Poshmark to Eliminate Fee on Buyers 3 Weeks After Implementation

Poshmark will return to its original fee structure three weeks after introducing a new one that aimed to balance fees between sellers and shoppers.

The short-lived fee structure that was implemented Oct. 3 lowered fees for sellers but raised them for buyers.

“We made the recent fee change with the goal of helping you, our sellers, grow and earn more by balancing fees between sellers and shoppers,” Poshmark Founder and CEO Manish Chandra said in a Monday (Oct. 21) blog post.

“However, over the past few weeks we have seen that shoppers spent less on purchases as they shifted their spending from orders to fees, leaving our sellers with less cash in their pockets — despite the seller fee reduction.”

Poshmark will revert to its original fee structure effective Thursday (Oct. 24), the post said.

In that structure, sellers pay a 20% fee for sales over $15 and $2.95 for sales of $15 and under, according to the post.

The company is also removing the Buyer Protection Fee it began charging buyers at checkout, the post said.

For four days after the reversion to the original fee structure, Poshmark will issue a rebate for the difference in seller fees on certain listings and transactions, aiming to give sellers time to adjust their listings and pricing strategies, per the post.

“We’ve spoken with many of you and listened closely to your feedback,” Chandra said in the post, addressing sellers.

The fee structure that Poshmark implemented Oct. 3 eliminated the 20% fee and replaced it with a fee of 5.99% of the order total plus $1, $2 or $3 for orders under $15, $15 to under $50, and $50 and over, respectively, according to an Oct. 2 blog post by the company.

It also began charging buyers a Buyer Protection Fee of $1, $2 or $3 for orders of those same sizes.

The company said of that fee structure: “Our goal is to offer lower selling fees while still providing a full suite of tools and services at no additional cost to our sellers.”

It was reported Friday (Oct. 18) that Poshmark was rethinking the Oct. 3 change to its fee structure after sellers said their sales were down since that change was implemented.