Gen Z designers made it big on Depop. Now they are graduating.
Depop, a social shopping app, has been a springboard for many young designers during the pandemic. Some are now taking their success elsewhere.
When Shirley Tang started selling handmade clothing in 2020, she knew exactly where to do it online: Depop, a state-of-the-art social shopping application.
Ms. Tang, 22, started offering $100 to $200 in hand-draped knitwear and woven tops and skirts at her Depop store, where her subscribers grew to 24,000. Customers, mostly her age , exchanged messages and comments on the app about his designs as his shop caught the eye of Grammy-winning magazines and artists, including SZA and Kali Uchis. Her business surged.
But this year, Ms. Tang began to focus on selling her clothing brand, ORIENS, exclusively through her website. Depop's popularity has led her to make the same items over and over again, she said, creatively hugging her. And she was tired of the app charging a 10% commission on each item sold.
"I wanted this independent establishment, even if it meant losing some new people who were going to find my pieces organically on Depop," said Ms. Tang, an aspiring student at Parsons School of Design. "For me, it was a worthy sacrifice."
The onset of the pandemic led Depop to become a springboard for hundreds of millennial and gen Z creators , including the Fancì Club, whose corsets have been worn by celebrities such as Olivia Rodrigo, and Gogo Graham, whose creations have paraded on the catwalks at New York Fashion Week. With its Instagram-like interface, through which people can upload and caption photos, follow and message each other, and discover curated items, Depop has become a go-to fashion marketplace among teen shoppers. and 20s.
But, like other online shopping businesses that have boomed in the past couple of years, Depop now faces to the downsides of its pandemic-fueled success. Dozens of creators he helped establish, like Ms. Tang, have started transferring the brands they created through the app to other platforms like Instagram and TikTok, or are leaving the app altogether to create their own online stores.
< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">This creates difficulties for Depop as he tries to hold on to a young and notoriously fickle audience. Having the most sought after and trending designers is crucial to retaining users and growing their numbers. According to market research, younger shoppers are generally less loyal to brands and platforms than older shoppers.Peter Semple, Chief Brand Officer at Depop , which handles e-commerce website Etsy bought last year for $1.6 billion, said the pandemic "has certainly boosted the scale of our business." The question for app users, he said, became, "How can we stay interesting and present for them so that they continue to be part of the Depop ecosystem?"
Semple added that vendors leaving Depop were nothing new and their successes often inspired new designers to join the app. He quoted
Depop, a social shopping app, has been a springboard for many young designers during the pandemic. Some are now taking their success elsewhere.
When Shirley Tang started selling handmade clothing in 2020, she knew exactly where to do it online: Depop, a state-of-the-art social shopping application.
Ms. Tang, 22, started offering $100 to $200 in hand-draped knitwear and woven tops and skirts at her Depop store, where her subscribers grew to 24,000. Customers, mostly her age , exchanged messages and comments on the app about his designs as his shop caught the eye of Grammy-winning magazines and artists, including SZA and Kali Uchis. Her business surged.
But this year, Ms. Tang began to focus on selling her clothing brand, ORIENS, exclusively through her website. Depop's popularity has led her to make the same items over and over again, she said, creatively hugging her. And she was tired of the app charging a 10% commission on each item sold.
"I wanted this independent establishment, even if it meant losing some new people who were going to find my pieces organically on Depop," said Ms. Tang, an aspiring student at Parsons School of Design. "For me, it was a worthy sacrifice."
The onset of the pandemic led Depop to become a springboard for hundreds of millennial and gen Z creators , including the Fancì Club, whose corsets have been worn by celebrities such as Olivia Rodrigo, and Gogo Graham, whose creations have paraded on the catwalks at New York Fashion Week. With its Instagram-like interface, through which people can upload and caption photos, follow and message each other, and discover curated items, Depop has become a go-to fashion marketplace among teen shoppers. and 20s.
But, like other online shopping businesses that have boomed in the past couple of years, Depop now faces to the downsides of its pandemic-fueled success. Dozens of creators he helped establish, like Ms. Tang, have started transferring the brands they created through the app to other platforms like Instagram and TikTok, or are leaving the app altogether to create their own online stores.
< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">This creates difficulties for Depop as he tries to hold on to a young and notoriously fickle audience. Having the most sought after and trending designers is crucial to retaining users and growing their numbers. According to market research, younger shoppers are generally less loyal to brands and platforms than older shoppers.Peter Semple, Chief Brand Officer at Depop , which handles e-commerce website Etsy bought last year for $1.6 billion, said the pandemic "has certainly boosted the scale of our business." The question for app users, he said, became, "How can we stay interesting and present for them so that they continue to be part of the Depop ecosystem?"
Semple added that vendors leaving Depop were nothing new and their successes often inspired new designers to join the app. He quoted
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