The online fashion marketplace Poshmark has provided an avenue for buyers and sellers to connect, and it has a variety of tools that make the process easier. One such tool is the ability to set up a bot or virtual assistant (VA) to manage your closet on your behalf.
Virtual assistants and bots are both taking over the world, but which one is worth your money? Bots seem to be cheaper than VAs. They also offer you more personalized services because they're just for you. However, VAs have an edge when it comes to reliability. Virtual assistants are great for organizing your closet or finding clothes that suit your needs.
With so many options for sharing your Poshmark closet on the market, it can be hard to decide which one is best. The decision of which one is worth your money comes down to what you need them for. Don't worry if you are still torn between choosing from a Poshmark bot or a Virtual assistant for your Poshmark business! We'll break down the difference between them in this article, including the advantages and disadvantages of each.
What are VAs (Virtual Assistants)
Virtual assistants led the way for busy individuals to manage their listings easily. VAs are humans who do tasks for you that can take a ton of time, such as organizing your closet and sharing them to get more visibility. There are a lot of specific platforms offering Poshmark virtual assistant services such as Upwork, Fiverr, and even Instagram. If you are a Poshmark reseller thinking of hiring one, here are some things you may want to consider:
Advantages of Hiring VAs
1. Allows You to Do Other Important Tasks
There is more to life than sitting in your chair clicking all day long to make some sales. Having a Virtual assistant comes in handy, especially if you have other full-time jobs or carry hundreds of items in your closet. Aside from the pain in the wrist caused by sharing hundreds of listings in a day, it can cause you 1-2 hours a day just by sharing your Poshmark closet. Hiring a VA saves you extra time to do essential things such as product sourcing, shipping, and after-sales service.
2. Personalized Touch
Hiring a VA for your Poshmark business gives you an edge over reliability and a personalized touch in having your closet shared in a humanly way possible. Too much sharing in an unreasonable amount of time can put you in Share jail. With a VA, you can be confident that someone will watch your business while doing other important tasks. Plus, they can monitor captchas to avoid being in Share jail or being tagged as spam.
Sites like Reseller Assistant and Closetpilot offer teams of virtual assistants just for Poshmark. They also offer base packages and add-ons that let you work one-on-one with a real assistant who closely manages your closet.
3. Prevent You from Share Jail
There are many VAs offering packages depending on the services you will avail of. Most of them have a base price of anywhere from $100 to $1000 monthly. If you want to try out their other services, you need to pay more for add-ons. If you are a starter and just want to try whether having a VA is good for your business or not, you can avail yourself of their "sharing" services. It ranges from $5 for 2000 shares to $15 for 5000 shares. But keep in mind, these come with a risk, as too much sharing a day can put you in a Share jail.
If you are unfamiliar with Poshmark share jail, it is a punishment for Poshers who reached Poshmark's share limit. And just like being in jail, you aren't allowed to do other things essential in running your business, such as sharing, liking, and commenting. Poshmark's share limit is 10,000 shares a day. Hiring a VA can help you monitor if you are close to sharing excessively and being penalized by Poshmark.
Disadvantages of Hiring VAs
1. Risk on the Account Security
It is quite risky when hiring a Virtual Assistant that you don't personally know or never had any relationship with. Having a VA for your Poshmark business means that you will give your full trust into giving them your log-in credentials. It includes but is not limited to your banking information, earnings, sales history, and even your business strategy. Imagine these people work under one agency in a room with multiple other people; that personal information is also visible to them and has easy access to your information.
If you are determined to hire a virtual assistant amidst this issue, be sure to add extra security to your account. You can do this by changing your password over a certain period or asking them to use a VPN or proxy. By doing so will allow you to avoid detection of using a single IP address to multiple accounts (if your VA has more than one client) have your account linked to your e-mail, so you will receive alerts in case the unwanted happens.
2. Inside Look on How You Run the Business
Having a virtual assistant for your business also means that you trust and coach them on how to run your business or how you want your business to succeed. The only downside of this is if you are a start-up business and your brand sells well, they will have an inside look at how you made it. Allowing someone to know the secrets of running a business can give you disadvantages and competition in the market.
3. Most of them also use Bots.
In most cases, these VAs also uses bots and other tools to make their lives easier and faster. The only difference is that some of them monitor it diligently to avoid any issues. Imagine someone manually sharing and arranging a closet of multiple people on different accounts daily. Technically it is possible, but do you have any proof aside from their word of mouth that they are doing it manually without help from any tools or software?
The answer varies. It is on a case-to-case basis. So keep in mind that if you are paying some to share and monitor your listings manually, they must do it properly and share it in a humanly way possible to avoid being in share jail and compromising your Poshmark business.
What are Poshmark Bots
A Poshmark bot is an automated software that connects with other websites or apps to perform tedious tasks, usually without human intervention. These tasks include sharing, scanning your Poshmark closet for duplicates, finding clothes that match the outfits in your Poshlist, and the likes. Depending on your specific needs, you can also set them up, such as how many shares a day you want for your items, other Posher's items, monitoring listings, etc. To better understand, here are some of the advantages and disadvantages of having a bot for your Poshmark business.
Advantages of Poshmark Bots
1. Cost-Effective
Bots are Poshmark automation software that acts as your marketing expert 24/7 to monitor your business efficiently. It is very cost-effective, with many tools and features to offer your business. Most of them only charge less than $150 a month with full access to all the seller's tools and features. Aside from that, you can be confident that even if you are doing something else like sourcing or shipping, your business is still running smoothly and seamlessly.
2. Your Account is Secured
Another factor to consider is having your account information secured. With bots, you have complete control over your personal and banking information. No one could access your credentials and information unless you gave them your credentials. And you can guarantee that no stranger or third party will get any of your confidential information without your permission.
3. User-Friendly Interface
Most Poshmark sellers are afraid to use bots because of one thing: They think it is not very easy to use. With this in mind, most bots developers ensure that their software will be easy to use, even for non-techy users. Features and menus are designed to be easily seen and navigated with. Most of these software's also have written instructions and video tutorials that will walk you through the whole process.
Disadvantages of Poshmark Bots
1. Basic Commands
Most of these bots are programmed to help you achieve your business goals. However, you need to set them up. Otherwise, they will just do basic commands indicated to them. Like any business strategy, you still need to exert little effort to better understand your business, your target market, and your competition.
In most cases, these bots also have business insights to see relevant data that can help you set up your business strategy and reach your Poshmark goals.
2. Sharing Excessively
Sharing more than Poshmark's limit in a day can put you in Share jail. Meaning, you cannot like, share or comment on the platform and can cause you a loss in sales and visibility. However, will using bots to share your closet lead to sharing jail? The answer is NO if you set it up accordingly.
Bots will only do things they are instructed to do so. Monitoring your closet's number of shares a day is essential to avoid being tagged as a spammer and in share jail. Another great function with Poshmark bots is setting an optimal share limit depending on your goals. Built-in delays also help make the sharing action seem more human-like. Our team recommends sharing a maximum of 5,000 a day to prevent you from reaching the sharing limit.
3. Banned Account
Many Poshmark resellers claimed that using a bot or any automation tool on Poshmark can put your account at risk, such as frozen, banned, or deleted. On their terms of service (TOS), it was stated that any form of automation for liking, sharing, following, and unfollowing is against their rules.
However, there are also other factors that you must consider that can cause your account to be banned. Including but not limited to:
- Scamming / Fraud
- Making outside transactions
- Collecting personal information of other users
- Any forms of harassment towards other poshers
- Selling fake or counterfeit items
- The high number of order cancellations
- The high number of late shipments
Even in major cases stated in the list, Poshmark will still issue a warning letter before banning your account. So, will using bots ban your account? As long as you are using the bots responsibly and sharing them in a humanly way, NO. Your account will not be banned.
Poshmark Bots vs. Virtual Assistants
With Poshmark, it's easy to sell your old clothes and find the latest trends. But bots and virtual assistants can be valuable tools when you're on a busy day or just want some time off from managing your closet. Virtual assistants and bots are two tools that can help you manage your Poshmark closet. Both have pros and cons, but one is better than the other. Ever since Poshmark came out with the "Bots" option, many people have been debating whether or not they are worth it. Bots and Virtual Assistants (VAs) do essentially the same thing: they help you sell your clothes on Poshmark and take care of the monotonous tasks in your closet, such as "liking" listings, commenting on listings, uploading photos, etc.
Both are helpful with little difference from one another. For example, bots will work 24/7 on your behalf without paying attention to what time zone you're in, even if you are on an out-of-country vacation. On the other hand, a VA can do the same thing, but you have to advise them at least 2-3 days to adjust their time to communicate with you.
Another factor to also consider is the edge of one from another. For example, Bots help with sales while VAs help with customer service inquiries. As many customers do not like communicating with automated responses, VAs help answers their questions and potentially increase sales. The debate whether which one is better still depends on how you need them.
From handling your sales to monitoring your after-sales service, you must only go for a trusted VA or bots to help you manage your reselling business. If you are looking for a trusted bot for your Poshmark business, consider OneShop. Thousands of clients have trusted it, giving you a competitive edge to share up to 4000 a day, edit shares, return shares, and even send offers to likers. Plus, sales analytics are always free. Our all-in app lets you save time to do more important things such as sourcing, shipping, and personal time for you and your family. Never worry about not getting enough views again because our automated sharing will do the job for you.
Try OneShop today and avail of our 7-days free trial, with no commitment and credit card information required. Sign up now!