DEPOP

A SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS ON THE APP FOR

YOUNG CREATIVES TRYING TO CHANGE THE
CONCEPT OF FASHION

By Ella Ho Ching
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A brief history......................................................................2
SWOT..............................................................................3-6
Competitors.........................................................................7
Market share.......................................................................7
Message, themes, slogans.................................................8
Media channels..................................................................9
Probem statement............................................................10
Target audiences.........................................................11-12
Goal..................................................................................13
Objective...........................................................................14
Strategies.....................................................................14-18
Tactics.........................................................................19-20
Evaluation........................................................................21
Proposal..........................................................................22
Recommendations.....................................................23-25
Sources...........................................................................26
A BRIEF HISTORY
A BRIEF HISTORY
Depop is a buying and selling app that allows its users to
sell/buy clothes, shoes and accessories straight from their
phone through the app. Depop was founded in 2011 by
Simon Beckerman, co-founder of PIG magazine and
RETROSUPERFUTURE sunglasses. The app originated
as a social media network where PIG magazine’s
community could buy featured items.. But as Beckerman
was adding the selling feature to Depop, he decided to
make the app it’s own project and re-envisioned it as
“global marketplace.” While the app was founded nine
years ago, the app has recently gained popularity in the
past two years with 350,000-450,000 active users per day.

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SWOT SWOT SWOT SWO

Depop possesses strength in how they market to

their target audience. The company specifically
targets Generation Z and Millennials with teens
and young adults ranging from 16-24 years of age.

Example: Studies show that Generation Z and Millennials turn to astrology for
alternative answers due to stress. Depop is taking advantage of this trend in
how they market toward their target audience on their social media.

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SWOT SWOT SWOT SWO

While Depop does attract a certain type of

Millennial or Generation Z, their marketing hardly
allows for Depop to expand its target audience.
Depop's culture encourages creativity and oddity
which is a niche for a select group of young adults
and teens. Due to this, they lose potential young
users to their competitors, like Poshmark, who
simply want to sell clothes out of trend.
Furthermore, Depop puts a pressure on sellers on
making their product posts creative themselves to
the point where the more creative it is, the more
promotion from the app it will receive. Through
this, Depop does not leave room for sellers who
are simply there to sell their items, not partake in
the Depop culture.
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 Weaknesses example: Depop vs. Poshmark
These two screenshots provided by both companies for media
use exhbits the different products sold on both apps and how
they are targeting different markets.

Depop Poshmark
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SWOT SWOT SWOT SWO

While Depop started in Europe, they are starting to

have a presence in the United States. Depop also
right now can only be fully used as an app, if they
expand their operation to a fully-functioning
website where users are able to have the same in-
app features, that would help their growth
exponentially and would still maintain its social
network feel Depop currently possesses.

As mentioned before, if Depop sticks with

appealing to the niche audience within the younger
generation, they will eventually lose users to their
competitors while also not allowing room for them
to expand their audience. Also, Depop’s growth
can be due to the use of the app being a “trend."

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COMPETITORS
Poshmark and Etsy are Depop's two
main competitors. While they both
don’t have the social media aspect
Depop possesses, their target
audiences are broader and diverse.

MARKET SHARE
Due to Depop being relatively new in
popularity, Depop has a very small share in
the market. However, while Depop was
valued at $40 million, CEO Maria
Raga predict their revenue will triple in the
next few years. Furthermore, the overall
industry is predicted to have 10% of the
retail market in the next five years (Lunden,
2019).

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MESSAGES
THEMES
SLOGANS

Depop’s overall theme is to encourage

creativity and uniqueness through the
fashion exhibited on their app in order to
create a fashion revolution. The slogans
above show this and also define the overall
Depop culture.

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MEDIA CHANNELS
MEDIA CHANNELS
Other than the actual DEPOP app, DEPOP utilizes
Instagram, Twitter and Facebook for their media
channels. They are their most active on Instagram
and Twitter, and less on Facebook. Their
Instagram has 543,000 followers averaging 3,000
likes per post. Their Twitter has 160,600 followers
with a much lower rate of engagement with an
average of seven likes and one retweet per tweet.
DEPOP uses their Facebook page the least with
around 60,000 people liking/following their page
with an average of 2 likes per post and posting
content every few days.

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PROBLEM
STATEMENT
DEPOP is currently just a trend. In order to
sustain their audience, sales and usage,
DEPOP must broaden their target audience
from “creative Millennials and Generation Z’s”
to just “Millennials and Generation Z”

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TARGET AUDIENCES
TARGET AUDIENCES

80% of DEPOP’s active users are under the

age of 25 with 70% of its users being female
(Lunden, 2019).

Depop internally is just as diverse as their target audience

is. They hire creatives who have come from different
backgrounds such as past DJs, photographers and
activists. While they are looking for people who obviously
have the qualifications for the job they are applying for,
they are also searching for their inner artists within them.
They want people who share the same passion for
creativity as their users (buyers and sellers) do. They
want people internally to also participate in the Depop
community and understand it.
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TARGET AUDIENCES
TARGET AUDIENCES

Depop draws in their external audience by

promoting top sellers on Depop throughout their
social media platforms. They also just promote
certain items that “fit” the Depop culture regardless
of the prominence of the seller. Depop does this in
order to keep the creative culture alive and to
inspire other users to create content that
showcases their creativity as well. Depop is also in
the process of recruiting college campus
ambassadors in order to promote the app and it’s
culture to students. Furthermore, sellers who are
“Depop famous” essentially operate as influencers
on Instagram by simply promoting their Depop
shops and the culture itself.

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 GOAL
To set themselves apart and establish
a credible reputation by promoting their
three pillars: sustainability,
entrepreneurship, community.

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OBJECTIVE
OBJECTIVE
To create transparent social media
campaigns that promote how Depop
enforces their three pillars of operation
by January 2021.

STRATEGIES
STRATEGIES
Depop utilizes their social media accounts to
constantly remind their audience that they have
not strayed from their intended motives of
operation, in a way that Depop users relate to
and that potential users can understand.
Depop thoroughly takes advantage of PESO
through social media

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STRATEGIES
STRATEGIES
Depop uses the feature on Instagram to have sponsored ads
appear on people’s feeds as their scrolling. The users that are
exposed to these ads are people who are a part of their
audience or typically would be based on their user history. The
ads are posts Depop already has up on their account, but paid
to promote it to a wider audience. The posts they use are
typically ones that promote their effort in creating a more
sustainable fashion industry or promote Depop influencers.

Depop influencers promote their Depop shops on their other

social media accounts (mostly Instagram) to attract them to
their product, which ultimately leads these users to use Depop
more often. Influcencers exemplify all three of their pillars of
operation by building their own community, practicing
sustainability and pursuing entrepreneurship through the
Depop app.

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Earned Media Example: Depop influencer, IGirl

Makes own jewelry to sell

and creates highly sought
“IGirl bundles” monthly
where clothes are found at
resale shops.

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STRATEGIES
STRATEGIES

Many fashion influencers sell their clothes on Depop that they

were paid to wear once in a post or clothes that are out of
trend. These influencers are separate from Depop influencers
and use Depop as a resale platform. Through having different
influencers promote their shops, they have the same effect as
Depop influencers in attracting customers to their shops who
initially start using Depop more frequently.

Depop maintains a blog linked on their website that their

internal writers/producers publish to. This blog has an array of
mediums, mostly videos, that promote Depop influencers and
events. Most of these videos are also found on their social
media platforms.

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Shared Media Example: Fashion influencer,
Keaton Milburn

Has a Depop to sell clothes and

promotes shop on her Youtube
channel.

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TACTICS
TACTICS

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TACTICS
TACTICS

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EVALUATION
EVALUATION
According to Depop’s mission statement of “empowering the next
generation to transform fashion,” its definition of success is based
on qualitative qualities. Tangible success to Depop is playing a part
in stopping fast fashion by promoting sustainability in what is sold
on its app by Gen-Z and Millennials all in a way that encourages
creativity and fosters community. Within this, Depop’s prosperity
depends on success stories coming from shop owners who turned
selling on Depop into their career while using sustainable products,
utilizing creative marketing skills and eventually developed a small
community of their own through their shop (followers). Depop’s
qualitative definition of success relates directly to GOST because
its root goal that drives the entirety of the company is found within
the mission statement. While success to Depop looks like things
that are qualitative and anecdotal, every business depends on
numbers to ultimately be successful. Depop wants to grow
quantitatively through increasing the number of users globally, thus
making more money to put toward its qualitative goals. – In
essence, it wants two types of ROI: return on influence and return
on investment.

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 PROPOSAL
To change Depop's goal to something
more specific. I think Depop should
have set a tangible goal of broadening
their target audience from “creative”
Gen Z’s and Millennials to just those
general generations without the
construct of creativity.

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RECOMENDATIONS
RECOMENDATIONS
To achieve modified goal, I think Depop should also
promote Depop shop owners like Maggie Kallery: a regular
person who started selling old and thrifted clothes on the
app much like every new user, however her business
skyrocketed and uses the app as her main form of income.

**NOT an influencer of any sort

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RECOMENDATIONS
RECOMENDATIONS
I would pay fashion influencers to be a part
of a partnership with Depop to promote the
Depop app through recommending their
own shop, other shops they shop from, and
in-trend items they have bought off the app.
Through actively seeking partnerships with
fashion influencers who appeal to the more
general audiences of Gen Z and Millennials,
I feel like this would cause their followers to
use the Depop app and turn to Depop for
their fashion needs.

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RECOMENDATIONS
RECOMENDATIONS

I chose Line Item for Depop because I feel like

their GOST is unorganized and do not coordinate
well with each other due to a generalized goal. In
order to avoid Depop’s team from straying too far
from their revised goal in how they execute their
rollout, I think a Line Item budget will keep them
in check and help them think through their ideas
more thoroughly. a strict budget where everything
is approved individually and where funds are
difficult to reallocate will help Depop get on track
to a more tangible success in order to reach their
overall broad goal they started with.

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OURCES SOURCESSOU
Bean-Mellinger, B. (2019, February 5). Advantages & Disadvantages of a Line-Item Budget.
Retrieved fromhttps://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-disadvantages-lineitem-budget-
25461.html

Careers at Depop. (n.d.). Retrieved April 8, 2020, from https://boards.greenhouse.io/depop

Chekfa, S. (2018, January 23). Depop Concept: Empowering the User to Define Their Own Exploration. Retrieved from
https://uxdesign.cc/depop-concept-empowering-the-user-to-define-their-own-exploration-2368fd45e25e

Depop Blog Home. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://blog.depop.com/

Depop Presents | @guccig11: Rag house to riches. (2020, February 27). Retrieved from
https://blog.depop.com/series/depop-presents?q=depop-presents-guccig11-rag-house-to-riches

June 8–9 2019 >> 428 Broadway >> New York. (n.d.). Retrieved April 8, 2020, from https://depop.live/

Kallery, M. (n.d.). Maggie Kallery's Shop. Retrieved from https://www.depop.com/maggiekallery/

Lunden, I. (2019, June 7). Depop, a social app targeting millennial and Gen Z shoppers, bags $62M,
passes 13M users. Retrieved February 12, 2020, from https://techcrunch.com/2019/06/06/depop-a-social-app-targeting-millennial-and-
gen-z-shoppers-bags-62m-passes-13m-users/

McFadden, B. (n.d.). iGirl (@igirl) • Instagram photos and videos. Retrieved from
https://www.instagram.com/igirl/?hl=en

Milburn, K. (n.d.). keaton milburn (@kkeeaattoonn) • Instagram photos and videos. Retrieved from
https://www.instagram.com/kkeeaattoonn/?hl=en

Organize with me: new year, new closet! | Keaton Milburn. (2019). Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V31Xfzr770I

Remsen, N. (2017, March 2). How the clothes-selling platform Depop is creating young entrepreneurs.
Retrieved February 12, 2020, from
https://www.ft.com/content/67de4da6-fed4-11e6-8d8e-a5e3738f9ae4

Satenstein, L. (2017, May 25). Is This College Drop-Out Turned Tumblr Queen the Next NastyGal?
Retrieved from
https://www.vogue.com/article/college-drop-out-making-a-living-on-depop

The Styled By iGirl Bod Bundle You'll receive a... (2020, April 26). Retrieved April 24, 2020, from
https://www.depop.com/products/internetgirl-available-tomo-at-2-pm/

Why Gen Z are bringing back astrology. (2019, October 31). Retrieved from
https://www.icoolkid.com/article/why-gen-z-are-bringing-back-astrology

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