How to Choose a Reseller Spreadsheet

The clothing resale market is exploding, with the secondhand fashion market expected to reach $74 billion in the U.S. alone by 2029 (source) and $350 globally by 2028 (source). For new resellers, it’s an incredible time to build a profitable business from your home. Succeeding as a reseller isn’t just about finding great deals though; you need to be determined, efficient, and highly organized.

One of the biggest mistakes that new resellers make is treating resale like a hobby instead of a business. Without proper tracking and reporting, you won’t be able to understand your profits, your business opportunities, where you lose money, or how to file taxes. The difference between resellers who make a few hundred dollars every month on clothing resale vs. resellers making 5 figures often comes down to one thing: having the right systems in place. For small to mid-sized resellers, a key part of those systems is a spreadsheet that can track and manage business activity.

Do you need a reseller spreadsheet?

When you first start reselling clothes, most items are likely coming from your closet and there might only be a few sales per week or month. That’s easy enough to track on paper or in a simple Excel spreadsheet, but what happens when you grow? Do you need a full-blown accounting system, inventory management software, expense tracking systems, and other expensive monthly subscriptions? Do you build your own spreadsheet? Or do you find a free or paid template online, and if you go that route, which option do you choose?

New resellers often underestimate how quickly inventory and sales data accumulates. Having a proper system in place reduces stress and risks, while also helping you scale your business and increase profit. It also makes tax filing and financial planning a lot easier, and it helps you better understand your business—including insights into what works well and what doesn’t work. You don’t need multiple systems and monthly subscriptions to start out though, and going down that road will be overwhelming. Most resellers opt to use simpler spreadsheets because they’re easy to use and sufficient for the vast majority of resellers.

The buy vs. build choice can be a hard one. You might even be a highly experienced user of Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets, but what is your time worth? Building and testing a robust, high-quality reseller spreadsheet for personal use will typically take 50 to 100 hours, and you’re on your own if something goes wrong or you need help. Paying $25 to $50 (the most common price range for robust spreadsheets) is a small price to pay to have the work done for you, get features and tools you might not have even considered, and access to support. But with so many reseller spreadsheets on the market, what features do you need and how do you choose the right one?

Essential reseller spreadsheet features

At minimum, a spreadsheet for clothing resellers should provide easy access to all of the key data about your business. Here are some of what I consider to be the most important features of a business management spreadsheet:

• Comprehensive inventory tracking that can scale to 10,000+ items.
• Robust sales tracking that’s mapped to your inventory.
• Complete expense tracking, including common reseller expenses like marketing, commissions, mileage, shipping, platform fees, and more.
• Support for multiple platforms, as invariably you will want to cross-list and track performance by platform.
• An easy way to handle and see refunds, shipping, and other common resale scenarios.
• Enough data for you and/or your accountant to be able to easily and efficiently prepare and file your business taxes.

Resale analytics & reporting

Tracking sales and inventory is an absolutely essential feature, but just being able to record data about your business isn’t enough. An effective spreadsheet should help you better understand your business, make decisions, and grow your profit. A good reseller spreadsheet should also include:

• An easy way to see key metrics about your business, including profit and loss.
• A way to track progress over time, see trends, and understand what is and isn’t working in your business so that you can continuously try to improve it.
• Insight into profit margins, partner performance, goal tracking, and other aspects of your business.

Other spreadsheet considerations

Once you have a clear picture of which features and reporting you want in a reseller spreadsheet, it’s time to assess the larger packages before you make a decision. Here are some questions to ask yourself:

1. Is the tool easy to use and something you can see yourself comfortably using on a daily basis?
2. Does the tool have good reviews and other feedback from other clothing resellers?
3. Are there clear instructions and good documentation for the product? Make sure you review what’s available and understand how the spreadsheet works before you make a purchase.
4. Is the product made by a reputable reseller who has a strong presence in the resale community? You don’t want a spreadsheet from someone who doesn’t understand the industry and doesn’t have a reputation to uphold. Spreadsheet developers who don’t work in the industry are less likely to understand your questions and address the needs of active resellers.
5. How is support from the team behind the spreadsheet? Try reaching out and asking a pre-sales question.
6. What is the initial cost, both initially and on an ongoing basis? Is the product worth it?
7. Is the tool offered on a platform that you’re comfortable with? Many resellers choose products built on Google Sheets, as it lets them control the data, customize the tool however they want, have data backups in the cloud, and see previous versions if they run into issues.
8. Does the spreadsheet address your needs now but also allow you room to grow in the future, so it can scale with your business as it expands?
9. Does the tool incorporate automation and populate data between sheets, or does it require you to copy/paste records and do manual input? The more you have to do manually, the more you risk introducing errors.

Choosing the right reseller spreadsheet

In quality control circles, there’s something called the “1-10-100 Rule”. It basically states that if the cost to prevent poor data is $1, the cost to fix bad data later will be $10, and if it isn’t fixed before it becomes an operational problem, the eventual failure to the business will cost $100 (source). Wouldn’t it be better to spend $50 on a quality system now than $5,000 switching to another system a year from now because an ineffective solution led to multiple failures and impaired your growth? Another study by an accountancy group found that human error rates when entering data ranged from 1-5% (source), so it goes without saying that tools that reduce manual data input and proactively check for and prevent errors will send you lots of time and frustration.

By following the guidance in this article, you will increase your likelihood of finding the right tool for your clothing resale business. All of the considerations above are what we used as a guide when creating the Ultimate Thrifting Reseller Toolkit. It includes everything I need as an active reseller to keep my business organized, and I built support structures around it to make sure it’s easy to use and that help is available when it’s needed. It’s also built with Google Sheets, so it lives in the cloud, is always backed up, and changes are automatically tracked. Here are just a few of the reviews from Toolkit users; similar comments that address support, ease of use, and functionality are what you want to see in the spreadsheet that you ultimately choose:

Choosing the right business management tool is one of the most important decisions you’ll make as a clothing reseller. While the options can seem overwhelming, keep the advice here in mind and choose the tool that best fits your needs—and that you can see yourself using consistently. Invest the time into making sure you choose the right solution for how your resale business works.