Selling your clothes on second hand online platforms is very easy!
I will teach you how in this blog!
I’m sure you have clothes in our wardrobe you don’t wear anymore. In my last video I challenged you to deal with the forgotten items in your wardrobe and I concluded that once you re-discover those, with some you will fall back in love, even if you did not worn them in a while. About other garments you will know for sure you will not wear them anymore. So you will think about discarding those.
I think out clothes deserve a second life so I will always opt to sell my unwanted garments on second hand online platforms. You may think that this will take a great deal of your time, time you do not have!
Or you may think that this is not a solution to your main goal: to clean your wardrobe as soon as possible. And then you may consider other options:
- either to throw these garments in the container set up by the municipalities specifically designated for old clothes
- to take these bags of unwanted clothes to the recycling schemes that the high street stores are offering and get a 10% or 15% discount for the new items you will buy from them
Before you choose for any of these, I want to ask you yo pause a little and hear me out.
Why not recycling schemes?
You may ask why I advise against recycling schemes? Simply because these recycling schemes do not deliver what they promise. First of all there is not sufficient transparency on this matter which can mean that our bags of unwanted clothes may end up in landfills polluting land and oceans. Or these may be burned and pollute even more due to the greenhouse gas emissions resulted from this process.
These recycling programmes are actually just take-back schemes, in the sense that that they operate a
three-pronged system:
1. they resell some of the items you bring to them (for example, to charity shops),
2. re-use (convert into other products, such as cleaning cloths or mops) or
3. recycle (into carpet underlay, insulation material or mattress filling because recycling these into new clothes is not an option.
Why aren’t this recycled into new garments? Because the majority of clothes in our wardrobes are made from a blend of textiles, so most of them are not 100% cotton, not 100% viscose, not 100 % polyester. The blended nature of textiles has made it challenging to recycle one fibre, without degrading the other. So only 1% of used clothes in the world can be recycled. It is not their faults that the clothes are not recycled into new clothes but for sure it is their fault for advertising these as recycling schemes and misleading us. And again, remember that not all of these schemes are trustworthy!
Why not containers set up by municipalities for donation?
Because these cannot face the income of clothes we discard. These services cannot promise that our clothes will not end up in landfills. Based on a Greenpeace report, only 10-30% of these discarded clothes are downcycled into lower grade products like rags, mops, cleaning clothing. More than half of them are exported for “reuse”, mostly to East and West Africa and Eastern Europe.
In addition to Greenpeace, Clean Up Kenya and investigative NGO Wildlight interviewed people and collected evidence on the ground in Kenya. They discovered what happens to used clothing known locally as mitumba. They discovered junk clothing in some places piled as high as four-storey buildings and spilling into rivers. So the Global North exports these clothes to Global South as second-hand clothes to avoid the responsibility and costs of dealing with the problem of disposable clothes.
These for me are sufficient reasons to avoid these options. Plus I believe a woman’s unwanted garments are another woman’s treasures!
Tips to sell your clothes on second hand online platforms
Today I will walk you through the process of selling on second hand platforms and I am sure that I will convince you this is the best option for you and the most sustainable as well. In addition you will earn some money for your new wardrobe!
A. Condition of the garments
The condition of the garments matters because it will be essential for the price you ask. But if you describe the item and add photos for the buyer to have a clear understanding on the condition of your used garment, you can sell almost every garment on these second hand online platforms. You will have to determine the condition of the clothes by yourself as follow:
(i) new with tags
(ii) new without tags (we all have clothes we thought we will wear, took the label off and kept it there for months or years without wearing it)
(iii) very good (a lightly used garment that may have slight imperfections, but still looks great)
(iv) good (a used item that may show imperfections and signs of wear)
(v) satisfactory or fair condition (a frequently used item with imperfections and signs of wear)
So where do you start?
B. What to consider when you set up your account
Most of these online platforms have apps that you can immediately download on your phone and you only need to go through the usual registration process: set up a username and password, and additional data the platform and the buyer need to finalise a purchase, like address for shipping purposes and bank account for getting paid.
Another important thing is to set your account to be flexible in terms of carriers. The more shipping options you select when setting up your account, the easier will be for the buyer to purchase it and the more clothes you will sell. Some of the carriers have cheaper fees so the buyer may prefer that one and if you only accept for example DHL or DPD, the chances to sell more will be lower.
In addition in some countries people are used to use one particular carrier (e.g. in France Mondial Relay) so if you are not flexible, your chances to sell in that country will be lower. Nowadays, especially due to covid19, you will find more locations where you can drop your items. The online platform will help you identify the one that is closer to you. I have one specific location where they have contracts with all transport companies.
Once you have an account you can start uploading pictures of your clothes.
C. Recommendation on how to upload the pictures of your garments
a) clothes need to look at their best
One of the essential things is to make sure your clothes look at their best, so make sure these are cleaned and ironed for the picture to capture the products at its best and of course for more chances to sell that product. One thing is to be honest and capture the imperfections of the good in the pictures, but another is not to prepare the product to look at its best in the picture. A stained or wrinkled product will not be attractive at all, even if it is new with tag.
b) natural light
Second thing is to choose the right corner in your house, with natural light where you will photograph your clothes. It can be a wardrobe rail or any place where you can place a hanger and make sure that the garment is the only element in the picture. A white background is a very good choice because it will not influence the color of the garment as much. But you can also opt for a corner of floor in your room where you will set the clothes without a hanger. Some buyers will also ask for a picture with the item on you, so you may consider that as well, but it is not necessary, it very much depends on the buyer.
So natural light is essential, but avoiding flashlight is paramount to get the color right. You will have to specify the color when you upload the item, but your selling will be more successful if the picture actually captures the color of the garments. My suggestion is to take around 5 pictures: front, back, detail (a button, zipper or a specific design the garment may have) and labels (with the size, the brand, the composition and instructions of care).
If you follow these steps from the beginning, it will be very easy to move quickly, I need only 2 minutes to upload a new product I want to sell on second hand online platforms.
D. Recommendation on how to deal with packaging
Firstly I strongly advise you not to use plastic when you pack your products. Even if you may think this is the best option to protect the product. Except when you have some recycled plastic bags kept from other packages. I always keep the cardboard boxes for my selling on second hand online platforms and use this to pack the product.
Needless to say that the product should be packed with care, it should be cleaned and ironed. You can use a hair removal brush or a pilling brush if needed. I always use a pilling brush for wool garments or garments that are more prone to lints. You will get reviews on the second hand online platform from the buyers, so you would want to deliver the product as described and properly packed. I also add a thank you note to tell the buyer I am really grateful she gives a new life to my clothes.
Following these steps I shared with you will set you up for a successful seller on second hand online platforms, I promise. Let me know your experience with second hand online platforms or if you have none, whether following this you will set up an account and start selling your unwanted garments!
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