The second retailing market has grown dramatically in the past few years and is projected to grow by 11% every year. The secondhand market is thriving while the retail commerce is suffering. The rise of secondhand market can be owed to multiple factors such as millennial involvement, desire for cost savings and value, and the knack for unique items. The emergence of websites and their respective apps such as ‘Deopop’ and ‘Mercari’ streamlined the secondhand retailing in a big way. Such platforms have also made it easy for non-professionals like us to sell their used stuffs. These apps offer some great features and social media functionality for users, connecting buyers and sellers via a common platform. But the question is which one’s better and which platform should you choose to sell on – Depop or Mercari?

What is Depop?

Depop is a London-based startup and a fashion marketplace for secondhand clothing. It is like Instagram for shopping where lots of glamorous girls and fashion bloggers sell their most valued collections, including vintage clothes and jewelry, designer clothes, streetwear, and name brand clothing. With offices in Milan, Manchester and New York City, Depop taps into the desire for vintage and used clothing, allowing users to buy and swap accessories and clothes similar to OLX. Depop is a youth-oriented marketplace that lists some of the well-known fashion and sports brands in the world such as Nike, Patagonia, New Balance, Under Armour, Gucci, Hugo Boss, and so much more. It enables instant uploading of pictures and powers users with instant messaging, making it easy for even the non-professional users to buy and sell items.

What is Mercari?

Mercari is like a mini ebay that’s primarily catered to the Japanese market. Mercari is the Japanese ebay that is currently operating in Japan and United States. It is like a flea market of Japan that sells all kinds of used stuff from antique jewelry to home décor items, trendy clothes, household items, vintage stuffs, and what not. It is a digital storefront for all things unique where anybody can buy and sell all kinds of stuff, including electronics, handmade products, and a diverse catalogue of millions of items both new and used, with over 350,000 items added almost every single day. Mercari has a broader audience similar to that of ebay, and the users are sellers and buyers looking for great deals, or collectors looking for vintage and antique collectibles.

Difference between Depop and Mercari

Niche

 – While both Depop and Mercari are great social shopping apps and mobile marketplaces for all kinds of great stuff, both new and used, with a strong focus on the secondhand market, they have their selling points. Depop is mainly a fashion marketplace for all things trendy and vintage. Depop mostly focuses on vintage clothes or name brand clothes or streetwear. Mercari, on the other hand, is a Japanese marketplace that allows you to buy and sell everything, from electronics to clothing, home décor to vintage items and collectibles, antique jewelry, children toys, beauty products, and much more.

Market 

– Depop has a fine catalogue of some of the best name brand clothing with a penchant for vintage fashion. Depop is a great social shopping app primarily aimed at the Gen Z consumers or millennial generation. It has a younger buyer base which makes it one of the coolest places to shop. For this reason, buyers can sometimes sell some items for more on Depop than they can sell on Mercari. Mercari is more of a consumer friendly marketplace for both buyers and sellers who are there looking for some great deals. Electronics are some of the best selling items on Mercari.

Fees

 – Talking about listing fees, Depop will charge a flat 10% fee on the sale price of the items sold including the shipping costs. The fee is directly charged to your PayPal account or debited from the card you have used for making payments on your Depop account. With PayPal, you have to pay an additional 2.9% PayPal transaction fee and a 0.3% transaction fee. Mercari has basically the same fee structure that is a 10% commission of the selling price, along with a 2.9% and an additional 30 cents for every transaction. So, there is no inherent difference the fee structure.

Payments 

– When it comes to getting paid, there is a big difference. Depop is almost instantaneous when it comes to processing payments, which means the moment you made a sell, the money comes as fast as possible and the payments are cleared automatically and quickly. The money goes straight into your PayPal account. When you sell something on Mercari, you ship it to the buyer and the buyer then rates the item on a scale of one to five stars. Once they rate the item, only then the funds get released.

Depop vs. Mercari: Comparison Chart

Summary

While both Depop and Mercari are great platforms for buying and selling secondhand items, Depop is more about fashion which lists designer to vintage clothes and accessories, whereas Mercari has a much diverse portfolio of unique stuffs, that include everything from clothes to households, electronics to home décor, computers to mobile phones, vintage stuffs to antique collectibles, and what not. When it comes to shipping items, both the platforms are fairly equal, but Mercari, as of now, does not offer international shipping, which is kind of a bummer. Depop caters to a youthful audience, while Mercari targets buyers and sellers looking for great deals and unique stuffs.

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