A Seller's Guide to Depop's Offer Feature

A Seller's Guide to Depop's Offer Feature

As a reseller, you know that turning potential interest into a confirmed sale is the name of the game. On Depop, one of the most powerful tools at your disposal is the offer feature. It’s designed to help you connect with interested buyers, negotiate effectively, and ultimately, increase your sales.

However, navigating the nuances of `depop offers`, figuring out the best practices for `accepting offers on depop`, and understanding `how do offers work on depop` can be complex. This guide will walk you through everything you need to know to master the Depop offer feature and turn more likes into sold items.

We'll also show you how you can put this crucial sales strategy on autopilot, giving you back valuable time to source, list, and grow your resale business.

Understanding Depop Offers: A Quick Overview

At its core, the 'Send offer' feature is designed to increase a seller's chances of selling on Depop. It’s a direct line of communication to shoppers who have already shown interest in your products, effectively helping you turn passive scrollers into active shoppers.

This feature simplifies and makes price negotiations more efficient. Before Depop introduced offers, proactive sellers had to manually message potential buyers and change prices, leading to a lot of back-and-forth in chat. Now, sellers can close deals in just a few clicks.

The system allows both buyers and sellers to send and receive offers, giving both parties more flexibility to suggest lower prices and close deals faster. It’s a simple, streamlined process that has become a valuable tool for boosting sales on the platform.

How Do Offers Work on Depop? A Seller's Perspective

Understanding the mechanics of sending offers is the first step to leveraging them effectively. The process is straightforward, but there are important rules and limitations to keep in mind.

Sending an Offer to an Interested Buyer

The opportunity to send an offer arises when a potential buyer likes one of your items or adds it to their bag. This action signals their interest and opens the door for you to make a move.

You can send an offer directly from your notifications feed or from the product listing page itself. Simply tap the ‘Send offer’ button to let the buyer know the new price you're offering for the item. To help you decide on a compelling discount, Depop even provides suggested discounts and prices.

Key Rules and Limitations for Sending Offers

While sending an offer is easy, there are several platform rules you must be aware of to manage your sales process effectively.

• 24-Hour Expiration: An offer sent to a buyer is only valid for 24 hours. If the buyer doesn’t respond or purchase the item within that timeframe, the offer automatically expires.
• Shipping Costs are Separate: The offer you send does not include the shipping price. If your offer is accepted, the buyer will still need to pay the shipping cost you have set for the listing on top of the agreed-upon price.
• Item Remains Live: Sending an offer does not reserve the item. Someone else can still purchase the item at its original listed price while your offer is pending with another buyer. This creates urgency and rewards decisive buyers.
• Offers are Final (When Pending): Once you send an offer, you cannot change or retract it while it is pending review by the buyer. If you need to make a change, you must wait for it to expire or take action on the listing itself.
• No International Offers: Currently, you cannot send offers to users who are outside of your country using the ‘Send offer’ button. You may still be able to sell to them at the listed price if you have worldwide shipping enabled, but the offer functionality is restricted to domestic buyers.
• No Offers on Multi-Size Listings: The feature is disabled for items that you have listed with multiple sizes.
• One Active Offer Per Like: You can only have one active offer per "like." This means you cannot send a second, different offer to the same user for the same liked item until the first one expires.
• Multiple Offers on One Item: You can, however, send multiple offers on the same item to different buyers at the same time. The first buyer to complete the purchase gets the item.
• Re-Engaging After Expiration: If your offer expires, you are free to send a new offer to that same user again. This gives you a second chance to close the deal.

Handling Buyer Counteroffers

Negotiation is a two-way street. If a buyer isn’t satisfied with your initial offer, they can send you a counteroffer. You will receive this directly in your Depop Inbox.

From there, you have two choices: you can either accept their counteroffer or send another counteroffer back to them for their consideration. This streamlined process keeps the negotiation within the Depop system, eliminating confusing chat threads.

Accepting Offers on Depop: From Click to Sale

Receiving an offer from a buyer is a strong signal of purchase intent. How you handle it can be the difference between a successful sale and a missed opportunity. The process for `accepting offers on depop` depends heavily on whether the offer is binding or non-binding.

Binding vs. Non-Binding Offers: A Critical Distinction

One of the most talked-about aspects of Depop's offer system is its non-binding nature, which many sellers find frustrating. As a default, offers on Depop are not binding. This is largely because Depop allows minors to use the platform, and UK law does not permit minors to enter into binding contracts.

However, to address this, Depop has introduced a feature for US sellers. Buyers in the US may see an option to "lock it in" when they make an offer. This is at the buyer’s discretion, but if they select it, the offer becomes binding.

• Non-Binding Offers (Default): When you accept a standard, non-binding offer, the buyer is notified and has 24 hours to complete the purchase. The transaction is only completed once they go through checkout and pay. During this 24-hour window, other users can still buy the item at full price.
• Binding Offers ('Lock it in'): If a buyer sends an offer that is clearly shown as a 'Locked-in offer' and you accept it, the sale goes through immediately. The buyer is charged, and the item is officially sold. There's no 24-hour waiting period.

The Process of Accepting an Offer

You can view and accept all offers you receive directly in your Depop Inbox. The outcome of your acceptance varies based on the offer type.

If you accept a non-binding offer, Depop sends the buyer a push notification and an email to let them know. They can then buy the item right away at their offered price. If they don't complete the purchase within 24 hours, the accepted offer simply expires, and someone else could buy the item in the meantime.

Because these offers aren't binding, you can actually accept multiple offers on the same item. Depop will notify all buyers whose offers you've accepted, and it becomes a first-come, first-served situation. Whoever completes the payment first gets the item, and all other offers are canceled.

For a binding "Lock it in" offer, the process is much simpler. Once you accept, the item is theirs, and their payment method is charged immediately. The money will be taken from their account, and the transaction is complete.

What if a Buyer "Ghosts" After You Accept?

With non-binding offers, it's common for a buyer to have their offer accepted and then never complete the purchase. If this happens, the accepted offer will expire after 24 hours. There is nothing you need to do.

However, some sellers find success by sending a polite follow-up message to the buyer to incentivize the sale. If you'd rather not wait or risk another buyer snagging the item, you have other options. You can mark the item as "sold" to remove it from search results, or you can delete the listing entirely if you no longer wish to sell it.

If a buyer no longer wants to proceed with a binding offer after it has been accepted and charged, they will need to contact you directly to ask for a refund. It is then up to you to process it from the order screen.

Expert Strategies for Maximizing Sales with Depop Offers

Knowing the rules is one thing; using them to your advantage is another. Most sales on Depop now come from seller-initiated offers. Here are some pro tips to help you turn offers into a consistent revenue stream.

Timing is Everything

The best time to send an offer is immediately after you receive a "like." Catching a shopper while their interest is hot and they are still active on their phone dramatically increases your chances of making a sale. Don't let that interest go cold.

Strategic Pricing and Polite Negotiation

Smart sellers price their items strategically to leave room for discounts. When you list an item, consider the lowest price you're willing to accept and price it slightly higher. This gives you the flexibility to send attractive offers without sacrificing your profit margin.

If you receive an offer that's too low, don't just ignore or decline it aggressively. Respond politely and send back a reasonable counteroffer with a nice message. Maintaining a positive and professional tone can turn a lowball offer into a successful negotiation.

Managing Your Listings and Offers Efficiently

Make it a habit to send an offer to each and every liker. This is the most direct way to target shoppers who have already expressed interest in your inventory. To clear out stale inventory, try refreshing older listings. Once new likes start coming in, send offers to those buyers.

If you send an offer and then change your mind or realize there's an error, you cannot cancel it while it's pending. Your only options are to wait for it to expire, mark the item as sold to make it unavailable, or delete the listing entirely.

Handling Canceled Sales Carefully

Sometimes you may need to back out of a sale after a buyer has paid. In this case, you can refund the buyer from the order screen. It's always best practice to message the buyer and politely explain the situation.

Be cautious about this, however. Canceling too many sales on Depop can negatively affect your account's standing and may prohibit you from becoming a Top Rated Seller.

Stop Juggling, Start Scaling: Automate Depop Offers with Reeva

Mastering Depop's offer feature is a proven way to increase sales. But as your business grows, manually sending offers to every liker, managing counteroffers, and tracking accepted offers becomes a huge time sink. It's time spent on admin work that could be used for sourcing new inventory or expanding your business.

That's where we come in. Our platform is designed to accelerate growth for resale businesses, helping them scale with ease by automating the most time-consuming tasks.

How We Automate Your Offer Strategy

Imagine being able to send personalized offers to interested buyers on Depop without lifting a finger. With our automation tools, you can. We allow you to set your own rules for offers, so you can stay in control while we handle the execution.

Simply enable the feature in your settings, set a default discount percentage you're comfortable with, and our platform will automatically send offers to new likers on your behalf. This ensures you never miss an opportunity to engage a potential buyer at the peak of their interest. It’s like having a virtual assistant dedicated to closing deals for you, 24/7.

Ready to put your Depop offers on autopilot? Start your free trial today and see how simple it can be.

Beyond Offers: A Complete Platform for Your Resale Business

Automating offers is just the beginning. We provide an all-in-one platform built to simplify your entire selling process, from listing to accounting.

• Sell Smarter and Faster: Turn photos into complete listings in an instant. Our AI creates titles, descriptions, and prices for you. With one click, you can cross-list your items to multiple marketplaces like Poshmark, eBay, Mercari, and Depop, maximizing your reach effortlessly.
• Save Time with Automation: Beyond offers, we can automatically delist sold items across all platforms to prevent overselling and relist stale products to keep them at the top of search results. As reseller AlistairBP notes, "The feature I use 100% the most—and couldn't live without—is the AUTO-DELIST feature."
• Grow Your Business with Ease: Manage hundreds of listings in bulk, track your sales and profits with powerful business analytics, and even give team members access with multi-user account options. TUFFNY, a New York-based reseller, found that "I've cut down my admin time by at least 30%, which has allowed me to source more products and expand my offerings."
• Full-Service Accounting: Stop struggling with spreadsheets. Connect your bank accounts, and our platform automatically records and categorizes your transactions, fees, and expenses, making tax time a breeze.

Real Results from Resellers Like You

Don't just take our word for it. Resale businesses across the country are using our tools to achieve incredible growth.

• Nuzzydeals saw a 7x increase in sales and a 60% increase in listing speed.
• Vintage Vault WV sold +372% more items in just 3 weeks and increased their listing-per-hour rate by 10x.
• AlistairBP went from selling 3-5 items a week to 10-15 items per day.
• FabFam doubled their listing amount while cutting admin work by 30%, saying, "Reeva has cut my listing time by more than half."

Depop Offers: Your Questions Answered

Here are quick answers to some of the most common questions sellers have about the Depop offer feature.

Final Thoughts: Make Depop Offers Work for You

Depop's offer feature is undeniably one of the best ways for sellers to make sales on the platform. It transforms passive interest into active engagement and simplifies the entire negotiation process.

By understanding the key differences between binding and non-binding offers, acting quickly to engage interested buyers, and pricing your items strategically, you can make this feature a cornerstone of your sales strategy.

But mastering the feature is only half the battle. As your resale business grows, managing offers and every other aspect of selling across multiple platforms can become overwhelming. That's where we come in. Our platform is built to handle the tedious work, from automatically sending offers and cross-listing your inventory to managing your bookkeeping.

Stop spending your valuable time on repetitive admin tasks and start focusing on what truly matters: sourcing great products and scaling your business. See how resellers are achieving 4x selling amounts and cutting their admin work by 30%. Start your free 7-day trial of Reeva today and see the difference for yourself.