Depop pressured by buyer fees

Fee changes have turned fashion resale into a checkout price war, and that makes product differences matter more than ever. Depop no longer competes only on community and style discovery, it now competes on the final amount a buyer sees before tapping pay. Mercari showed how fast a rival can use zero seller fees to pull in listings, and Vinted showed that a buyer fee model can still scale to large revenue and profit if low prices and trust stay intact.

• Mercari removed seller fees in March 2024 and shifted costs to buyers, which let sellers list without a commission haircut. That is powerful in practice because casual sellers compare the money they keep on each sale, not platform branding. Mercari later reversed course for new listings in January 2025, which shows buyer fees can create enough checkout friction to hurt volume.
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• Vinted proves the zero seller fee playbook can work at scale. In 2024 it generated €813.4M of revenue and €76.7M of net profit, while also expanding logistics and payments. That matters because it shows buyer fees and service revenue can fund a large marketplace without charging sellers upfront.
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• Depop is trying to offset fee pressure with a better app loop. Its tools now make listing faster with AI generated titles and descriptions, photo cleanup, offers that drive over 40% of transactions, and social features like Outfit creation. The strategic bet is that if selling feels easier and shopping feels more fun, users tolerate some pricing disadvantage.
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The next phase is likely to reward the platform that makes fees feel smallest because the product works hardest. That favors marketplaces that compress seller effort, increase conversion, and add trust and logistics around the transaction. Depop’s path is to make engagement and conversion strong enough that a slightly worse headline price does not decide the sale.