How to Activate Poshmark Vacation Mode

Pause seller activity and come back stronger.

Let’s admit it: life happens, and we resellers, despite meticulous planning, may still be surprised with changes in our schedules. We may need to close shop temporarily, and that includes our online reselling accounts.  A wedding, a cross-country drive, or even reseller burnout can prompt you to hit pause on reselling. You’ll want this pause to be strategic, with properly handled shipments, automatic updates, and your following still strong as ever.

Poshmark knows this, so it equips Poshers with Vacation Hold—a seller tool that allows vacation mode to be turned on seamlessly, providing assurance to both sellers and buyers. Vacation Hold lets you pause sales without deleting your listings or losing your followers. 

Curious how Vacation Hold works? This guide shows you how this seller tool helps you when you can’t attend to your account, how to turn it off and on, and how to bounce back from a hold.

Poshmark’s Vacation Hold

Poshmark officially calls vacation mode Vacation Hold inside the app. When enabled, this seller tool lets your listings stay visible in search. Listings are still in your closet, so followers and potential buyers can still like and share your items.

While your followers can still comment on your listings, the catch is they can’t submit offers anymore, nor can they checkout any of your listings. You also can’t offer bundles to your buyers while on Vacation Hold. 

In a nutshell, your closet is live but no transactions will happen. Your listings will be marked “Not For Sale.” This mark will be gone as soon as you turn off Vacation Hold and your items are ready to sell again.

This feature keeps your closet searchable, and buyers can bookmark items they want to buy once you turn off Vacation Hold. It also protects them from mistakenly checking out items while you’re away, because checkouts won’t push through when vacation mode is on.

As a seller, you also get protected from late shipment complaints, cancellations, and negative ratings you would otherwise get if orders aren’t shipped within Poshmark’s required timeframe.

When Should You Use Vacation Mode?

It depends on how long you’re going to be away. Before turning Vacation Hold on, take note of your existing orders and shipments. Under Poshmark rules, you should be able to ship within 3-7 days, with the 7th day absolutely required by Poshmark. Otherwise, you’ll be risking order cancellations, and a lower average ship time. This may result in frustrated buyers and possible negative ratings. Be sure to ship orders first before activating Vacation Hold.

Vacation Hold works best if you’ll be away for 5-7 days, or more. This could mean you won’t have access to any of the items on your listings, and there’s no one who can ship the items for you. It’s also ideal when traveling to places where you can’t monitor your account consistently, say, a mountain retreat or a similar place.

We don’t recommend Vacation Hold if you’ll be gone for two to three days only. For these times you’re away but will be back shortly, we suggest leaving your account to a trusted person who can monitor your orders and fulfill shipments for you.

Vacation Hold allows you to continue having engagement on your closet listings but sales do slow down significantly. However, it’s the safest way to go when you can’t ship reliably on time due to being away.

How to Turn On Poshmark Vacation Mode

Vacation Hold can be conveniently turned on both in the app and on the web.

To enable in the app:

1. Go to Account Tab 
2. Select Seller Tools
3. Choose Vacation Hold
4. Tap the toggle to turn on and set dates.
5. Select your Start and End Date
6. Click Save.

On the web:

1. Click your profile image from the top right of the page
2. Select Account Settings
3. Select Vacation Hold from the left-hand menu.
4. Select On for choosing your dates.     
5. Enter a Start Date and End Date.
6. Select Save.

What Happens to Your Listings While in Vacation Hold?

As mentioned earlier, listings are visible in search, and even when buyers visit your closet.  Poshers can still like, comment, and share your listings because it’s still live, not delisted like in other apps. Sellers on Vacation Hold often share their listings to keep engagement open and to keep their listings in feeds, even if buy and sell transactions won’t push through. This practice signals their followers that they will definitely make a comeback soon.

Other sellers make listings while on vacation mode, but these listings don’t get as much engagement as listings made during regular times when the seller is available to accept and ship orders. 

Your listings and closet essentially stay visible but transactions are disabled.

Does Vacation Hold Affect My Future Sales?

Putting your closet in vacation mode won’t get you penalized or keep you invisible. However, it’s normal that visibility gets affected. Urgent buyers often veer away from listings that technically aren’t available because the closet is in Vacation Hold. Poshmark also encourages consistency in sellers:  sharing, listing, receiving offers, and completing sales. Vacation Hold means no sales, no offers and engagement slows down, except for a few loyal buyers that anticipate your return.

Since vacation mode slows down activity in your closet, it may take a few days to reach a lively level of engagement, sharing listings, and finding new Poshers. Consistency is key to rebuilding activity with your account.

How Long Can You Keep Vacation Hold On?

You can keep Vacation Hold for as long as you need it; there’s no maximum time limit for it. You can also choose to let it run its course, extend the end date, or turn it off early. This flexibility extends far more than vacations; sellers use this time for health breaks, life adjustments, and even inventory organization and a revamp in the business.

Keeping your closet on Vacation Hold for a long time may cause engagement to drop significantly; you may lose followers and need double the effort to keep your closet up and going upon your return.

Turning Vacation Hold Off

Like turning it on, you can also turn off Vacation Hold both in the app and on the web. Simply follow the steps as described in how to turn it on, until you reach the Vacation Hold selection. Toggle the button to OFF. Once turned off, your listings immediately become available to buyers. 

How to Reactivate Your Closet Effectively

To kickstart your closet reactivation, sharing your entire closet should be one of your first steps. An “I’m Back” announcement to your followers is a great way to pick up engagement. Other ways to regain momentum include the following:

• Relisting two to three older listings for an instant closet refresh;
• Send offers to likers;
• Respond to comments; and
• Running a “Back to Selling” promo

Doing this as soon as you hit the OFF button helps you get back in the game. You’ll be more visible, and engagement will start to perk up, too.

When you can’t use Vacation Hold

Some sellers intentionally opt out of using Vacation Hold, even for longer pauses. The number one reason is the lack of sales when vacation mode takes effect. They choose to do the following instead:

Entrusting shipping to someone: A partner, friend, or even an employee can accept orders, given they are familiar with Poshmark’s processes. Prepping orders beforehand, ready to ship before going on a vacation but not using the vacation mode may speed up shipping.

Hiring a virtual assistant: This step is more common with bigger resellers. Other employees may be involved in packing and shipping while the VA handles listings, offers, and shipment tracking.

Reaching out to buyers about shipping: Informing buyers of delays beforehand may help them manage their expectations regarding shipping dates.

These strategies may keep the sales coming but come with risks. Delayed shipping, for example, may cause a seller to incur penalties when orders are shipped beyond Poshmark’s required timeline. Cancellations from unfulfilled orders bring down your closet’s rating. If you can’t ship right away following Poshmark rules, then Vacation Hold is the way to go.

The Bottomline

Vacation Hold lets you step away from selling without shipment risks, cancellations and poor feedback. Truly, it slows engagement down but keeps both your metrics and reputation intact.  Using Vacation Hold strategically lets you fully enjoy your break, whatever the reason may be, and lets you come back to reselling smoothly.

If you’re stepping away temporarily, it’s also a good time to think about scaling your reselling business.  SellRaze lets you crosslist on several online reselling platforms, including Poshmark, Depop, Mercari, and eBay.  Get average sell-through rate and other valuable sales data to help your business along, and keep your listings strong with its AI-powered listing capabilities. Sell with ease, sell with SellRaze.