Depop shifts to buyer-fee model

Depop’s fee change is really a supply acquisition move. By taking away the 10% seller commission in the US in July 2024 and in the UK in March 2024, Depop made listing feel closer to free, which matters in a marketplace where casual sellers decide in seconds whether an old jacket is worth posting. The platform still gets paid through a buyer marketplace fee at checkout, plus payment processing, while keeping buyer protection as the reason that fee exists.

• This puts Depop on the same basic pricing architecture as Vinted. Sellers see no marketplace commission, buyers pay an added protection fee at checkout. That matters because seller supply is the hard part in resale. More closets listed means more unique inventory, which is what keeps buyers opening the app instead of a general marketplace.
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• Mercari made the same move in the US in March 2024, then partially reversed course for listings updated from January 6, 2025 after saying the buyer fee structure reduced transactions. That shows the tradeoff clearly. Moving fees to buyers can unlock listings, but it can also make the final checkout price feel worse and hurt conversion.
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• Depop has another lever that softens the lost seller commission. Boosted Listings charges sellers 8% only when promotion leads to a sale, so seller spend shifts from a mandatory tax on every order to an optional growth tool tied to performance. That is easier for sellers to accept, especially higher volume ones.
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The next step is turning zero seller fees into denser inventory and then using product features to defend buyer take rate. If Depop can make discovery, offers, shipping, and protection feel materially better than cheaper alternatives, buyer fees can hold. If not, the market keeps drifting toward the lowest all in checkout price.