handle photography, packing orders, and shipping. Onboarding a team lets you focus on sourcing and determining a pricing strategy. 

Pay around $20/hour for help photographing several items daily, packing orders, and handling shipping. Be sure to track wages, as they’ll be necessary for calculating your store’s profit and for taxes. 

Task #2: Hire remote virtual assistants

You can hire virtual assistants (VAs) on platforms like Upwork or Fiverr to handle customer messages, listing management, and basic admin work. Rates typically range from $4 to $40 per hour, depending on experience, location, and work expectations. 

Train your VA to draft listings, manage customer inquiries, and track returns according to each marketplace’s policies. 

7. Learn from data 

Always analyze results from inventory and sales to learn what drives profits and what wastes resources. These metrics provide a glimpse into your store’s performance.

• Calculate your sell-through rate: Sell-through rate shows what percentage of inventory sells within 30, 60, or 90 days, revealing healthy or unhealthy turnover. For instance, if you list 100 items and sell 75 in 90 days, your sell-through rate is 75%.

• Track return on investment: ROI compares profit to sourcing and selling costs. Calculate your ROI by dividing net profit by total expenses. To illustrate, a $10 vintage jacket selling for $60 after $12 in fees earns $38 profit ($38 ÷ ($10 + $12)), or 172% ROI. Aim for an ROI of at least 100%, so your profit doubles your total costs.

• Monitor average sale price (ASP) trends: ASP tracks average selling prices across categories and shows if your inventory is trending upmarket or downmarket. Calculate this by dividing total revenue by the number of items sold. If your ASP drops from $45 to $28 in three months, competition or lower quality may be the cause.

• Measure time in inventory: Time in inventory is the number of days from listing to sale. You can determine this metric by calculating the average number of days between the listing date and the sale date for each item. This metric shows which products move fast and which hold up capital. Aim for fast-moving stock that frees up capital and speeds growth.

• Understand your cost of goods sold: COGS includes all costs to prepare and sell items, like the purchase price, supplies, shipping, gas, and platform fees. Tracking COGS shows that a $40 sale might cost $29 total, leaving $11 profit. Real numbers will guide you to make smarter pricing and sourcing choices.

8. Stay compliant and sustainable

Following legal and platform rules protects your reselling business from suspensions, tax penalties, and supplier disputes that threaten long-term growth. Always track your expenses, so your accountant can easily prepare tax documentation. Nifty makes this easy by generating a profit and loss section in its Analytics Suite. 

Selling counterfeit or illegal items can result in bans from any reselling platform and legal action from brands. Knowing marketplace rules and item restrictions, like what you can and can’t sell on Etsy, can help you avoid penalties, allowing you to scale and meet your reselling goals. 

Scale your reselling business with Nifty

Now that you know how to grow your reselling business, it’s time to put our scaling tips into action with Nifty, a crosslisting, automation, and analytics tool. 

Nifty helps you crosslist, track, and optimize your listings across Poshmark, Mercari, eBay, Etsy, and Depop (more coming soon!), all from one interface. It’s the easiest way to save time, avoid double-selling, and increase profits.

Here’s how Nifty can help you grow:

• AI listing generations: Snap a photo, and Nifty’s AI creates your full listing with SEO titles, trending hashtags, and autofilled details.
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• Crosslist in seconds: Post to multiple marketplaces without switching tabs or time-consuming copy-pasting.

• Auto-delisting protection: When an item sells, Nifty instantly removes it from other marketplaces to prevent duplicate sales.

• Bulk tools that scale: Relist, discount, and update dozens of listings at once, or schedule new listings to go live while you sleep.
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• Analytics that drive growth: Track profits, spot trends, and focus on what’s selling best, all in one clean command center.

Over 10,000 resellers use Nifty to save time and make more sales. Start your 7-day free trial today. 

FAQs

1. How can I start a reselling business?

Start a reselling business by choosing a product niche you understand, sourcing inventory from thrift stores or estate sales, and listing items on marketplaces like eBay or Poshmark. Begin by selling only a few items to learn platform mechanics and shipping processes, and gradually scale up to reinvest profits into sourcing more inventory.

2. Should I focus on one marketplace or multiple ones?

Yes, you should focus on one marketplace when you begin reselling so you can learn platform rules, how to list items, and understand your target buyers. Once you're consistently making sales and understand your niche, crosslist to multiple marketplaces like eBay, Poshmark, and Mercari to reach different buyer pools and sell inventory faster.

3. How do I track my profits and expenses as a reseller?

As a reseller, you can track your profits and expenses by using spreadsheets or tools like Nifty. Spreadsheets require manual updates, so you’ll waste time entering data and copying information. Save time with an automation tool like Nifty, which tracks sales data, inventory timing, and pricing history for you.