How to Depop: My experience and tips
How To Depop : My Experience and Tips
disclaimer: I haven’t opened a *new* depop account in ages so I’m not sure of the new rules or policies, but it looks the same to me.
I’ve been on Depop since 2014 and I’ve sold more than 100 items including shoes, home decor, gaming consoles, posters, jackets, records and more. I want you guys to trust me a bit, so I will upload proof from my actual depop accounts.Please pin these on your pinterest to share the love, thank you sweeties!
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I have other accounts on Depop that have helped me sell different kind of items other than clothes. These are some things I’ve learned from managing these accounts.
How To Depop : The Basics
1. Upload a shop policy post
People can be petty, especially if there’s money involved. It’s better to be safe than sorry, so I suggest you upload a policy post first. Here are my policies for my personal account and clothing line account, yours can be different but these worked for me:
2. Post Tracking proof
I think one of the reasons I never got scammed was because I always posted packaging proof on my depop page for EVERYONE to see and tagged/messaged the buyer. You can even go as far as recording yourself dropping it off at the post office blue box. I really recommend doing that at the start, just cover the users address and name for privacy. OR you can easily just post that you have their tracking number and will message them.
Now I just save tracking receipts, post tracking on paypal and specify on my policies that tracking will be posted on Paypal. This way I don’t have to spend much time posting tracking, messaging a customer and doing the most because my policies say to “expect tracking posted on Paypal”. This will ensure you getting positive reviews left and right!
This makes selling easier and faster for yourselves and more protection for both sellers and buyers
3. Save your receipts!
I’ve seen sellers upload a post about a past buyer opening a paypal claim against them, months or even a year after the purchase was made. Even if that buyer gave 5 stars, they will still try to open a claim and get their money back. When depop can’t help you with a transaction, Paypal will later need to step in and they ask for your tracking receipts, messages and anything you have as proof in order for you to win a case. I have a shoe box full of usps tracking receipts in case someone wants to bring a purchase back from the grave and fight me.
How To Depop : Selling
1. Get a Bank and a Paypal account.
Depop deactivates you for making negotiations to get payment in a different method where you’re not paying the fees. (i.e, telling someone to pay you with paypal friends and family option or any other method that’s not through depop). Get these two set up and you’re good to go! And NO I do not recommend trying Friends and Family because people might scam you. Even if you sell something, I feel like Depop will find out and kick you off the app.2. Download the Paypal app and set up your account.
Why download the app? It’s easier to transfer your money to your bank account this way and you get notified asap when you make a sale. Make sure you also have your bank account connected to your Paypal so you’re able to transfer the money quickly! For me, it’s free to transfer and it only takes 1 business day to complete.
3. Make a great posts with clear descriptions
Make a clear description of the item, new or used, brand etc. and post clear pictures. If you don’t, you will be bombarded with questions, or you just won’t get any interested buyers at all because you will seem sketchy. Great posts mean take good pictures. Try to model in them or get a nice background. Make it like an instagram account where you want to show off the items you have.How To Depop : Shipping
1. Charge your buyers correctly
There is a paypal fee, depop fee and you have to remember the shipping fee you have to charge your buyer. When I sell something, I charge a total of $5+ for shipping and fees since what I normally sell is small and lightweight. If your item is bigger like shoes or a jacket, the price of shipping will obviously be higher, like $9 and up.2. Choose the best shipping option
Depop offers two options; label or ship it yourself. The label option is just like poshmark’s service where you have to print a label, stick it to your package and leave it with your shipping carrier. It is incredibly easy to do it that way. The reason I choose to ship my own packages is because depop’s labeling service sucks. I contacted depop when something went wrong with their service and they basically told me that their label is correct and I was wrong, so I lost a sale due to their new owners. It’s easier to just ship yourself especially if you don’t have access to a printer or you don’t want to deal with Depop’s incompetent service.3. Packaging and shipping with U.S.P.S
Make sure your package is clean, neat and secure! You can be charged more for having duct tape or an unsecure package. FedEx and UPS will usually be more expensive. Ship with your government’s shipping service and ask for First class shipping or see the cheapest option for the size and weight of your package.
How To Depop : Gain Followers
1. Take good photos in natural lighting
I suggest taking good pictures for the most part. If you’re not selling what people want, like brand new with tags items or big brands, then you might have to put some effort into selling your clothes. Taking good pictures with natural lighting is what made me gain followers fast.2. Model in your clothes
If you can find cute images of the item online, that will work just as well. This really makes your page look nice and legitimate and will help you gain followers. When I would model in my clothes, I would usually get featured on the explore page.3. Being active on the app
This really helped me gain followers as well. Gaining mutuals will also help you become a more trusted seller on the app.
What sold for me:
- Basically, you want to sell useful items. If they’re not useful, maybe they’re cute, pastel or something of the like. If they’re not name brand, at least they’re new or still have the tags. The less someone wants something, the more effort you have to put in to sell it.
- I know I have to model some things that are not as cute, but sometimes it looks better worn. Try modeling something to get more exposure!
- If you can’t do any of the above, I recommend doing some editing. For the shorts pictured above, I took off the background and put something cute instead.
- Keep updating the item. Doing this brings it back to the top of your page and on top of search lists. Every once in a while I like to update my most popular items that haven’t sold and I usually get some likes from it.
Thanks for reading How To Depop: My Experience and Tips!
If you need any more help or tips just comment below. I will probably make an updated depop post in the future if I get enough questions about it. Thanks for reading!
disclaimer: my depop accounts were deleted because of annoying sellers thinking I was selling fake Gucci (it wasn’t fake we literally went to the Gucci store and I included the packaging as well), also depop is complete shit now with how they deal with their sellers. The fees are so high and you honestly will do much better selling on instagram, offer up, mercari and posh.
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Read more: 2020 life update | The Depop Fashion Aesthetic | Lifehacks to survive your twenties
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Hi, I’m new to selling on Depop and can’t seem to find an answer to my question. When a buyer purchases your item(s), do you receive the money first or after shipping or delivery? I had planned to use the money from the sell to pay for shipping.
Hello Eve!
Im not sure how the set up process is today, ive been on depop for a while now so when i started on it you had to have paypal. So when paypal is connected the money is in your account automatically when they purchase. You should charge the buyer the shipping too in the post.
Hi! On the shipping label is your address shown? And is the buyers address shown as well? Will the buyer and seller know each others addresses?
Yes. You can try putting maybe a friend’s name if you don’t want to share your address.
But if you ship with usps, they tell you you need to add a return address in case noone accepts the package, it needs to be returned somewhere.
Hi! I know this is an old post, but it was super helpful! I was just wondering, when you say “usps receipts” are you referencing the receipts you get when you stand in line and drop off the package? Or were these receipts for associated with the shipping label? Thanks!
yes the ones after u ship and the person tells you “there’s your tracking info” etc. 🙂
is it better to ship on your own? Like is depop shipping bad?
Also do you know if you can transfer the money to your bank account before shipping the item?
for me my money can transfer whenever i want to with paypal.
and i like doing my own shipping because i think there is an extra hidden feed using depop service. i only used depop label ONCE and they gave me the wrong size and they didnt help me fix it so i had to pay out of my pocket, so no i do not recommend it.
Hi! I’m a relatively new seller on Depop that just moved and also – I’m making bank changes to my Paypal, and say my old bank account was where my payments from Depop was going to, is there a way to figure out if new payments will be going to one of the bank accounts I still have on my paypal or will it be going to the old bank account that I have?
I sent Depop a message through their . . .service, question tab. . .But I thought – maybe you’ll have some experience in this.
These are super simple changes, and I could’ve avoided all of this if I had just changed the shipping address information on my listing prior to anyone buying anything, but since Covid-19 I haven’t seen much activity on my store, and because I’ve moved I haven’t been able to set up the new listings I’ve been planning to make.
But – well, sometimes things just happen, and I’m trying to get these things changed within 3-5 days so that the customer will be able to re-purchase the item they wanted without too much delay.
im not so familiar with how all that works! BUT i am so certain that whatever money you make selling on depop, the money WILL STAY in your paypal account. You have to transfer your money to your bank from paypal, at least that’s how I have mine set up. The money I want to transfer to my account I transfer it manually. So you shouldn’t worry about which account it will go to. Once you set up your new bank just transfer your balance to that one and delete the old bank if you don’t use it anymore.
Hope that helps!
Hello, how do you do your own shipping?
Hello, I was wondering how you do your own shipping?
When you edit your post and go down to shipping and choose “my own shipping” thats where you price shipping However you like or you can choose free shipping 😉
Is there a way to get rid of depop limited?.. I sold an item that costed $8 and $6.50 shipping and I got $.70 because of depop limited 😭
wth is that lol is that shipping with depop?
im sorry idk what that is but next time if you’re gonna ship something just make the total price how much you want + the shipping and fee price and explain in the description ” SHIPPING AND FEE INCLUDED IN PRICE” cuz i read that depop takes off a fee on your shipping too!
so i just include the whole cost of ship+fee and how much profit i want (usually i want at least $5-10) and put FREE SHIPPING. hope that helps
Hi I just opened shop last night and already have two sales. Unfortunately as a beginner I chose the “my own shipping” option for the two items I sold and am now having difficulties trying to figure out how to access and print my own shipping label! I know that with the depop shipping option, they straight up email you the shipping label, but since I didn’t choose that option I cant figure out how to print my own shipping label! Please help me lol!
Oh shoot! Thats a great question!! Theres a link on usps and paypal.. you can print your own label through there.
Hi i just opened a new shop on Depop and I’m trying to figure out the how the shipping will work if I do the Depop shipping method. If I am selling a sweater for example that is priced at $50, would I put in the description it is “$50 plus $xx for shipping” or do I just put $50, and the 10% fee they take includes shipping? Or is that 10% fee flat, and you still include shipping ?
Depop shipping method you have to make sure you are choosing buyer pays. Or else you’re paying for it. And you dont have to include that in the description the buyer will see what they have to pay for. You should charge more than $50 if you want to make a profit of $50. The shipping should be paid by the buyer if you choose that option. So just include the fee and price the item more so you dont end up paying the fee.
Your price should be $50+ put the amount that will cover the fee. That fee you must
If the person picks up the item does depop still take a fee? No shipping involved at all.
I want to know if I should even bother using this site. I thought it was like Varage Sale.
No u wont need to pay a fee just mark the item as sold once u sell it in person