▷Etsy bought Depop, the used clothes shopping app 🥇

Etsy bought Depop, the British application of resale of used clothes, For 1,6 billion dollars (around 1,3 billion euros) to take advantage of the rapidly growing trend of buying and selling second-hand clothes and achieve the Generation Z. In fact, 90% of users who use Depop are under 26, while Etsy currently has an audience with an average age of around 40.

Etsy acquires Depop, the application dedicated to buying and selling used clothes

Etsy bought Depop, the used clothes shopping app

Etsy acquired Depop for $ 1,6 billion. An agreement that will greatly benefit e-commerce that sells vintage and handmade items, since "Generation Z is a huge demographic and is the one that is trending", as stated Josh Silverman, CEO of Etsy. Over 90% of Depop's 30 million users are under the age of 26, which places them in the much sought after Generation Z, smartphone addicted. Etsy said Depop is the XNUMXth most visited shopping site among Gen Z consumers in the United States.

The sale will result in a profit of around 45 million pounds for the Italian-English entrepreneur Simon Beckerman who founded Depop in 2011 and now owns around 4% of the shares. Beckerman, who owns his shop on Depop, said the idea for the app was born to fill the lack of a platform designed for buying and selling clothes, especially used ones. “When we started Depop the applications were in their early stages. Aside from the three or four main apps that everyone used heavily, like Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, it wasn't very clear if the apps were going to be a hit. We still didn't realize how integral they would be to our lives. "

A rapidly growing sector

As The Guardian states, Etsy will allow Depop to continue operating as autonomous activity, managed by the existing management team at its London office. The Boston Consulting Group estimates that the global second-hand clothing market is worth up to 40 billion dollars a year, about 2% of the total clothing market. The used car segment is expected to grow 15-20% annually over the next five years.

Depop isn't alone in tapping into the fast-growing trend. Vinted, a site created by two Lithuanian women in 2008, was evaluated 3,5 billion EUR in a fundraiser last month. Poshmark, a US resale site, went public on the US stock market in January and is valued 3,5 billion dollars.

There are those who made their fortune thanks to Depop

Depop, founded "for fun", now boasts registered users in nearly 150 countries and its own 2 million active sellers they sold $ 650 million in second-hand clothing and other fashion items last year. Of these sales, Depop itself has earned 70 million dollars.

For many sellers on the application, the money generated is a secondary income, a kind of hobby. But there are some Depop users who have made selling second hand clothes a real job. Bella McFadden, 24, said he reached the milestone of a million pounds in earnings. A resident of Los Angeles, he told Fast Company that he dropped out of college in 2016 to devote himself full-time to his Depop store. She currently has four people working full time with her and has sold over 60.000 items. Most of these come from thrift stores, but some are clothes designed by her.