Published in · 4 min read · Feb 13, 2021
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JEC SAN FRANCISCO — Looking for some new clothing, but on a budget? Don’t want to contribute to global warming? Welcome to Depop!
What is Depop?
Depop is an online app for selling and buying secondhand clothes from other users around the world. Depop was founded in 2011 in Italy as an “online flea market” and allows users to complete transactions, chat between themselves, and negotiate prices. Depop makes money by taking a 10% fee from all transactions on the app (Esquire 2020).
What’s special about it?
Depop is not the only reselling app; its competitors include Poshmark, Mercari, TheRealReal, and Grailed, but the youth of Depop’s users has greatly contributed to its runaway success. Depop’s user base is unique in many ways, but the most important is the age of its users. Out of Depop’s roughly 21 million users, a staggering 90% are Gen Z, or under 26 years old (The Cut 2019). The popularity of Depop reflects Gen Z’s focus on sustainability and environmental protection. An aversion to “fast fashion,” defined as cheaply and rapidly produced clothing and textiles, has been a driving factor in Depop’s popularity. Buying secondhand goods, off of Depop or at the thrift store, has become a badge of pride among many teenagers, and it comes with a hefty environmental benefit. For example, producing one pair of jeans can use dozens of gallons of water and unleashes damaging chemicals; buying the same jeans used off Depop is a cheaper and more environmentally conscious alternative.
How do Depop sellers succeed?
The most popular sellers on the app can make lucrative, six-figure profits. An important aspect of Depop is that it taps into the social aspect that many young users expect from apps. The biggest sellers cultivate a brand, a particular fashion style or aesthetic, and connect with their buyers. There are also “likes” on items, reminiscent of social media platforms like Instagram. The option to chat with other users facilitates negotiations between buyers and sellers, or questions about an item. Popular sellers can often convert their Depop following into support for other online ventures, such as YouTube channels and store websites. These ventures in turn drive traffic to their Depop accounts, helping them make more sales. Lucrative and popular sellers on the app can also earn the distinction of a Depop “top seller” by hitting sales targets at a certain price point and by selling a certain volume of items each week. Top sellers benefit from increased advertising, statistics about the growth of their account, verification, and extra support from Depop.
Is it really sustainable?
Depop and its users have also been involved in controversy. Some opine that an increase in sellers on the platform has led to the “gentrification of thrift stores” as sellers go thrifting, looking for items to resell on Depop, cutting low-income people who may need access to cheap clothing out of the equation (DazedDigital 2020). This problem is twofold: as prices on Depop rise as it gets more popular, items on Depop become financially out of reach for many, and affordable items become more scarce. Secondly, as more users on Depop go to thrift stores or charity shops to find items to sell on the app, thrift stores have become more popular and picked over. This phenomenon, some allege, leads to less sustainability, as prices in thrift stores and on Depop rise, leaving fewer options.
How popular is this market?
Notwithstanding this criticism, it’s unlikely Depop’s success is going in any direction but up. The secondhand fashion market in the U.S. alone is projected to more than triple in value in the next 10 years, from $28 billion in 2019 to $80 billion in 2029 (The Conversation 2020), and Depop will undoubtedly be a vital part of this exploding market of sustainable fashion.
Depop has seen an increase in popularity over quarantine, as people cleaned out their closets and had more free time. The app saw a 300% increase in items sold between January-April of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019 (Fast Company 2020).
In conclusion, Depop’s rapid growth and popularity among young people have revealed an appetite for sustainable fashion and growing economic viability for the secondhand market.
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