With over 30 million users, the 2011-launched fashion app, Depop, is now a household name. As a platform to buy and sell second-hand items, and a thriving community for small businesses to make a turnaround, the ethical controversies of Depop appear to be slim to none. When compared with high street giants such as Primark, or other online platforms like Shein, which are notorious for their cheap prices as a result of low quality garments being produced in sweatshops, Depop could be a 21st century solution to our moral and societal dilemmas. In this new world of sustainability goals, climate change awareness, boycotting fast fashion and advocating for brands to adhere to fair working conditions, the principles of Depop may seem harmless at first glance. What could possibly be wrong with an app that offers alternatives to the practices that are currently contributing over 300,000 tonnes of clothing to landfill in the UK every year? (Ellson, 2018)
Every year, the average person living in Britain throws away eight items of clothing, meaning that each household will bin enough garments to total a value of almost £500 (Ellson, 2018). This epidemic is ongoing and will only worsen over time. While it is possible for most items to be sold, saved for future use or given away to charity shops and friends, sometimes it seems the simpler option to dispose of them to landfill. This practice is inherently damaging to the environment, adding to the mountains of non-recyclable waste produced every day without much room to accommodate it. In the midst of this global predicament, sites such as Shopify, Vinted and the most famous Depop have come to the rescue. Instead of tossing out the pair of jeans you worry ‘just don’t suit you as they used to’, or dumping the puffer jacket that’s ‘only appropriate for that long-gone winter’,you could ease your conscience — and wallet — by turning to reselling.
Depop is a mobile app that offers users the chance to create posts to sell their clothing. With flexible options to set your price and postage options, and the ability to follow other users and haggle, it is a platform with a reasonable amount of freedom. Buyers are protected under Depop’s own Buyer Protection policy, with the promise of a full refund if your item doesn’t arrive or appears largely different to how it was described, as long as your account holds a good reputation (Depop, n.d.). Commonly, purchases are made through PayPal, which itself offers another layer of protection. Sellers are also protected with a similar Seller Protection policy. Users are encouraged to exchange messages before agreeing to a sale so that the terms are agreed by both parties, then the seller is in charge of packaging up and sending away their parcel to the receiver’s address. It is a legitimate marketplace to feel safe in the practice of buying or selling whatever you care to, within reason.
It would be an understatement to declare that the social shopping app is doing well for itself. This year, Etsy declared it was buying Depop for $1.625 billion in an attempt to broaden its target audience into the Gen Z population (Hanbury, 2021). It is understandable that with 90% of Depop’s users being under 26, much of the demographic would be blissfully oblivious to the hardships the company is indirectly helping to contribute to.
If you were to step foot in a charity shop today, you might notice prices have inflated rather dramatically in the past few years. Where you were typically able to get entire outfits for the price of one New Look dress before, it is now extremely unusual to find a pair of used Levi’s for under £20. Looking to Depop, they could be twice that price. The purpose of a charity shop is to offer affordable clothing options to poorer people and families that don’t have the money for brand new upmarket attire — and for the proceeds to go towards a good cause. So what factors have driven the prices up recently to a point where many may feel obligated to turn away… and back to the cheap alternatives like Primark? The culprits to blame are many of the trendy Depop resellers. Finding originally inexpensive garments in charity shops and selling them on for multiple times the price to make a profit is rooted in the very fundamentals of capitalism — a great idea for a business owner trying to make a living, even at the potential expense of others. A huge surge in demand means increased prices. There are therefore fewer options for poorer families in need, which is especially common when products are bought in bulk.
Furthermore, while it might be trendy to wear thrifted clothes, or brag that you got your statement jewellery piece from a cheap aesthetically-pleasing Depop name, lower class people have historically faced much more ridicule for their choice in clothing brands, being seen and judged according to how much they looked to have spent on an outfit. But in fact, it is more likely that those who cannot often afford to buy more clothes would cherish each item they own and even pass things down to others in their families when they have outgrown them, and therefore contribute less to landfill. By even a small group of resellers taking away what might be many people’s only options in charity shops, we see once again the cycle of waste — a forced return to investing in low quality garments made in sweatshops, which are likely to fall apart much quicker and therefore be thrown away.
It is a difficult situation one is faced with; pitch your morals in favour of protecting the environment, or with those living in poverty? A balanced in-between would be the takeaway, by investing in quality, ethically-sourced pieces you would deem personally worth paying for and keeping, and when the time is right, making the choice between donating or reselling at an appropriate and respectful price.
Edited by Charlotte Lewis (Editor-in-Chief)
Figure 1: Image from article ‘The Dark Side of Depop’, Business of Fashion.
References
Depop (n.d.). Buyer Protection [online]. Available at: https://depophelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360001827248-Buyer-Protection [Accessed 25 October 2021].
Ellson, A. (2018). ‘Clothes worth £12.5bn are thrown in bin’, The Times [online]. Available at: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/clothes-worth-12-5bn-are-thrown-in-bin-b8rqfrcg2 [Accessed 25 October 2021].
Hanbury, M. (2021). ‘Etsy plans to spend $1.6 billion buying Depop, a social shopping app that’s helping teens get rich. Some Depop sellers pull in $300,000 a year — here’s how to make money on it’, Business Insider [online]. Available at: https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-make-money-selling-clothes-depop-2019-5?amp [Accessed 25 October 2021].
Stott, M. (2021). ‘Is Depop Problematic?’, Palatinate [online]. Available at: https://www.palatinate.org.uk/is-depop-problematic/ [Accessed 25 October 2021].
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