This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Can you run a resale business entirely on Instagram? That is exactly what we're gonna talk about in this episode. We're gonna explore how creators are flipping vintage and pre-owned goods. They are resellers and creators, kind of a mix of two classic side hustles without using any marketplace apps at all. So they're not using Facebook marketplace.
They're not using Craigslist. They're not using Poshmark or all these other networks. They're just using Instagram. We're gonna hear from a caller in Kansas City. She's been flipping thrifted and vintage clothes for a while.
She's been through all those different channels. Also Depop, I forgot to mention that one. But lately she's seeing more and more sellers skip them entirely, build their resale shop directly on Instagram. And why might they do that? Could this be viable as a business?
Let's look at the pros cons and how to pull it off without getting overwhelmed or burned out. At least let's try to accomplish a couple of those goals. We have a short action packed episode. Hopefully it's gonna be helpful to somebody out there looking for a way to make extra money. Can you run a resale business entirely on Instagram?
That's today's topic and feature coming right up. [Music]
Hi team. I've been thrifting and flipping clothes for a while now, mostly on Poshmark and eBay. But I recently noticed a bunch of people selling exclusively through Instagram. I'm talking full on resale shops, just in stories or posts, no external website.
It honestly surprised me because Instagram isn't really built for transactions. Still, they seem to have loyal followings and consistent sales. Could this really work for real on Instagram? And what are the risks or limitations I should know about? I feel like I'm missing something and I would love some guidance.
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Well, Tasha, I actually read an interesting article about this recently as well. It was on The Verge. If you go to theverge.com and search Instagram resellers, you can find this article, kind of profiled some people who were doing this. And basically, the short answer is yes, you absolutely can run a resale side hustle through Instagram alone. There are no fees to do it.
That's one reason why people do it. The platform wasn't really built for this kind of selling, but that's part of what makes it feel personal and authentic. That's a big part of the appeal, in fact. So like I read in this article, a lot of these Instagram resellers, they operate more like small pop-up brands or they do limited edition drops. And so they post stories typically every week, often every week at the same time.
And they're posting stories and they're like, "This is what's for sale." And the first person who sends me a DM, a direct message, gets it, right? And then of course they take it down. So there's a little bit of fun in like following along. It builds loyalty. People are tuning in at specific times.
So it's all about creating that consistency and building a following. You might also want to use some hashtags to build that following in the first place. So there are some risks and limitations to this. Number one, it doesn't really scale. Every transaction is manual.
This is a true side hustle in the classic sense of the term. Sometimes we look at side hustles that grow to multiple six figures or millions of dollars. This is gonna be hard to do. But for a few dozen sales a month, it's much better at that more artisanal level. It's gonna be hard to track analytics or conversions.
You don't really know what's working unless you build in your own tracking system. There aren't any buyer protections. So that doesn't matter so much as a seller. But if you want to buy stuff from people you don't know on Instagram, unlike eBay or Poshmark, for example, there's no such thing as dispute resolution. Hopefully you're not spending a ton of money.
So it's not a huge risk, but just something to be aware of. So I do think in the longterm you might want something different. You might want to do this as a fun experiment or as a pop-up like those folks are doing. It's not gonna be the biggest, most sustainable business but nothing wrong with doing things for fun or just because it's a cool little project. I respect the hustle.
I respect the DIY effort. Let us know how it goes. Listeners, let me know if you have a question or an experience, sidehustleschool.com/questions. We'll continue to feature updates from our listeners as they launch and grow their projects. Thanks for being out there.
New episode coming out tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
from The Onward Project.
