Article Written By: Jasmine Smith
Depop has single-handedly revolutionised the way we shop. The online app lets us sell and buy people’s preloved garments from the comfort of our home, and more often than not, at half the retail price; a small saviour for the planet and our wallets. Depop has paved the way to success for many young entrepreneurs. Kids are cashing in on thousands a month for their styled up preloved pieces. The question is: are these trendy Gen Zs picking up one of a kind vintage pieces and connecting them with magpie eyed second-hand shopper, or is a crisp and clean picture combined with upwards of a thousand followers all you need to hike up the price on one of grandma’s old sweaters?
Depop sprung to our screens nine years ago. At the time it was the personal project of it’s CEO, Simon Beckerman, to accompany his magazine PIG. According to Depop’s website, the app began its life as a humble social networking platform, “where PIG’s readers could buy items featured in the magazine.” Eventually, Beckerman decided to remodel the app, creating an online marketplace for both buying and selling. This is how the Depop we know and love today was born. Depop has accumulated over ten million users since its beginnings, a statistic the company evidently takes pride in as their online tagline enthusiastically encourages us to “join 10 million+ users to buy, sell, discover and explore”.
Depop functions as an online community of sellers, where individuals can list products that are then browsed through and bought by consumers. A built-in chat function gives more control to both sides and has developed a sense of community amongst those that use the app frequently. The app functions through PayPal, meaning both buyers and sellers have a level of protection. Alongside this, a five-star review system that leaves room for personal comments and input allows people to gauge the reliability of those they are buying from, or selling to. Depop itself takes a 10% cut from each sale, with subsequent PayPal fees following. This means a substantial percentage of the profit is lost to internal and external businesses. The question is, what is it that makes Depop so popular if it's not a lucrative 100% guarantee of the profits?
Compared to older websites, such as eBay and Gumtree, Depop remains the most popular and influential for clothing sales due to its ease of use. It functions much like all other social media apps. This is particularly handy seeing as according to statistics from DMR: 90% of Depop users are under 26. This means the predominant clientele for the app is Generation Z, and thus are likely to be overly familiar with how these popular mainstream apps are run. Beckerman himself stated in an interview for Artefact Magazine, “eBay is complicated, long and if you want to sell something for £5 it just doesn’t work”. Bearing this in mind, Beckerman and his team have designed their app to be quite the opposite of eBay: it’s quick and easy to use, mobile (quite literally), and fast-paced.
Since its humble beginnings, almost ten years ago, Depop has expanded to be our one-stop-shop for everything style-related. Whether its inspiration from adored influencers, outfit ideas for when your wardrobe is appearing a little lacklustre, a strive to be more sustainable, a one of a kind piece to set you apart and make you stand out, or simply an old retail range that's either sold out or priced a little over your budget. Depop appears to have it all just a tap and a swipe away.
Lots of teens and twenty-somethings are making it big on Depop. Style savvy youngsters are collecting, curating and creating personal online stores filled to the brim with different and diverse clothing and accessories. Most of those who are making the big bucks have several thousand followers and an array of high-quality and well-edited photographs. It’s debatable whether these two things are all you need to make it big on Depop and get your goods selling at three times their actual value. Through my personal use of Depop, I’ve come across stunning second-hand pieces, certificated designer bags and beautifully crafted jewellery;I've also come across my fair share of that which mirrors the rails of my local Oxfam. I’m not disparaging alternative tastes in style or aesthetics, but rather the hefty price tags that accompany these pieces. I’m asking, is a large following and an array of crisp and clean photographs all the tools you need to pass off a £1.50 Oxfam sweater as a £50 one of a kind vintage piece? There's such a thing as granny chic, and there's quite literally Grandma’s worn-out wardrobe.
There’s no denying Depop is a blessing for those of us who love clothes and fashion but are becoming increasingly more reluctant to indulge in fast fashion culture. Unfortunately, Depop’s nature of client control may have allowed for a few of those that don’t value the companies “independent creative entrepreneurship” ethos, nor its strive to help encourage sustainable fashion. These being seller accounts which ship bulk loads of cheaply made garments from China via sites like eBay, paying inexplicably low prices, only to list them on Depop at quadruple what they initially paid for. It’s not hard to uncover these culprits, a simple eBay search will bring up dozens of listings for things such as, ‘black mesh top’, of which the identical piece can be discovered on a popular Depop profile for an inflated price, most likely in an array of sizes and a description that states ‘allow 2-4 weeks shipping’; a product evidently being sourced a little further afield than the English counties.
Depop is an app that has defined the aesthetics of our generation, and revolutionised the way we shop. Predominantly, Depop is a platform brimming with young, enthusiastic and bright-minded youth; using modern technology to build something for themselves that anticipates mass cultural and environmental change. It suggests an exciting and refreshing direction as to where fashion culture is heading, and what this means for our existing consumer culture. Though immoral salesmanship seems antithetical to Depop’s code of ethics there are, like most web-based platforms, a minority of trolls and misusers. These selective individuals have no desire to build a community that’s reflective of a better, more equal and ethical consumer culture. Instead, they wish to build an empire of their own, with no remorse for what or who they abuse whilst doing so. Depop may not be the patron-saint of shopping it initially seemed to be, but it does provide us with the tools to advance and control how we shop in a way that wasn’t available to the generations before us. We can utilise Depop’s functionality to fight the good fight; saving our planet and keeping the big brands and acquisitive individuals at bay.
Article Written By: Jasmine Smith
Comments