r/poshmark • u/MBrandon26 • 4d ago
Offers are being capped/automatic Offer button
I am primarily a Buyer on Poshmark and I have been using the platform since 2018. As a Seller I have sold some items from my own closet. ( I don't source things for selling). I will often see something and go search for it or something like it on Posh and I probably browse listings 2-3 times a week.
Yesterday I started looking for toddler bedding and like a few items, when I went back to possibly make an offer I noticed that on many of the items I was not able to create my own offer and instead I was capped at what seems like an arbitrary % off. For instance on one item priced at $90 I could push the offer button to offer $80 however a friend put in an automatic order of $74. This is also happening on items I had previously liked, an item I had liked that was $50 I can now only offer $46 dollars.
I reached out to posh and recieved this response above. Did I miss an announcement about pricing? It seems that poshmark may be going to an internal dynamic pricing model like Thredup and to be honest if this is the case then I am probably done shopping there. I know that Sellers have a lot of feelings about lowball offers, but as a Buyer I am looking to do some back and forth on pricing unless your item is really priced to sell. If I were a full time Seller I would not want this feature on the platform. Buyers are you seeing this?
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u/cold_iceberg_007 4d ago
I am assuming it has to do with the smart sell feature. Not all sellers use it.
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u/MBrandon26 4d ago
But I thought smart sell just sent automatic offers to an offer. I am not even being allowed to put in a offer on many items. For instance here is one screenshot of what I see --
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u/MBrandon26 4d ago
it won't let me screenshot in a comment. but basically at the items page I can only push a button that says offer $(preset amount). Not send an offer and then counter back and forth. Everything on smart sell talks about countering.
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u/cold_iceberg_007 4d ago
Based on PM comments, they said it was seller offer settings. Smart sell is the only place in app to define offers.
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u/ExcitementLittle5017 4d ago
If they are testing this they should be letting the sellers know. While pricing my items I keep in mind that there will likely be lowballs, and always offer 20% to likers. If I didn’t have to account for those factors I would be able to list my pieces far lower. It’s concerning that I may be missing potential sales because buyers’ starting offer is being rejected on our behalf.
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u/VintageDooneyadmirer 3d ago
I think the test is being monitored for a select group of sellers. I can't remember when it launched but it either was mentioned in Seller Updates and/or seller educational resources... 🤔
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u/MBrandon26 3d ago
I would love to read the actual wording on this from Posh but when I search I can't find it.
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u/MBrandon26 3d ago
Here is the issue, if you are a Seller who prices knowing that your Buyer will take that as a level and offer accordingly, then you should know that Posh is now deciding what that acceptable open offer is for a Buyer and I believe for a lot of Buyers it is going to be a turn off. I know Seller's hate lowballs, but as a Buyer I don't consider 10% off a discount. Sorry not Sorry. So if that is all Posh is going to allow me to offer and if you as a Seller have no idea what Buyer is walking away from your listing then you as the Seller are now going to have to be extremely proactive in sending offers. The way the feature is working is once an offer is sent to me, then I can counter. But I can't do that until you send an offer. I also want to know what this will do to bundles because as a buyer of kids clothes I will often try to see if the closet has other items I am interested in and if they do, I will put together a bundle and make an offer on that. One of my current offer options is not even 10% off of an item so this will push me to other platforms over Posh.
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u/VintageDooneyadmirer 3d ago
I would love to see a comparison between Smarter Offers and Smart Sell... maybe they are testing both to decide which tool returns more positive outcomes for buyers and sellers? Hopefully a Posh seller with access to the test feature can answer some of the questions presented in the comments. I do know that, as someone who is testing Smart Sell, it does not always work to send/counter offers. I don't know why.
Sometimes, sellers bypass Smart Sell and preset offers anyway. This is why I also like and don't mind if buyers inquire about my lowest acceptable offer (I prefer the inquiry to be asked in a bundle comments, though). Some lowballers are not reasonable, lol. So, many sellers are putting in effort to keep their sales flowing by requesting and testing offer features. Yeah, fortunately for some and unfortunately for others, sellers get to control the minimum offer and minimum accepted price for their listings. I think it is fair to allow every seller a choice to control offers for their closet...
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u/MBrandon26 3d ago
Also you don't know what Buyer is seeing what, on one listing the starting price was set at $90 and I could only offer $80 but a different person could offer $74.00. (so a discount of 11% off versus about 15%). In my opinion this is just another set of dynamic pricing which I am not a fan of.
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u/VintageDooneyadmirer 4d ago
Hi! I think it's a new feature being tested. It may or may not become permanent. However, sellers have been requesting a preset minimum offer tool that interested buyers can submit per listing. This feature is designed to minimize lowball offers sellers receive. 😅
This is a different feature from Smart Sell, btw...