Courtesy of Christie's Closet
Depop shops, like Christie's Closet (pictured above), are turning into full-time gigs for Gen Z.
- Depop is a social shopping app where users buy and sell secondhand clothing and accessories.
- Based in London with plans to expand its US presence, Depop has minted many a Gen Z entrepreneur.
- Two Depop sellers with more than 130,000 followers told Business Insider how they turned their Depop shops from side hustles to full-time businesses.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Instagram and eBay . . . meet Depop.
The social shopping app combines an e-commerce marketplace with a photo-grid aesthetic that enables users to buy and sell secondhand clothing and accessories.
Launched in Milan in 2011 and now based in London, the app has gained 13 million users in 147 countries around the world, Rachel Swidenbank, vice president of marketplace at Depop, previously told Business Insider's Mary Hanbury.
The app has gained a particularly strong foothold among Gen Z - according to Swidenbank, 90% of Depop's users are under the age of 26. "This company is for the next generation," she said. The company's mission is to empower them to disrupt the fashion industry and give them the chance to become entrepreneurs.
In mid-2019, the company raised $62 million, which it plans to use to expand in the US and triple its user base in the country. Depop CEO Maria Raga told Hanbury Depops' data shows that US teens are more entrepreneurially minded than their UK peers, who are already cashing in big on the app.
Depop sellers can pull in as much as $300,000 a year and have been able to buy houses and cars before they've even reached college age, Swidenbank said. Depop takes a cut of this, making 10% on each transaction.
Business Insider spoke to two Depop sellers about how they grew the shops that began as side hustles. While both remained tight-lipped on specific earnings, they're now running their shops full-time and have cultivated more than 130,000 followers.
Here's how they turned their Depop shops into full-fledged businesses, and their advice on how you can achieve the same.
