[Music]
hi guys if you don't know me my name is
milan and i'm going to be a sophomore in
college this year
i really want to start making more
college content for my youtube videos
and i felt like this was a perfect one
because if there's one thing i can
really relate to it is being a broke
college student i find myself really
looking for different side hustles and a
little ways i can make money
and that is why today i wanted to tell
you guys something that i do on the side
that i make a little bit of money from
i'm not gonna lie this is not a huge
income this is not my like job but this
is a side hustle that i've been doing
for about a year and a half now i think
and it has actually been pretty nice and
some of this stuff honestly is kind of
self-explanatory but i thought i would
make a video on it in case anybody is
wondering
how to start it or they have any
questions about things one thing that i
didn't realize before i started is that
there is a huge
huge community on instagram that
actually is just a ton of people selling
their clothes
it's a really nice community and overall
there are also a lot of buyers
as well on there also a huge reason why
i started instagram shopping and really
recently i've been trying to do
is to turn my old clothes into new
clothes and what i mean by that is that
i try not to spend
any money on new clothing unless it
comes from selling my old clothes that
way i'm kind of recycling the value of
my clothes and
i'm not just spending like a ton of
money on hauls and stuff and i feel like
i don't feel guilty buying clothes from
that money because it's literally just
kind of recycling that
okay why instagram versus other
platforms so today i'm going to be
putting out two other platforms depop
and
poshmark the reason why i am going to
focus on instagram is because my main
focus i have right now is the instagram
shop it is at
shop mlx if you don't know what depop or
poshmark is depop and poshmark are apps
that are literally meant to sell your
items to start your clothing and to buy
items
on the other hand instagram as many of
you guys know is kind of just a photo
app i don't really know how to describe
that but it's not necessarily made
specifically for selling things depop
and poshmark are more structured because
obviously that's what the app is for
it's to
literally sell things it's also more
protected they have a lot of more things
in store in terms of policies
safety and just stuff like that i feel
like the biggest thing is that
everybody on the app downloaded it to
either sell things or to buy things
so you already know there's a market out
there and people are constantly
searching
on that app on the other hand for
instagram you have to handle every
single thing yourself in terms of policy
payment shipment i'm gonna lie it can be
a lot for some people and if that is
then you could still watch this video
and take some tips on it
and you could literally go into your
proper poshmark but i'm gonna be talking
about instagram because personally i
feel like it reaches people
more easily for example i feel like if i
were to tell someone that i'm selling my
clothes on depop or poshmark
not everybody has that app and honestly
in the world we live in today
a lot of people want convenience so a
lot of people might not want to download
like a full app just to look at your
clothing
but for instagram although not everybody
technically has it
most people do and if you have your shop
on instagram it's so much more easier
for them to look at it because they
already have the app and they're
probably using it every single day
so setting up your shop is obviously
important i mean what would your shop be
without
setting it up but in case you're kind of
confused about what this whole thing is
it is essentially selling your old
clothes on instagram there are different
types of shop accounts
there are closet accounts aka selling
your older
clothing that are still in pretty good
condition there are also thrifting
accounts there are
so many thrift accounts and what they do
is they go out and they thrift shop
and they find a lot of cool things and
they sell that on
their instagram shop and a lot of times
it's a little bit more than what they
paid for because they want to profit
off of that and the third one that i
felt like i wanted to point out is
wholesale for example a lot of people go
to brandy melville warehouse sales and
they sell like brandy melville pieces
from there
and some people buy like bulks of jeans
and like sell them
this isn't as common but you will
definitely come across
those pages so obviously before you
start this whole process you should
probably look in your closet to see if
you even have
like anything you really want to sell
for me going to college
made me really realize how many clothing
items i don't
wear and i hate to say that but it's so
true when i came back home
i realized that my closet was basically
still full and i never even wore those
items
when i went to college some tips for
picking out your items though
is obviously you could sell anything you
want let's be real it's
your life but for me i usually only sell
things that i don't fit anymore
or that i just like don't even wear but
they will always
be in good condition if they are not i
honestly will price it for like three
bucks and i will
list every single defect that is on the
clothing item okay so on my
instagram shop i actually asked other
instagram shops if i could use their
shops as
examples so any of the shops i'm gonna
show be sure to look them up on
instagram and actually check them out
because they're really sweet people but
in terms of setting up your shop like i
said before
you're gonna be handling every single
thing by yourself so the first thing i
recommend when setting up your shop is
obviously to create an
instagram a complete different instagram
for that and to come up with your own
shop
name a lot of shops are honestly the
same but mine is just shop mlx and
originally when i started this
i was selling my clothes and my two
other sisters clothes so mlx is just all
of our names together
in the biography of your account you're
probably going to want to do
a little bit of an introduction as you
guys can see on
these instagram shops in the description
they have a little bit of information
now they're not putting every single
thing there because number one they
can't fit it all there that would be way
too much and number two
you want to put enough information there
where when your buyers go on your page
it's not gonna be too overwhelming but
it's also gonna be pretty informational
i also put a little at to my main
account the reason why i do this is
because i feel like it really helps with
credibility
the sad reality is that there are some
scammers out there i don't even know why
people do that but
there are so i like to put my main
account in the description so that
people look at that and they want to see
if i'm even a real person they can check
out my main
instagram and see that i like am a real
person i'm just selling my clothes there
so let's talk about the highlights in
terms of setting up your page this is
another thing i'd recommend i know that
some people like to put their policies
in
their first instagram posts which you
can do but i feel like it is
very beneficial to put your policies in
your instagram highlight stories because
people are going to be able to access
that 24 7. so as you can see a lot of
people put about the seller but the main
things you're going to want to hit
you should talk about refunds and
returns if you accept that most people
don't you should also talk about
shipping
and proof is probably going to be your
best friend in terms of getting more
buyers because
you want to build your credibility in
the community and the only way to do
that is to
show that people actually get the items
that you're selling i like to have a
sold highlight where i put down all the
items i've sold just so people can like
see what i
sold i guess i also like to do it just
to look back i have a little highlight
that says interested into buying
how i personally have people buy from my
shop is i will have them dm
me if they want to buy now let's break
it down even more because if i haven't
talked enough about details
here it is some insight into this
community most people use paypal
venmo or cash through mail i don't do
cash through mail because personally i
think it's a little bit risky and i used
to do it but just for my own safety
i don't do it anymore and for the buyer
safety as well
so i only accept paypal or venmo because
it's fast cash
and it secures the money like once they
send it it's really easy
and you have it ready to go okay so
obviously this part is very important
delivery for me i only do shipping and
i'm going to be talking more about
shipping items and later in this video
but i did want to talk about different
things that you can put up in your
policies so a lot of people do shipping
and honestly
that's gonna help reach a wider audience
but there are a lot of people that do
drop offs and pickups i don't do this
because it is not as safe and if i do
jump offs or pickups it is only really
for people that i trust or that i
literally know
but obviously it totally depends on you
like first off can you even drive to go
do those things
are you okay and are your parents okay
with them coming to your house to pick
things up also when setting up your
page i feel like it is so important to
know what kind of theme
that you want to have for your shop i'm
not gonna lie
it's not really that important um maybe
i just am really into themes and stuff
as you can see from my instagram i have
two different themes going on because i
got kind of lazy
you don't need like a super crazy theme
as long as you're just showing pictures
of the items that is good enough
but as you can see here's an example of
a shop where she
takes pictures and she's like trying on
each item once you kind of figure out
what kind of theme you want
we move on to the next portion which is
posting up your items so once you figure
out what theme you want for your
it is going to really alter how you take
pictures of your clothes for example in
the beginning when i have like the baby
blue
background i have pictures of clothes
that i am
wearing and i literally had like a mini
photo shoot with my sister so i also
just lay clothing down below
on like a bed and take pictures of that
so once you're done taking pictures of
all of the clothing items that you would
like to sell
you're gonna need to start posting
usually for me before i start posting up
items i'll start like some instagram
stories
i just do a little sneak peek of things
i'm selling and
i just let people know hey i'm gonna be
posting later this week or later today
so before you even post you should
probably post a little story just like
giving a little sneak peek you know what
you're gonna sell
okay so for what i do when i post on my
items
is i usually will have a main picture
that will follow the theme and then i
will include
several pictures afterwards of either me
trying it on
so that people don't ask me for try ons
and also just like more up close
pictures of the entire item
if you don't include a picture of it on
you a lot of people are probably gonna
ask you for a try on if they want it and
personally for me i think it's easier to
just put it up and get it out of the way
i also say on my page that if there's
not a picture of it on me
it probably doesn't fit me honestly so i
just can't provide one
but the description of your post should
be pretty simple i guess
for mine all of my descriptions are
exactly the same i just changed it
depending on the item so i will list
what it is at the first line i'll do a
dash and then i'll say the size
the price a dash and then a little
description of either the clothing item
or
anything else i really want to say about
it also if there are
any defects on the item please please
please
say it down below honestly all of this
is like i said before
super self-explanatory but i'm just
talking through the process
in case anyone needs it too because i
don't know maybe you want to start but
you don't really know how it goes
so usually they'll stay like paypal or
venmo and i'll give them my account
information so they can send me money
and once they send me the money i will
always confirm it with them and then
ask them for their address once they
send their address
i will usually tell them around what
time i can ship
their item from or maybe if it might be
a little delayed but i always give them
an estimated time and i'll let them know
that i'll send them a tracking number
once i ship it out hello and welcome to
the packaging and shipping
portion which is honestly my most
favorite part because number one
you successfully finished a sale and
number two
it's just fun so the number one thing i
would suggest
if you're gonna be starting an instagram
shop is to buy a pack
of polly miller's on amazon there is
like a ton of cute designs
i use this leaf design here that you're
seeing right now and i love it because
when i first started my instagram shop
i would go out to target and like buy a
bubble mailer
every single time there was a purchase
but like the bug miller would be three
dollars and overall i wasn't like
profiting anything because of that i
feel like it's honestly really worth it
to invest in just buying like a bulk of
poly mailers
and number two i feel like having a cute
mailer is really cute for your store
and just really exciting to receive i
don't know maybe you just like love
packaging
how you package your items is gonna set
a vibe and kind of a tone for your store
because this is kind of your store
coming to life
to your customers on the white tag
i like to write down the clothing item
and who it's for
and i'll also sometimes throw in like a
nose strip or a face mask
i will always throw in a little business
card thing i made
you don't need like a little business
card thing but i just made it because i
felt like it might make my shop look a
bit more professional
so i'll throw that in and once that's
done i'll put it in the polymer and get
it ready to
ship the hardest and honestly probably
the thing that deters a lot of people
from selling their clothes on instagram
is the shipping a lot of people do it in
a more professional way i'm not gonna
lie
the better way to do it i guess you
could say is to literally buy like a
scaler or like a male layer and hook it
up to a paypal system and there like you
could literally make your own shipping
label
and you get the exact price of the
shipping depending on the weight of the
package
for me i'm a little bit non-traditional
in the sense where i literally will
package it
physically go to the mail office and use
the machines to print the label from
there and
this is honestly dependent on you and
how you want to do shipping
but how i do shipping is i will usually
kind of estimate what i think
that the price of the shipping will be
and honestly most of the time i'm
basically
correct because i've been shipping
things even when i was younger like i've
been
sending packages for so long i feel like
i can kind of just tell
but when i first started my instagram
shop i think one time
the shipping was a lot more than what i
thought it was so i
ended up just like shipping the item for
free
in a case where for example like maybe i
said
a sweatshirt was ten dollars plus seven
dollar shipping
and the shipping ended up being like ten
dollars i
personally don't make my buyer pay
anymore because they've already paid me
it's a little awkward then if you make
them just like pig i
just pay for the over payment of the
shipping it's honestly not that big of a
deal to me
now this is way different from depop and
poshmark because once you make a sale
through the app of depop and poshmark
they actually email you
a shipping label that is literally ready
to go so all you need to do
is put it on your package and just send
it and in case you guys are wondering i
do have a depop
poshmark and instagram and i post some
items on all three
the reason why i do this is because if i
feel like an item might sell better on
a different app i will put it on there
thank you so much for watching this
video i know it was kind of long
and a lot of this might have been
self-explanatory but i thought it would
make it because honestly
i feel like this is such a great side
hustle for a lot of people to be able to
do
so that is all i have for this video
hopefully you guys enjoyed it and i will
see you guys in the next video bye
[Music]
you