How Buyer Behaviour Has Changed on eBay, Poshmark & Depop (And What Every Reseller Should Do About It)

Based on Savie's first-party marketplace data, more than 90% of completed sales now involve at least one offer before the buyer checks out. Here's what that means for today's resellers, and why selling successfully is no longer just about creating a great listing.

Selling has changed

You already know that. If you've been selling secondhand for a few years, you've probably felt the shift. Buyers favourite your item. They wait. They send an offer. Or they expect you to. Suddenly you're weighing up questions like: Should I send an offer now or wait another day? If I accept this, am I leaving money on the table? If I reject it, will they disappear?

Negotiation has quietly become part of almost every sale

At Savie, we wanted to understand just how much buyer behaviour had changed. Because we help sellers manage listings across marketplaces like eBay, Poshmark and Depop, we get a unique view of what happens after an item goes live. While individual sellers only ever see their own listings, we can observe broader buying patterns across thousands of completed sales.

One statistic stood out immediately

More than 90% of completed sales involved at least one offer before the buyer checked out. That number surprised us. Not because offers are common, we all know they are. But because they've become almost universal.

Listing gets you seen. Negotiation gets you sold.

For years, most advice about selling clothes online focused on creating the perfect listing. Take better photos. Write stronger titles. Research sold prices. Cross-list your inventory. All of that still matters. A great listing gets buyers interested.

But today's buyers rarely stop there. They compare similar listings. They save favourites. They wait to see whether an offer arrives. They negotiate. The sale often begins after someone clicks "Like." The best resellers aren't just great at sourcing inventory or writing listings anymore. They're great negotiators too.

Why buyers are negotiating more than ever

Secondhand shopping has become increasingly sophisticated. Buyers have more choice than ever before. Within seconds they can compare dozens of identical or similar items across multiple marketplaces. Many sellers are willing to negotiate, so buyers wait. They favourite several similar listings or submit an offer to see what's possible.

For buyers, negotiation has become a normal part of shopping. For sellers, it creates a new challenge.

The hidden workload behind every sale

Most resellers don't mind negotiating. What they mind is negotiating hundreds of times. Every notification creates another small decision. Across dozens or even hundreds of active listings, these decisions become another part-time job.

Most people started reselling because they love discovering amazing pieces, making sales and giving clothes a second life.

What our data tells us

The fact that more than 90% of completed sales involve an offer tells us something much bigger than simply "buyers negotiate." Negotiation has become part of the buying journey itself. The question is no longer, "Should I negotiate?" It's, "How do I negotiate consistently across every listing without it becoming another full-time job?"

What successful resellers are doing differently

The best sellers build negotiation into their pricing strategy from the beginning. They understand that:

• Buyers expect some room to negotiate.
• Speed and consistency matter.
• Good systems outperform gut feelings.

That's exactly why we built Automated Offers

If negotiation has become part of almost every sale, why are sellers still managing it manually?

• You decide the lowest price you're happy to accept.
• Savie lists your item slightly higher to create room for negotiation.
• It monitors buyer activity, sends offers when the timing is right, waits when appropriate, and accepts the right offer automatically.
• Savie will never accept an offer below your minimum price.

You're still in control. We're simply handling the repetitive work in between.

Selling isn't getting harder. It's getting smarter.

Negotiation is becoming part of how people buy. The sellers who embrace that change will spend less time making the same decisions over and over again, and more time sourcing, growing their business and making more sales.

That's what we built Savie for. Not to change the way people sell. To help them keep up with the way people buy.

Key takeaways

• More than 90% of completed sales now involve at least one offer before checkout.
• Negotiation has become a standard part of buying on eBay, Poshmark and Depop.
• Successful selling is about creating a great listing and managing what happens afterwards.
• Consistent systems beat constant manual decisions.
• Automated Offers helps sellers adapt while ensuring they never sell below their minimum price.

About the data

This article is based on anonymised first-party marketplace activity observed through Savie across thousands of completed clothing sales and buyer interactions. The statistic reflects the proportion of completed sales that involved at least one offer before purchase. Individual seller data is never shared or identifiable.

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