How to Host a 'Closet Sale' on Instagram Stories
As a gal who’s passionate about promoting sustainable and slow fashion practices - closet sales on Instagram Stories have become my favorite way to clean out my wardrobe on a seasonal basis! I love how they help me make room for the new by passing on the pieces that I once loved to their next owners who can continue to enjoy them! I get to earn some extra money in the process (big bonus) that I can put towards those new items on my wish list, and the recipients of my clothing get beautiful, lightly-loved garments at extremely discounted prices! It’s a win-win all around.
I’ve conducted about 4 clothing sales on my IG Story so far, and my most recent one exceeded my expectations so much (4x the profit as my last sale!) that I wanted to share a step-by-step a look at the process I used for planning, creating and promoting it - so that you might be able to do the same!
Enjoy!
Research
Do a little up-front research on when and how your audience would like to see your clothing/items listed.
For my sale, I posted a poll to my IG story a week in advance that asked:
Where they’d like to see the listings
(IG or an app like Depop?)
And when they’d like to see the listings go live
(Week day or weekend? Between 9am-11am EST or 6pm-8pmm EST?)
Prepare
Iron everything before photographing the pieces for your sale - it’s much harder to sell a wrinkly garment.
Photograph all items in the same well-lit area and don’t over edit the images afterwards. Altering colors too much will set incorrect expectations and could make for an unsatisfied buyer.
Tip: Take (or hunt down) photos/ video of the garment on your body if you can! Sharing these as well can help people visualize it on themselves.
Use your images to create your sale in advance in an app like Unfold! You can save out all your story slides so that you can post them quickly and easily, one after the other when the sale goes live.
Within your sale slides, include details regarding how the sale will work up front so there’s no confusion.
Be very specific in your first slides about how your audience can claim an item, how you’ll accept payment and how a wait-list works if multiple people are interested in the same good.
Within each slide, I like to make sure to include these details:
Brand
Size
Price
General fit description or disclosure about the state of quality
1-3 photos (offering diverse angles)
Here are examples of some of the slides that I created!
Promote
Give people a heads up about your sale the day before AND early in the day that it’s happening. This makes sure its on people’s radar.
Keep your head-up post(s) brief and include:
The time you plan to post your items (with the TIME ZONE)
Any sneak peaks or written hints about what exactly you’ll be offering that might give your audience insight on what will be available.
Post your slides at the time of your sale and sell your pieces! Yay!
I recommend accepting payment either through PayPal or Venmo.
As you begin to make sales, don’t forget to keep an organized record of who purchases what, listed with the address you’ll be shipping to (this could quickly become a logistical nightmare if you don’t keep track)!! I simply conduct a list in my Notes app as I go.
And don’t forget to delete sold items from your Story after payment has gone through! Wouldn’t want to sell the same thing twice. Yikes.
Of course, I would like to preface your next IG Stories sale with the reminder that you should ALWAYS be 100% open and honest about the state/condition that your items are in before selling and shipping them to a paying customer!
I strictly refuse to resell my garments if they are in a condition that I wouldn’t wear myself. If a garment that I own is slightly stained or torn, and I choose to sell it, then I make my audience 100% aware of this before offering to sell it at an extreme discount! I’m specific in my photos AND my images always.
Don’t be shady dude, your integrity and reputation is on the line in all your entrepreneurial ventures.
I hope you found this helpful! Wishing you all the best in your next IG closet sale!!
