The majority of my sales come from shoes. Information on selling shoes is something I am asked about frequently. Last year, I did a little experiment to just start selling shoes and while it was great for a long time, I did end up adding clothing and accessories back into my store. I found it promotes bundling, especially on Poshmark. During the experiment, I averaged a $21 profile per shoe right which is right what my goal was initially.
Here are my tips, tricks, and secrets:
- Dr Martens – Great brand to pick up. They’re well-made and even if they have scuffs or marks on them, people will still love Docs.
- I use this Martens Wonder Balsam to clean them up and you can pretty much use it to any leather product there is.
- I use this Martens Wonder Balsam to clean them up and you can pretty much use it to any leather product there is.
- Magic weapon for sticky tags: blow-dryer – How convenient? Most of the time they stick them up inside the shoes or those red clearance tags and all you actually need is your trusty blow-dryer! Just heat them up a little bit and it should come right off.
- Dansko shoes – Used to sell extremely well in any condition. Lately, I noticed the unique styles, crisp white clogs for nurses and good quality styles are selling the best. I previously sold a pair of Mary Janes without the strap but I still sold it for $23 and I only paid a $1 for it.
- There are 2 very important things to consider when purchasing Dansko’s or any shoes with a cork bottom.
- Make sure that the heel is not coming apart from the actual clog shoe.
- Make sure to bend them both ways and twist them to check for dry rot.
- There are 2 very important things to consider when purchasing Dansko’s or any shoes with a cork bottom.
- Cowboy boots – I LOVE selling cowboy boots. Western style shoes sell very well if you use great keywords like “western, cowboy, cowgirl, southwesten, equestrian etc.” Sometimes it’s difficult to tell what the brand is of the boots but the inside usually has a style number to help identify the boots.
- Patent leather – If there are any scuffs, I use any nail polish remover and it takes them right off without damaging the leather. You can also use fine sandpaper to clean up the bottom of the shoe. As with any tips like this, you should aways do a small test on the item to be sure it won’t ruin your inventory!
- Scotty Peelers – To remove gum at the bottom of the shoe, or any part of the sticker you can’t remove. I use plastic ones because the metal ones tend to damage the shoes.
- Hunter Boots & Rain Boots – Quality rain boots like Hunter boots that have the white on them (called the bloom), are great retail arbitrage items. It is easy to make them look good as new! To remove the white film, grab some olive oil and buff them out. Finally, make sure they are dry before sending them to the buyer.
- If you can find men’s shoe brands like Allen Edmonds, Johnston Murphy, Cole Haan, etc. at a very low price, you can usually flip them for a nice profit. Men’s shoes are a great niche market that does pretty well in resale.
- 9 x 13″ ziplock Bags – I always use these bags as I know they will fit the padded flat rate envelope. More info on my Reselling Toolkit!
Some other products that I use:
- Coach Leather Moisturizer
- Shoe Rescue Wipes
- Leather Rescue Conditioner
- Magic erasers
- Jason Mark Shoe Cleaner
While you can find these items for great prices and free shipping on Amazon, I also use Rakuten (formerly Ebates) to do price comparisons, retail arbitage for shoes and cash back on all my purchases.
Don’t forget to subscribe to my Youtube channel! I made a Reselling Tool Kit to get you started with everything you need to start you reselling business, just click here!
Rebecca
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