Poshmark Reverts To Original Fee Structure After User Outcry Over New Fees

As predicted last week, Poshmark has announced they are returning to their original fee structure after massive pushback on new fee structure that split fees between buyers and sellers.

CEO Manish Chandra explained the reversal in a post on the company's blog, admitting the site saw a downturn in sales as a result of the changes and they are listening to user feedback.

Returning to Original Fees -

Dear Poshmark Community,

PoshmarkPoshmark

Dear Poshmark Community,

One of our core values is Together we Grow, and every decision we make is guided by our deep commitment to you, our community. In this spirit, we have decided to revert to our original fee structure effective October 24, 2024.

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.

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.

We’ve spoken with many of you and listened closely to your feedback. The outcome of the change did not meet our expectations and I sincerely apologize for the disruption and impact that this has had on you.

Here’s what we’re doing to make it right:

• We’re reverting to the original seller fee structure: Effective October 24, 2024*, we’re returning to the original fee structure of 20% seller fee for sales over $15 and $2.95 for sales $15 and under.
• We’re removing the Buyer Protection Fee: Shoppers will still receive the same trusted protection through Posh Protect without any extra cost at checkout.
• We’re ending Posh Pass Beta: We introduced this program to help boost purchases with the new buyer fee structure. With the return to our original fee structure, this program will also be rolled back. We’ll continue to explore similar programs that will benefit our community in the future.
• We’re offering a rebate: To give you time to adapt your listings and pricing strategies, we will issue a rebate** for the difference in seller fees on listings created or edited during the fee change period and sold via Buy Now, from October 24, 2024, through the weekend until October 27, 2024.
• We hope this decision reflects our commitment to listening and evolving based on your feedback. We are dedicated to making this platform work for you and encourage you to share your thoughts here. Your voice helps us continue to build a marketplace and community where anyone can thrive.

The fees will rollback automatically to the old structure on October 24th with no action needed from either buyers or sellers.

While there will no longer be a Buyer Protection Fee, Poshmark says they are still committed to providing the same trusted buyer protection - proving what many users suspected all along which was the buyer fee was simply charging directly for service and protection that had been provided all along under the old fee structure.

Poshmark told sellers last week they were rethinking the new fee structure only 2 weeks after the original announcement as complaints from both buyers and sellers flooded social media or submitted open letters addressed to Poshmark execs.

Poshmark Rethinks New Fee Structure Split Between Sellers & Buyers After Only 2 Weeks

Just 2 weeks after fee structure shakeup, Poshmark is already working on updates & changes - will they revert back to old fees or something else?

Value Added ResourceLiz Morton

The move comes at a time when other marketplaces who have gone down the buyer fee route may also be reconsidering the change.

Mercari is now 6 months into their experiment with shifting the fee burden to buyers with disastrous results for GMV growth and buyer retention, so they are now testing adding the buyer fee back into the item price to show one total amount up front with shipping and tax calculated at checkout - just like it used to be when sellers paid the fees.

Mercari Tests Adding Buyer Fees Back Into Item Price; Glitches On Offers Ensue

Mercari tests adding buyer fees back into item prices to stem abandoned cart tide, causing confusion & pricing glitches for sellers on offers.

Value Added ResourceLiz Morton

That all seems like a lot of extra work for the programmers, not to mention added stress and friction in the user experience, just to ultimately end up at about the same place they started with only minor differences in when/how they take their cut of the pie.

eBay also recently announced they plan to introduce buyer fees in the UK in 2025 - it will be interesting to see if they learn anything from their competitors' failures and tweak how they plan to implement the fees or possibly abandoned the idea all together before it rolls out.

What do you think of Poshmark going back to their original selling fees? Let us know in the comments below!