A Seller's Guide to Depop's Search Algorithm

A Seller's Guide to Depop's Search Algorithm

For any reseller, visibility is the key to sales. On a bustling marketplace like Depop, getting your items in front of the right buyers can feel like a mystery. The secret isn't luck; it's understanding the Depop search algorithm.

This powerful system determines which listings appear when a user types in a search query. By learning how it works, you can optimize your listings, increase your visibility, and ultimately grow your sales.

This guide will demystify the Depop search algorithm, providing a detailed breakdown of its ranking factors. We'll also share actionable strategies on how to show up in Depop search, turning algorithm insights into a tangible sales strategy for your resale business.

How the Depop Search Algorithm Works

When a shopper searches for an item and sorts by ‘Relevance’, Depop's algorithm considers several factors to decide which listings to show and in what order. Understanding these factors is the first step toward mastering the Depop search function.

Relevance: The Most Important Factor

The single most significant factor in the Depop algorithm is relevance. This measures how closely your listing matches a user's search terms.

The algorithm matches search terms against various parts of your listing, including the description, brand, category, and color. Listings that are deemed most relevant to a user's query will be shown first.

This means a detailed and accurate listing isn't just good for buyers—it's essential for getting seen in the first place.

Listing Popularity

The algorithm also gauges a listing's popularity. This is inferred by tracking how many views, likes, and ‘add to bags’ an item has received.

More ‘popular’ listings are ranked more highly than others. This creates a positive feedback loop: a popular item gets more visibility, which in turn helps it gather more likes and views, further boosting its rank.

Listing Freshness

The age of a listing is another factor. Depop’s algorithm slightly favors newer items over older ones. This is why you might see your new listings get an initial burst of attention.

However, it's important to note that the listing date has significantly less influence on ranking than other factors, especially relevance. While freshness helps, it won't save a poorly described or irrelevant item.

Seller Information

Depop also considers information about you, the seller. The algorithm looks at metrics like how many items you've sold and the total number of views your items have accumulated.

Active and successful sellers are more likely to have their items ranked favorably. It is important to note, however, that a seller's Top Seller or verified status does not directly impact the ranking of their listings.

Personalization and Location

Depop personalizes search results for each user. It infers a user's shopping habits—such as their preferred brands, styles, sizes, and price points—and uses this information to tailor the results.

The seller’s location setting is also a key factor. The platform primarily shows listings from the country a user has selected in their preferences, making it crucial to set your location correctly.

Boosted Listings

Sellers can pay to "boost" their listings, which is a factor in the algorithm. Boosted listings that the algorithm sees as relevant to a search query will rank more highly than non-boosted items.

Depop ranks boosted listings separately from organic listings, displaying the most relevant ones in special "boosted tiles." These may appear higher simply because the pool of relevant boosted listings is much smaller than the pool of organic ones.

The same factors that rank organic listings, with relevance being the most important, are used to rank boosted listings. Sorting search results by price or date does not change the order of boosted items.

Other than the Boosted Listings feature, Depop does not offer sellers a way to pay for a higher ranking.

How Sorting by Price or Age Changes Things

When a user chooses to sort their search results by criteria other than 'Relevance', such as price or listing age, the algorithm simplifies.

In these cases, the Depop algorithm only considers two factors: the relevancy of the listing to the search terms and the seller’s location. After filtering for these, it sorts the results according to the user's selected criteria (e.g., lowest price first).

How to Show Up in Depop Search: Optimizing Your Listings

Understanding the algorithm is only half the battle. Now, let's translate that knowledge into a concrete strategy to improve your visibility. Optimizing your listings is the most direct way to tell the Depop search algorithm that your items are exactly what buyers are looking for.

Master Your Keywords

Since relevance is the top ranking factor, your keyword strategy is paramount. Keywords are the bridge between a buyer's search and your product.

Start every item description with the three most important keywords: the brand, the item type, and the color. The first sentence of your Depop description also becomes the listing's title, making this prime real estate.

Next, weave in relevant aesthetic keywords. If your item fits a popular style like "Y2K," "Cottage Goth," "corpcore," or "darkacademia," include it in the description. Staying on top of trending aesthetics and using them as keywords can significantly widen your reach.

Use Hashtags as Keywords

Think of hashtags as another opportunity to add keywords. They work best for broad, aesthetic-focused terms like `#grunge` or `#barbiecore`.

You can also use them for unique garment attributes, such as `#florals` or `#puffsleeve`. If an item fits multiple aesthetics, use a range of relevant hashtags. For example, a simple cardigan could be tagged `#grandmacore`, `#90s`, and `#cottagecore`.

Crucially, do not add trending but completely irrelevant hashtags to your listings. This can frustrate buyers and work against you.

Fill in Every Detail

Don't skip the optional details when creating a listing. Meticulously fill in the item type, brand, color, style, and any other available fields.

Each of these fields is a data point that the Depop search algorithm uses to match your item with a buyer's query. The more complete your listing is, the better your chances of appearing in relevant searches.

Consider adding international shipping to all your items, even if you don't plan to ship internationally. You can set the shipping cost high enough to deter most international buyers, but it can help with visibility.

Craft Compelling Descriptions

Your description should go beyond basic keywords. Provide thorough details about the item's condition, measurements, and materials. If there are any defects, be transparent and mention them in the description and show them in your photos.

Include styling suggestions to help buyers envision the piece in their own wardrobe. Emphasize what makes the item unique to evoke a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out).

Refresh and Relist Your Items

Because the algorithm gives a slight preference to newer items, freshness matters. To keep your store visible, aim to list or relist 5-6 items daily.

If an item has been listed for a while and isn't getting much traction, delist and relist it. This makes the item "new" again in the eyes of the algorithm and can give it a fresh boost in visibility. Creating new listings for items that aren't receiving enough likes is a common and effective strategy.

For resellers with large inventories, managing this process can be time-consuming. This is where a dedicated tool can be a game-changer.

Are you spending too much time manually relisting items? Imagine automating that process to keep your entire store fresh without the daily grind. With our platform, you can automatically relist stale products to keep them at the top of search results. Start your free trial today.

Perfect Your Photography

While not a direct ranking factor for the algorithm, great photos drive engagement (likes, views, add-to-bags), which is a ranking factor. Your photos are your first impression.

Here are some best practices for Depop photos:

• Create Quality Photos: Ensure your photos are well-lit, clear, and focused on the item. Put the product front and center.
• Be Consistent: Use a consistent background and, if using a model, a consistent pose for the main picture of every listing. This creates a cohesive and professional-looking shop.
• Show Multiple Angles: Take photos from the front, back, and even the inside for garments like coats. Capture close-ups of details and any defects.
• Avoid Stock Photos: Do not use stock images or old photos of you wearing the item. Authenticity sells.

Scaling Your Depop Business with Reeva

Implementing all these strategies—optimizing keywords, creating detailed descriptions, refreshing listings, and cross-posting—is essential for success on Depop. However, as your business grows, these tasks can become overwhelming and time-consuming.

That's where we come in. Our platform is designed to simplify and automate the tedious parts of running a resale business, giving you back the time you need to source, scale, and focus on what matters.

Sell Smarter and Faster with AI and Automation

Keeping up with the Depop search algorithm's demand for detailed, keyword-rich listings is a lot of work. We help you sell smarter and faster by automating the most demanding parts of the process.

You can turn photos into listings almost instantly. Just upload your photos, and we will create complete listings with optimized titles, detailed descriptions, and suggested prices. As our user FabFam from Washington says, "Reeva has cut my listing time by more than half. I can take photos, voice-to-text my details, and let Reeva handle the rest."

The need to constantly refresh listings is a common pain point for Depop sellers. Our platform tackles this head-on. You can automatically relist stale products to keep them at the top of search results, ensuring your items continuously get the "newness" boost from the algorithm without you lifting a finger.

Expand Your Reach Effortlessly

While this guide focuses on Depop, true growth often comes from selling on multiple marketplaces. Different platforms have different strengths; for instance, some sellers find Poshmark is best for their business due to its social features, while others may use Mercari or eBay.

We make multichannel selling easy. With one click, you can publish your items to all your marketplaces, including Poshmark, eBay, Mercari, and Depop, without ever switching tabs. Our platform instantly delists sold items across all channels to prevent overselling. AlistairBP, a reseller from Georgia, told us the auto-delist feature is one he "couldn't live without."

Hiview Reloved from New York shared, "I chose Reeva because I wanted to grow my business and expand to more platforms... It has made it easy to expand to eBay and Depop. I’ve created more listings in the few months of using Reeva than I was able to create all of last year when trying to do it on my own."

Ready to stop juggling tabs and start scaling your business across multiple platforms? Try our cross-listing feature with a 7-day free trial.

Manage and Grow Your Business with Powerful Tools

Growth isn't just about listing more; it's about managing your business efficiently. We provide the tools you need to scale with ease.

You can update and manage hundreds of listings in bulk, track sales and profits with powerful business analytics, and even give team members access with multi-user account options. TUFFNY from New York was able to cut their admin time by at least 30%, which allowed them to source more products and expand their offerings.

We also offer full-service accounting tools. Connect your bank accounts to automatically record transactions, expenses, and fees. You can categorize income and generate clear profit-and-loss reports to make smarter business decisions and simplify tax time.

Our platform is accessible anytime, anywhere, on mobile, desktop, or tablet, without needing a Chrome extension or leaving a computer running.

Conclusion: Master the Algorithm and Grow Your Business

Success on Depop isn't about gaming the system; it's about understanding what it values and aligning your strategy accordingly. The Depop search algorithm prioritizes listings that are relevant, popular, and fresh. By focusing on high-quality photos, detailed descriptions packed with keywords, and a consistent listing schedule, you can significantly improve how often you show up in Depop search.

As your business grows, these daily tasks can become a bottleneck. Manually optimizing, listing, and relisting across multiple platforms takes time away from sourcing and strategy.

We built our platform to solve this exact problem. We automate the tedious work—from creating AI-powered listings and relisting stale items to cross-posting across marketplaces—so you can focus on growth. Resellers using our tools have seen transformative results, increasing their sales by up to 7x and cutting their admin time by 30% or more.

If you're ready to stop juggling spreadsheets and start scaling your resale business, we're here to help.

Start your free 7-day trial of Reeva today and see how our all-in-one platform can transform your resale business.