If you’ve been knocking around social media during the past few months you may well have seen Depop mentioned and thought the names of modern bands had finally gone from strange to truly err…crap. But fear ye not Depop is not the spawn of the latest reality TV music competition but rather a method for you to make and save money.

What is Depop?

How best to describe Depop?
Hmmm let’s go with Instagram meets eBay with a healthy splash of jumble sale.
Got the idea? Good.
You can download the app for Apple here and on Google Play here and then sell or buy straight from inside the app, all you need is a smartphone and a method of payment – Paypal is the norm although debit and credit cards are accepted.

How to make money with Depop
Sell your no longer worn clothes, shoes and accessories and bits and bobs (home decor and books seem popular but clothes are dominating the site at the moment) to make some money.
The key in selling your garment is to make sure the photo is a good one – not one grabbed from the internet unless you own the picture. Ideally your photo should be taken in daylight, laid out nicely, with a simple background and with someone wearing the piece. Photos taken using flash, filters, placed into collages or messily arranged don’t fair as well. It’s worth having a scroll through the ‘Explore’ page to see which kinds of images are most popular so you can get a feel for the site.

To start listing an item simply tap the “sell” button and take a picture or choose from your library.
Then add your description (make it clear and accurate including colour, size, fabric, condition etc.) and price then choose from the delivery options. Sync up your Paypal account and finally choose if you want to share your item on your social media accounts before hitting publish.

Your price is a set price and if someone hits the ‘buy’ button that is the price they will pay and they don’t even need to communicate with you. Buyers can however private message you to ask if you are willing to haggle. You don’t have to, if you don’t want to and a polite ‘no thank you’ should be all that is needed however haggling does work if an item isn’t shifting. When negotiating your price it is common practice to disable instant payment so someone doesn’t nip in a snap up the piece whilst private messages go back and forth.

Depop charge 10% of the successful sale price (although for August there are no sales fees!) but listing an item is free, so if your item doesn’t sell you don’t have to pay a penny. On top of the Depop sales charge you must also factor in the Paypal charge. Depop’s example is thus:

• You sell an item for £40
• The Depop fee would be £4
• PayPal will charge a small fee of about £1.60
• You keep £34.40

How to save money with Depop
Buy clothes at a knocked down price or hunt for designer pieces without paying the original price. Be warned, prices tend not to be bootsale prices, especially for vintage pieces but there are some great bargains to be had and I’ve recently picked up a few nice winter bits and bobs at really great prices.

Once you’re inside the app you can scroll through photographs much like Instagram, you can also follow profiles when you find a person who has a style you admire.
Below each photograph you should find a description of the piece along with a price (if you press the price you will also see delivery options) and the options to ‘like’ ‘comment’ or ‘buy’ the piece. To the side you’ll also find a ‘more’ button which allows you bookmark or share the item or to private message the seller. Unlike eBay you don’t bid on items in an auction style set up, instead the seller sets a price and whilst some sellers are fairly rigid in their pricing you are able to haggle via private messaging but play fair and keep to the community spirit by not pushing your luck nor angering the seller with persistent reduction requests if they have already said no.

If you see an item you’re sure you want to buy simply hit the ‘buy’ button and it all flows pretty easily from there. However if you want to ask a few questions it’s worth private messaging the seller – I did this recently and they kindly measured a piece I was unsure of.

Have you used Depop? What do you think so far?

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