The secondhand clothing market is booming. From the increasing appeal of sustainable fashion with younger shoppers to the impact of tariffs on American retail fashion, the U.S. resale market currently exceeds $50 billion. Almost one-third of clothing purchases are now secondhand (source) and there’s never been a better time to make money from it, whether as a side hustle or even a full-time gig.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through the basics of clothing resale, from how it works and how to source inventory to tracking your profits and shipping goods to customers. I will also break down exactly what you should do and when over the first 30 days. If you follow this realistic, step-by-step plan, you can launch a clothing resale business and turn a profit within a month.

Why start a reselling business?

There are countless reasons to start your own business as a reseller, but here are the top reasons why it’s a great opportunity:

The market is growing at over 10% annually (source; it’s even higher online) and it will reach almost $75 billion by 2028. Moreover, it already consists primarily of individual resellers, not huge corporations; people just like you are reselling clothes today.
Start-up costs are extremely low, with inventory being one of your few expenses as you get started.
Used clothes can have great profit margins, and with smart inventory sourcing, many resellers see a 3- to 5-times markup on items they sell.
With most of your resale operations happening online, you can work when you want and anywhere you want.
There are lots of support forums and tools available, like our Reseller Toolkit, to help you get started and grow safely.

Sourcing Inventory

To be a clothing reseller, of course, you need apparel to sell. As you first get started, this might come mostly from your own closet or your family’s, but as you grow the business you’ll need more inventory.

Thrift stores and charity shops are one of the top locations for items you can resell at a profit. New items come in daily; most are in great condition and they often carry a lot of high-quality brands. Be sure to check out my list of the top items to resell from thrift stores. Keep your eye out for the things on that list!

Local yard sales and Facebook Marketplace posts can yield great options. Negotiating in person often gets items for pennies on the dollar, and sometimes you can pick up large lots that wouldn’t be practical to ship or that sellers can’t be bothered to sell individual pieces from themselves.

Retail store clearance racks can be a great deal for high-quality brands when they’re marked down 75% or more. New with Tags items sell for more, and you’ll likely find buyers online willing to pay up to 50% of the item’s retail price.

There are many other ways to get inventory, of course, including consignment stores, wholesale, liquidation and more, but the options above are best for starting out without making a big investment or commitment. By starting with a few dozen items, and using those sales to figure out what works and doesn’t work, you’ll be better able to scale and grow later. Get the foundation right without risking becoming overwhelmed, and then you can double-down and grow what works later.

Choosing the right resale platform

As you grow you will likely want to expand your reach to multiple platforms, but it’s best to start off with a single resale website. That way you can master it and take on additional platforms as you feel comfortable. Some of the top platforms in the clothing resale space are eBay, Poshmark, Depop and Etsy; see my article about online reselling platforms for more details about each.

As you start out, my recommendation is selling on Poshmark first. The fees might be a bit higher, but they take care of shipping labels, have a lot of seller protections, and it’s easier than other options for getting started. If you haven’t used Poshmark before, sign up with my code (STRAYCATSTYLEUS in the United States, STRAYCATSTYLE in Canada, for a discount off your first purchase).

Pricing your items

Once you have items to list and a place to list them, you need to figure out how much to sell them for. The best advice here is to price items based on what the market will bear, not your cost. Check similar sold listings on eBay and Poshmark to see what they’re selling for, then use that as an indication of what you should sell your item for (keeping in mind that there may be some negotiation, so start a bit higher and adjust based on the condition of your item).

When figuring out how much you’ll earn from a sale, don’t forget to consider the platform and other fees that you may have to pay. These will vary, but typically average in the 10-20% range per item. If you’re not sure what selling price to use, you can also try out our resale profit calculator. Just enter your cost, how much profit you want to make, and the calculator will tell you how much you should charge to account for the selling fees on each platform.

Optimize your listings

Creating effective listings will help your items get seen by more people and sold for more money, so it’s critically important that you get them right. Here are some of the most important elements:

Strong, clear titles. Use clear titles that are rich with keywords. At minimum, include brand, type of item, size, and key description (like primary color or material).
Detailed descriptions. Be concise but thorough, and include details about measurements, materials, flaws, styling elements, brand, condition, etc. If it helps to inform the user and their purchase decision, include it.
High-quality photos. Include clear, detailed images against a clean background in natural light. Take photos of the front, back, tags, labels, any flaws or details, and potentially how it fits on a mannequin or model. For additional tips, see my article about how to photograph items.

Titles and descriptions can be really hard to write and take a lot of time, so I populate initial titles and descriptions with a tool for ChatGPT that I built. It’s free to use and public; you can access it here. It generally does a good job of generating factual content based on photos, and it’s faster for me to tweak its output than to write everything myself from scratch.

Tracking Sales & Profits

Yes, it’s absolutely possible and achievable to keep your financial records easy to manage and organized for your reselling business. The best place to start is setting up a bank account for your reselling, as this makes it easier to separate your business records from your personal records. It’s fine to start out as a sole proprietorship (so operating under your name rather than setting up a legal organization for your business), but it’s still important to have an account just for business.

It’s important that you track everything for the business, so every purchase, sale, expense, everything. Google Sheets or Excel are great for starting out. The Ultimate Thrifting Reseller Toolkit offers a ready-made Google Sheets template to log inventory, sales, commissions, mileage, profit, and more. Keep whatever solution you use updated on a daily basis.

When you’re starting out you may not need a complex system for managing your inventory, and perhaps a few plastic bins without formal labels will be sufficient. As you grow, however, you’ll need an easy way to find anything you sell. One common approach is to give everything a SKU (item number) and put it into bins. This is what I do, and I have about 40 bins that each hold 25 items, so as I acquire and list new clothing, I list the Bin and SKU in my inventory management spreadsheet; my Toolkit supports this type of model.

Shipping

Once you start selling your items, you will need a way to ship them to your customers. By starting with Poshmark, all you need to do is print off a shipping label; they make things easy by taking care of the postage side of things. You simply need to stick that printed label onto the package you send to your buyer.

You will need a variety of materials to send things out though. For most clothes, a bubble mailer or poly mailer should be sufficient, though you may want to place your item in cellophane bags to protect it from the elements and offer a better presentation to the buyer. Packing tape, a shipping scale, and scissors are also important to have on hand.

Tools & Equipment

You don’t need to acquire everything at the beginning of your business, but there are a few things you will need as you grow as a reseller. Have a look at my must-have tools that you will need as a reseller for other ideas. Many things can be picked up at very low prices and will make your operations significantly more efficient.

On the digital side of things, my Reseller Toolkit is a great way to get started with inventory management, sales tracking, mileage and more. Nothing else should be needed for your first 30 days, but certainly as you expand to more resale platforms and increase your volume then this will change.

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30-Day Action plan

Now that we’ve explored some of the basics and key areas of your business operations as a clothing reseller, let’s review the steps you should take over your first 30 days.

Days 1 to 5

Create an account on your resale platform of choice
Open a bank account so you can track everything related to your business
Acquire your initial inventory
Purchase or set up the tools you will use to track and manage your operations

days 6 to 10

Get more inventory and decide how you’ll organize it
Start photographing and listing items
Purchase and organize shipping supplies

Days 11 to 15

Try to get listings up to 15 items
Try to get your first sale, even if it means dropping the price a bit below where you’re comfortable (don’t be discouraged if it takes a bit longer to get your first sale; stay positive and keep trying)
Announce your business on social media and try sharing a few listings
Ship your first item(s)

Days 16 to 20

Assess how you’re performing and try to improve your listings based on what you see working and not working
Source more items; try to get up to 25 listings

Days 21 to 25

Participate in your first sales event, like a “Closet Clear Out”
Keep growing inventory, and with the extra inventory, try offering bundles to potential customers

Days 26 to 30

Evaluate and adjust; look at what’s working, what’s not, where you’re struggling, and try to improve things accordingly
Consider expanding to listing items on a second resale platform
Set realistic goals for the second month
Reward yourself for your achievements over the first month

Conclusion

Reselling clothing can quickly become a fun and profitable side hustle if you take the right approach. This article covered why it’s a great time to get involved and how to execute a business plan to start and grow a clothing resale business in 30 days. With dedication, the right tools, and the processes outlined here, you can make your first sale in just a few weeks. Remember, consistency, hard work, and a willingness to learn are the key things you will need to succeed. For more insights into thrifting and reselling make sure to also check out the Ultimate Thrifting book.

Happy reselling!

How to Launch a Clothing Resale business in 30 days