Brittany Hatcher, cutecasresale, joins us and brings her determined, funny, genuine, and positive approach. She also tells us about her love of trying new things, Poshmark live selling, the Goodwill bins, her Facebook group, and more.
The Seller Community Podcast from List Perfectly is the e-commerce resource for the seller community across all platforms and a hub for information on growing your business. Find out more at thesellercommunitypodcast.com, leave a message or ask a question at anchor.fm/sellercommunitypodcast, or email us at podcast@listperfectly.com.
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Doug: Today we’re joined by Britney (Britt), Hatcher of Cute Case Resale. She’s not only a reseller across multiple platforms, but a mom, a blogger. She does tons of live sales and runs an active Facebook group. So welcome Britt. We’re excited to have you here. Thanks for joining us.
Britt: I’m so excited. Thank you so much.
Clara: I cannot even tell you how excited I am. I’m always excited about our interviews, but you have to understand that Britt has been with us from literally the day that we launched List Perfectly. We have a lot to talk about. Britt tell me, how did you come up with the super cute name, Cute Case Resale?
Britt: So, my background is actually in education, so I worked for the local school district for a while, and I said, let me start something on the side cuz I was a single mom at the time. And I mean, just with, even without being a single mom, we see how the economy is rolling, it’s always good to have a few extra dollars coming in. As you know, kids come to school with backpacks on and I was selling them to teachers and some of the other faculty and staff. How it worked, they’d fill out a little form. With their style, and size.
I would thrift, I needed something to put it in. So, since kids had backpacks, I put them in a rolling suitcase cuz I could just roll that in quickly with me, drop it off at their door, and run about. So, I’m like, okay, suitcase, no. And then I was like, okay, cute clothes in it, you know? So that’s how it came to be. From suitcase to cute case threw resale on the end. Voila. Not super fancy, but it gets the point across, you know?
Clara: Love the process. Now share with our audience. How long do you think that process from refining, from, you know, the words and finding the perfect words that fit, you know, your branding and, the spirit and mission and vision you wanna converge, right? How long would you say that process was?
Britt: Actually, the process was probably longer than it should have been. As I’ve grown in age, business, and anything, a lot of times our intuition and first mind are where we should go. Should you do this, or should you do that? Yep. Do it. Try it. You never know if it’s gonna work until you just go ahead and try it. Although it probably took me two or three months cuz I’m like, how will this sound and will people like that? I like it. You know what I mean? And I’m trying to gravitate people to me, so let me go with it. Put enthusiasm behind it. And it was simple enough and we went right.
Doug: So your main selling platform is Poshmark, right?
Britt: For the last month, I would say that it was, but that wasn’t the case before live selling. I do a lot of direct selling to resellers in my Facebook group, and then I have customers on the side that I’ve had for quite some time. But the opportunity with live selling, it blows everything out of the water. So it’s very interesting when you think about it that all of these platforms that I have options to participate in just like everyone else, but in a month’s time, Poshmark climbed to the top with the least amount of work.
Clara: So, you mentioned that Poshmark lives are doing great, but I also know of course in the community that you’re doing lives in other platforms like Whatnot. How is that going?
Britt: I’ll be totally honest, I can be a person that needs to focus on one thing at a time when I’m learning it, to build consistency. I have not done a Whatnot sale in a little bit of time because Poshmark being in beta means that it was always gonna be changing for a while.
I needed to take some time and familiarize myself and see what I needed to do. So this last month I was focused on figuring out Poshmark live, building an audience, and being repetitive for myself so that they could repetitively find me and join me. Sometimes we talk about consistency, but if I’m not consistent, can’t expect the buyers to consistently buy from me if I’m not there, you know?
For the new month, I’m actually looking at figuring out how to weave in the two. So by next month, you will see me bringing Whatnot back into the fold. Whatnot does have some benefits that Poshmark doesn’t have for me. So yeah, you will see me doing, both, but I need it to be layered. I need it to make sense and I’ll be frank, I don’t wanna overwork.
Clara: What would you say to our audience that hasn’t tried the Poshmark Live? Correct me if I’m wrong, but as far as I know, if something doesn’t sell on Poshmark Live, you do have a feature in Poshmark that allows you to re-list it as a regular listing.
Britt: Right, absolutely. So let me answer your first question, look in wherever you are, lean in. Do it. We have the great ability to go through and go to Facebook groups and ask questions and get other people’s opinions of their experience. Should I, should I not? You are not going to know yourself until you do it. Throw yourself out there, and I’ll just throw this little insert in because I do have a Facebook group of resellers. And of course, we’re really open to be able to discuss almost anything and so when lives came about, you have people on both sides or maybe three sides in the middle or I don’t know if I wanna do Facebook lives. You’re really not sure if you hate it cuz you make a thousand dollars on that first sale. You’re like, oh wait, I like this, this is kind of nice? And then you have the group that, you know, really want to try it. And so I have to say that no matter how you are, whatever your advice is, cuz we all have our advice. Nine times outta 10 when people say that they don’t wanna try doing a live sale, I hear them say it’s because of their appearance. And I’m not knocking any of that. We all have our advice, and we all have our thoughts, but can I just say that the buyers don’t care?
They don’t care, and I really think that when you get on there and you throw yourself in it, somebody on the other side of the screen is now resonating with you. Yes. There is somebody with super curly hair, acne, and a crooked tooth out there. That is weird for me. And yes. You know what I mean?
So it’s one of those things where we are so self-critical and to be honest, to put it, just simply, jump on the other side of the fence because that’s where the money is. Not to say that you can’t list, cuz I definitely think it’s great to do both and it’s okay to only do one, but if you have an inkling that you want to, you have to try it, you’re doing yourself a disservice if you don’t.
Clara: Now, besides Whatnot and Posh lives, you mentioned also Facebook Live, something that you tried, but have you tried any other lives, throughout your reselling career, please?
Britt: I have popped in and out of Instagram, maybe twice. And to be honest, the crowd is there, you have so much more access. It’s like going to Family Dollar versus Walmart. You’re gonna have more customers. They have more products. They’re usually open a little bit earlier and stay open a little bit later, more registers all the things.
So that would be my difference from, like Poshmark sale, Whatnot, my specific group on Facebook versus an open Instagram, you know? But with that, I also need to be prepared to have the right, manpower. I’m gonna have to invoice, and when I do invoice, I’m gonna have to make sure that I enter the right, mailing address, and the apartment number. I might have to wait on him to pay, so there are benefits to all of them. And right now, when I was really in that figure-it-out mode and learning lives, I wanted that backend to really be handled by somebody else. Take that 20% from me.
I definitely am open to exploring other live selling programs as they make sense and as I get somebody else to work with me right now as one person with a virtual assistant, it’s not feasible right now until I do grow manpower. It’s a, I don’t wanna say a hobby because it is a job, but something, that serves me well and doesn’t over-encompass my life cuz I’m working to live not vice versa.
Doug: You covered a lot of your great strategy for your live sales, but is there any other advice you’d have or one piece of advice you’d have? For someone that says, Brit, I wanna get into live saleing?
Britt: I’m gonna give you A and B. A is, just do it. And B is, really simple. B, how I think just in general, how I deal with, any customer, any platform, whether I’m listening, whether I’m going live, I’m gonna have a personal disposition. I am not selling bread, milk, or shelter. Everything I have is probably an impulse buy and not needed. So I think it’s very important to be grateful for the people that come in, whether they buy or don’t buy. I think it’s important whether they’re chatting or not in the chat.
The fact that they’re there, cuz literally at any time it can be a hundred plus shows on this one platform you’re on, and then whatnot will have theirs. And then Instagram will have theirs, and then the baby’s crying and then people are having terminal illnesses. So I really do think that, and that’s how I approach my Facebook group. Two words be nice, and I think that’s gonna resonate across the screen, more than anything. And when I say just do it, I know we wanna have the perfect lighting that will never be perfect, the perfect setup that will, you know, but I told them my first few sales, I said, Hey guys, I’m glad you’re here. We’re gonna go ahead and get started. I’m a part of the Poshmark Beta and if Poshmark can be in beta, I’m in beta too. I might make a couple of mistakes. You may make a couple of mistakes, but we’re gonna figure it out together. I think sometimes we put undue pressure on ourselves for something to be exactly how we think it should be.
Clara: Now, we were mentioning a little earlier about your presence across different social media platforms. You can find this group on Facebook, and you can put Reseller Edition by Cute Case Resale.
Britt: I absolutely love this group. I guess it’s a little over 500 people that are in the group. And how it started, I knew I wanted a group. I didn’t know exactly, what road I wanted to take. I didn’t have it figured out, but I was selling in another buy, sell trade groups or whatever. Where resellers would go to get inventory. And so I would do those sales and I would invoice them to pay. My little tagline was that I’m starting a reseller group. Feel free to come join. I don’t have it all figured out. It’s just gonna be a positive place for us to bounce ideas off of each other. I’ll sell things here and there, giveaways, and that sort of thing. We went from maybe 10 people to 14 people to 15 people, and now 500.
I think the part that I love the most about it is that I personally know about, let’s just say 75% of these people from either doing live sales, they’ve purchased from me, actual interactions, and I say 75% just because as something grows and it’s shared by word of mouth type thing, other people join in and just, you guys, I’m grateful for all of you, however, we met. I’m really grateful for that. But I think that’s the benefit and not just that, it’s a positive place. I think sometimes people will acclimate to what energy you put out there. And so we’re problem-solving, figuring it out, helping each other, and then I’ll throw in a giveaway. I find some really good things in the bins, and I’ll throw out a giveaway here and there. But yeah, I think that probably is my most proud, accomplishment of reselling. A positive place for resellers to be.
Doug: So we just mentioned growth and you mentioned being proud of your accomplishment of having a safe place in your Facebook group. Do you have another selling stat or accomplishment that you are proud of?
Britt: Just in general, I tend to be less about numbers. Don’t get me wrong. I gotta eat. And I’m doing well. Let me just say that. I don’t want that to overshadow that piece about the community, because honestly, like for example, I decided to try reseller bundles a while back, 10 things in a pack, $125, and within 48 hours they sold out. But since they were reseller bundles, I needed resellers to be able to buy them. So if I didn’t have the group and the people weren’t responsive and they didn’t have faith in me, then that wouldn’t have happened.
And don’t get me wrong, I’ll get to a point where I’m sharing most of my stats, and I do share a lot of ’em in the group. Like for example, last month when I was really paying attention to Poshmark sales between seven and eight sales, and I can’t remember, the reason I say seven and eight is cuz one of those sales, I only made 20 bucks. And so I don’t know if my mind erased that. But that was, a little over 5,000 bucks take home, and for me, okay, for it still being in beta and me still trying to figure it out and everything from the being from the bins roughly about $300 spent on inventory. And that’s after Poshmark fees. I can’t beat that cuz I did it right here from home. My kids’ schedule wasn’t affected. I wasn’t affected. And that means that if that’s only eight days, that’s over 20 days of the whole month that I could lollygag, so to speak. And that was while I’m still figuring it out, I definitely still work in progress with things, but that would be the second stat that I’m proud of. Because I was consistent, and I tried. And even though I made $20 on one of those days, I woke up that next morning and that was like a $500-day sale.
Doug: But I’m gonna just put this in here. I doubt you lollygag much.
Britt: You’d be surprised. I am putting in the work, and this probably comes from me having to remind myself I have my moments but having to remind myself, okay, Britt, you can do it, this is gonna be great. Today was not the best, but tomorrow, you still have tomorrow. That I do have those moments where I’m like, I’m not touching it. I know we talk a lot about algorithms. I know we speak a lot about, consistency, but just in general, I started this because I needed the extra money. But I continued it because it was beneficial to me and having the ability to be there for my kids, be there for my family take vacations and such, and not have to be stuck in maybe just two weeks here and there. So I really have been this year, really focusing on that mindset that if things are not working for me that day, maybe I need to put that down and journal about it, which has helped me tremendously. And go to the next day.
Clara: What is your input about when people do a live show, and they show the hand they don’t wanna show themselves?
Britt: Get on there. I know the word Poshmark live doesn’t say posh human life. That’s what we expect. The actual whole human. There is just a different type of connection when you’re actually face-to-face with somebody. When you see the things whether you are a person who goes to church, whether you are a person in college courses there’s a reason why the first creation of that is live in person with the community versus the second option is usually you have a hard copy book, then you have the audiobook, but you don’t have, usually don’t have the audio before that you, don’t have your in-person class. And then you have the option to go online, but usually, you always have that, that first, you know what I mean?
It’s something about people seeing face-to-face. It’s a different connection. In addition to how even we can think about text messaging, things can be taken some kind of way when it’s just written. But when you see me, when you know that I’m smiling, and even if I’m not a smiler, when you just feel that I’m being sincere, it’s just different.
Nine times outta 10, if you don’t already have a huge following, the way to grow is through connection. When they see you, that’s different. Anybody can mistake my hand, like they may not know, but for all they know, if they’re just listing, my hand looks just like Doug’s hand. They may think that we have the same hand, but when we’re face to face when they connect, the voice with the person it looks just the same. There is power in connection, not just for them and my buyer, but for me too. I do say go for it.
If you’re out there and you’re jumping in, jump all the way in. If you need to scale back, you scale back, but you won’t know the benefit and you won’t know if you can just do it until you go for it.
And let me just throw out this because anxiety is real. People doing something brand new is absolutely valid. People wanting to dip their toe in, because they’re fearful, is valid. A tip that I would throw out there is to put the things around you that, you know might calm you down. For example, I’ve had a day, this has been a kid at school, bringing the teachers, let’s figure it out day and running in here. But I love, my aroma therapy candles, they really, really just have a calming scent overall. And so I’m like, you know what? Let me get my water. Let me get my fan. Let me chill 10 minutes before this starts and let me get my candle going, literally, when you do a live sale, people are only seeing the small amount that’s right there. You could have a whole smiley face to the left of you. I have a thing for those poopy emoji pillows. And it makes me laugh. It’s just silly. I can put my poop emoji pillow right there.
You know what I mean? There you go. I can put a sign behind me that says, you’ve got this. You’re doing great. You know, I can do all the things right behind me to kind of keep me calm, motivated, if needed.
That’s something about my reseller group, I help them promote themselves. If they have a cell coming up, put it in there. I can be in there or somebody else might jump in and say, I’ll hop in. So if somebody in the group says, hey, I’m nervous, but I’m going for it, somebody in there is gonna pop in. And when I say I am the most positive heckler, you could show a little bag of poop. I’m going to talk that bag of poop up.
Clara: What about sourcing? If I’m new, where do I go? And when it comes to sourcing, I think you are really good at the bins.
Britt: 99% bins girl. Every now and then I’ll pop into a regular store or like let’s say it’s a crazy pallet deal around and I’ll try that, but the bins are my ultimate, it’s my fun place. And for those who don’t know, the bins are the Goodwill Outlet. I’m looking to do a partnership here, hopefully. The definition that I see over and over again is it’s where the things in the store go that don’t sell. That’s a percentage. People can drop off things at the bins. Companies sometimes donate overstock, to the bins.
If you think about some of your stores that may have things behind the counter that are priced at a hundred dollars or things at are priced on the floor for two or $300 that nobody buys, it’s gonna go to the bins, I’m gonna find it and I’m gonna pay $1.74 a pound for it. You know what I mean?
It’s by far the place to get the most bang for your buck and has the most opportunity of inventory mass at one place at one time that doesn’t require a business certificate and that is not closed to the public. So if you think about all those types of opportunities and that has multiple ones across various states, and we do talk about that. I feel like thrifting can be therapy. I’m always excited about what I can find there, so yeah, my business, is fueled on the bins.
And if you think about it, Goodwill, kudos to them for being the type of business that will put almost anyone to work no matter what their situation is while they’re trying to fix it. They have all sorts of people that have been through all sorts of things. And so when they have people that come in, they’re teaching them things.
When people need to have volunteer hours, they also accept volunteers. So you have all walks of people that are attempting to get this product, figure out if it’s a great product to put on the floor. And just like you and I, maybe they’re great at it, maybe they’re not. They’re learning just like we all are.
Clara: Thank you for sharing that with our audience because I think that we have a very big segment of our community that they underestimate the power of going to the bins and they’re like, nah, it’s just dirty stuff.
Britt: And, let me tell you something. Ok, listen, if you have your mind set up that it’s dirty stuff, leave the Chanel for me, that’s just fine. I’m good with that. You know what I mean? I’m fine with that. But don’t knock it till you try it just like anything else.
There are people that do like it and are successful, just like I said about everything else, just try it. It’s okay if it’s not for you after you do try it but just try it because you never know.
Everybody there is looking for something different. At some point, I’m really working on, by the end of the year having an e-guide or a course or both. I’m figuring out the way that I wanna go with it because I do wanna collaborate with some other people to provide the most information.
Doug: We just talked about your Instagram a bit. Can you give us a high-level overview of what we might find across your social media channels? And then tell us, which is your favorite, if you had to pick one.
Britt: Absolutely. My favorite is Instagram, but that’s just because that’s where my energy is and that’s why I’m consistent. And sometimes that can be a fault of mine to be totally honest, because I don’t know what the benefits of the others are. I’m not putting the energy there. I will get there when I have time to spread myself out over other platforms or whatever.
So on my Instagram, my link leads to my link tree, and that way you can find my Instagram, you can find my affiliate links. You can find my Whatnot page, if you’re considering selling, for example, on like Whatnot and you need somebody to refer you, we can talk and see. I can check out your media, and your following. Figure out if that makes sense. And then I wouldn’t have a problem referring you if the stats make sense.
But by far Instagram is gonna be, my top. Okay. And Facebook, because of the group aspect. When you think group, you think community. You think everybody doing moving in one accord. And so that would be my second only because it takes a little bit more thought and time, Instagram, you throw a reel up, you throw a picture up, click a couple of music bars and they’re boom, the algorithm doing its own thing.
On Instagram, I do my favorite things. I’ve thrifted pictures of some of the things that I’ve sold. I just try to have fun with it, and I do updates of when I’m having sales and I’ll link them there again, something else that I hope to streamline in the future. But for right now, highlighting what I’m already doing doesn’t take up additional time, I can set my camera up while I’m shipping and then I can go back while I’m waiting on my son to come outta basketball practice, and edit those, and throw it up there. So right now it’s really just stuff I’m already doing, but I will figure out how to expand later.
List Perfectly is not paying me to say this, but two factors. It feels like it’s a second employee. It really does feel that way for me because I was doing the manual screenshot before I found it on the cross-list where I would screenshot the item re-situate, crop it, as best I could copy and paste it. And that’s each picture and then put it up.
So List Perfectly also has a group. So now where I felt like I’m an individual now I’m plopped in there and they’re talking about all the things. They’re troubleshooting their pages. Some people are talking about a VA, some people I’m like, VA, what’s a VA?
It’s easy to throw things into a chart and say this place does this and this opportunity does that, and this business does that. I’m gonna go with this one. I am looking at a bigger picture and a long haul as well. Affiliate, and referral bonuses. They matter to me because that is passive income like you said.
Doug: So, this next question as we’re wrapping up, but this always proves to be a very interesting question, and I used to ask people what they would say about themselves, but now I say, can you give me three words you think other people would use to describe you?
Britt: If y’all are listening, these better be those three words. I would say determined. I would say funny. I do like to have fun and would say determined. I feel like for most things, if somebody has done it before, why can’t I do it? I really have that mindset.
Doug: We’ve covered a lot. Is there anything you’d like to add?
Britt: Shop cute Case. Thank y’all. I definitely appreciate you guys. This has been awesome.
Doug: And thanks, Britt. I love your positivity, love your energy. So great to chat with you and, meet you and I’m sure we’ll chat more in the future.
Britt: Yes, I sure hope so. I sure hope so. Thank you so much, guys.
Clara: Thank you.