Blog arrow-right Resources

How to Deal with Lowball Offers on Depop

|

Receiving offers is an exciting part of being a reseller on Depop. It means someone is interested in your item and ready to make a purchase. However, not all offers are created equal. The dreaded lowball offer can feel frustrating, even insulting, especially when you know the value of your item.

Learning how to handle these situations is a crucial skill for any successful reseller. Your response, or lack thereof, can impact your sales, your brand reputation, and your overall efficiency. Managing lowball offers on Depop effectively is a key part of the game.

This guide will walk you through everything you need for successful Depop negotiation. We'll cover exactly how to respond to low offers on Depop, from when to ignore them to how to counter them professionally to secure a sale. We'll also show you how automating your business can give you back the time and energy needed to scale your shop from a hobby to a full-time venture.

Understanding the "Why" Behind Lowball Offers

Before diving into response strategies, it helps to understand why buyers send low offers in the first place. It's rarely a personal attack on you or your items. More often than not, it falls into one of a few categories.

Some buyers are simply testing the waters. They might be new to the platform or just trying to see what the lowest possible price you’ll accept is. Others are seasoned negotiators who start low on every transaction as a standard practice, hoping to meet somewhere in the middle. Occasionally, a buyer might genuinely have a lower budget but still loves your item.

Remembering that a low offer is just a starting point in a business transaction helps you remain objective and professional. It's not a reflection of your sourcing skills or the quality of your inventory; it's simply a part of e-commerce.

How to Respond to Low Offers on Depop: Your Strategic Options

When a low offer lands in your inbox, you have a few options. The right choice depends on the offer itself, your goals for the item, and your overall business strategy. The key is to respond in a way that protects your time and supports your brand.

Strategy 1: Ignore the Offer

One of the simplest and most effective strategies for dealing with offers you are not interested in, including very low ones, is to simply ignore them. On Depop, both buyers and sellers can ignore offers without any penalty.

This approach is best for offers that are so low they aren't worth the time or energy to even consider a counter. If an item is listed for $100 and you receive a $20 offer, engaging may not be a productive use of your time. By ignoring it, you send a clear, silent message that the price is not negotiable to that extent.

Ignoring an offer conserves your energy for more serious buyers and other critical business tasks, like sourcing new inventory and listing items. You don't owe anyone an explanation, and sometimes the most professional response is no response at all.

Strategy 2: Decline Politely

For sellers who want to maintain a high level of professionalism and engagement, politely declining the offer is an excellent alternative to ignoring it. This can be the right thing to do, especially if the offer isn't offensively low but still below your acceptable price.

A polite decline maintains a positive rapport with the potential customer. You never know if that same user might come back later to purchase the item at full price or buy something else from your shop. A simple, professional interaction keeps the door open for future sales.

However, there is no need to explain why you can't accept their proposed price. Over-explaining can open the door to unnecessary back-and-forth and arguments. A simple decline is sufficient to communicate your position clearly and professionally.

Strategy 3: Send a Counteroffer

The most proactive approach to a low offer is to send a counteroffer. This is the heart of Depop negotiation. If a buyer makes an offer but you were hoping to sell for more, you have the power to send a higher offer back for their consideration.

This strategy signals that you are willing to negotiate but that their initial offer was too low. It keeps the conversation going and turns a lowball offer into a potential sale. Many buyers who start low are fully expecting a counteroffer and are willing to meet you at a higher price point.

How to Send a Counteroffer on Depop

Sending a counteroffer is simple. Go to the message where the offer notification appeared. There, you will see the options to "accept" or "counter." Select "counter" and enter the new price you're proposing.

When you do this, you should just send your best counteroffer. Don't start a lengthy back-and-forth. Propose the lowest price you are truly happy with. This respects both your time and the buyer's time, making the process efficient.

Sellers should never reply to offers aggressively. An aggressive or defensive response can damage your reputation and alienate a potential customer for good. Always remain professional and courteous, even if the offer feels frustrating.

Entice the Sale with a Friendly Message

While not required, you can send a nice message along with your counteroffer to entice the sale. This adds a personal touch and can create a sense of urgency or goodwill that encourages the buyer to accept.

For example, if an offer is too low, you can send a counteroffer with a polite message like:

"I sent my best counter, I will ship this tomorrow if you want it! 🫶🏽"

This message does a few things perfectly. It clearly states that this is your best price, setting expectations. It also offers a benefit—fast shipping—which is a powerful incentive for buyers. The friendly emoji keeps the tone light and positive. This small effort can be the difference between a declined counter and a completed sale.

Scale Your Business by Automating It with Reeva

Managing offers, countering, and communicating with buyers takes time. As your resale business grows, that time becomes your most valuable asset. Every minute you spend manually managing negotiations is a minute you aren't sourcing, listing, or shipping. This is where automation becomes a game-changer for serious resellers.

We built our platform to help resale businesses grow and scale with ease. We simplify and automate the tedious parts of running your business, giving you back time to focus on what truly matters. For resellers on Poshmark, eBay, Mercari, and Depop, our tools are designed to accelerate growth.

Businesses that use our platform see incredible results. Nuzzydeals saw a 7x increase in sales, while Vintage Vault increased items sold by 372% in just three weeks. These results come from smart automation that handles the repetitive tasks for you.

Start your free trial of Reeva today and see how automation can transform your business.

How We Help You Sell Smarter and Faster

One of the most time-consuming parts of reselling is creating listings. We have completely optimized this process to save you time and effort.

  • Turn photos into listings instantly: Just upload your photos, and we'll create complete listings for you. Our AI generates titles, detailed descriptions, and even suggested prices, handling the heavy lifting. As FabFam, a reseller 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."
  • List everywhere with one click: Why spend hours manually cross-listing? With our platform, you can publish your items to all your marketplaces without ever switching tabs. This maximizes your visibility and sales potential effortlessly.
  • Maximize sales with multi-store support: We enable you to sell across all your stores on different platforms, reaching more buyers without the logistical headache.

Save Time with Powerful Automation

Our automation tools are designed to boost your visibility and maximize sales without you having to lift a finger. This is especially useful for managing offers and inventory.

  • Send personalized offers to buyers: Instead of manually tracking likes and sending offers, you can automate the process. Our system sends personalized offers to interested buyers for you, helping you close sales faster.
  • Instantly delist sold items: Overselling is a major risk for multi-platform sellers. We prevent this by instantly delisting an item from all other marketplaces the moment it sells on one. AlistairBP, who sells 10-15 products a day, calls this feature something he "couldn't live without."
  • Automatically share on Poshmark: Keep your Poshmark closet active and visible by letting our tools automatically share your products.
  • Relist stale products: We help you keep your inventory fresh by automatically relisting stale products, pushing them back to the top of search results.

These features are why users like TUFFNY have cut their admin time by at least 30%. That extra time allows them to source more products and expand their offerings, directly leading to business growth.

Ready to cut down your admin time? Try Reeva free for 7 days.

Grow Your Business with Ease

As you scale, you need more powerful tools to manage your growing operation. Our platform is built with growth in mind, providing the features you need to run a larger business efficiently.

  • Bulk Management: Update and manage hundreds of listings in bulk with ease, saving you countless hours of manual work.
  • Business Analytics: Track your sales, profits, and performance with our powerful business analytics. Make smarter, data-driven decisions about what to source and where to sell.
  • Multi-User Access: Ready to build a team? We offer multi-user account options, so you can give team members access to help you manage your business.
  • Built-in Accounting: Say goodbye to spreadsheets. Our full-service accounting tools automate your bookkeeping. Connect your bank accounts to automatically record transactions, expenses, and fees. You can even upload receipts for seamless record-keeping and generate clear profit and loss reports.

Our platform truly is an all-in-one solution. As Vintage Vault WV noted, "I used to need 3-5 programs just to do everything—now I only need one... Our sales have since increased by 372%."

Pricing Built for Resellers

We offer simple, transparent pricing plans designed to fit your business needs. You can even try our platform completely free for 7 days with no payment due upfront.

Plan Price Best For Key Features
Basic $29/Month (Limited Time Offer) Solo resale entrepreneurs Unlimited AI generations, Auto delisting, Business analytics, Crosslist to multiple marketplaces
Business $59/Month (Limited Time Offer) Resale businesses and teams Everything in Basic, plus: Full automation, Accounting, Multi-users and multi-stores, Priority support

Investing in the right tools is an investment in your growth. Hiview Reloved said it best: "It’s an added business expense but also one that I don’t think I’d ever do without again. It has made it easy to expand to eBay and Depop."

Conclusion: Master Negotiations and Automate for Growth

Dealing with lowball offers on Depop is an unavoidable part of the reselling business. By approaching it strategically, you can protect your time, maintain your professionalism, and even turn low offers into successful sales. Remember your options: you can ignore frivolous offers, politely decline, or send a firm but friendly counteroffer to close the deal.

The key to effective Depop negotiation is to remain professional and not take it personally. Your response should always align with your business goals.

As your business grows, manually handling every offer, listing, and sale becomes unsustainable. To truly scale, you need to work smarter, not harder. Our platform provides the automation and management tools to run your entire resale business from one place. From AI-powered listings and one-click cross-listing to automated offer sending and full-service accounting, we give you back the time you need to focus on growth.

Whether you're selling on Depop, Poshmark, eBay, or Mercari, we have the tools to help you succeed. Stop letting tedious admin tasks hold you back.

Start your free 7-day trial of Reeva today and discover how easy it is to grow your resale business.

Next reads