How to Use Sales and Promotions to Boost Depop Orders

How to Use Sales and Promotions to Boost Depop Orders

Depop has carved out a unique space in the world of e-commerce. It's more than just a marketplace; it's a community-driven platform where style, aesthetics, and user interaction reign supreme. For sellers, this means that simply listing an item isn't enough. To truly succeed and increase your orders, you need to master the art of the Depop sale and understand how to leverage strategic Depop promotions.

Running a sale isn't just about slashing prices. It's a powerful tool for increasing visibility, clearing out old inventory, and building a loyal customer base. A well-executed promotion can capture the attention of buyers, encourage larger purchases, and significantly boost your revenue.

This guide will walk you through tried-and-true methods for driving growth on the platform. We'll explore everything from optimizing your listings to be promotion-ready to implementing specific sales strategies that get results. You'll learn not only how to run a sale on Depop but how to build a comprehensive strategy that improves your performance as a seller and enhances the customer experience.

The Foundation of Any Successful Depop Sale: Optimized Listings

Before you even think about discounts, you need to ensure your listings are set up for success. An optimized listing is one that is worth promoting because it's already designed to convert browsers into buyers. This comes down to two key areas: stellar photography and compelling, keyword-rich descriptions.

Aesthetics matter immensely on a fashion-oriented marketplace like Depop. Your product photos are your one and only chance to make a powerful first impression.

Mastering Product Photography

Your photos function as your digital storefront. When a potential buyer lands on your profile, the collection of your main product images creates an overall impression of your brand. A cohesive and professional look builds trust and encourages shoppers to explore your items further.

Photo Quality and Consistency

The first rule of Depop photography is quality. Every photo should be well-lit and clear, showcasing the item accurately. To create a strong brand identity, it's crucial to use a consistent background for all your photos. This creates a clean, aesthetically pleasing page for your Depop store.

Sellers should also arrange items by color and category in photos. If you use a model, position them in a consistent pose for every main picture. This consistency helps build a recognizable and professional brand image that buyers will trust.

What to Avoid in Your Photos

There are several common photo mistakes that can hurt your sales. Never use stock images of the item or old photos of yourself wearing it. Buyers want to see the exact item they are purchasing, in its current condition.

Furthermore, your main photo should always present the item from the front. Side or back views can be confusing and cause buyers to scroll right past your listing. The main picture needs to make it immediately clear what item is for sale, so ensure the product is front and center.

Showcasing the Details

A successful listing includes photos from multiple angles and perspectives. Show the garment from the front, the back, and even the inside, especially for items like coats that may have interesting linings or internal pockets. This gives buyers a comprehensive view of what they're getting.

Crucially, you must include photos of any defects or signs of wear, no matter how minor. This transparency builds trust and helps prevent disputes later on. Being upfront about an item's condition is a cornerstone of good customer service.

Writing Descriptions that Sell

Your photos grab a buyer's attention; your description closes the deal. A great description is powered by strategic keywords that help your listing appear in relevant searches. Depop's search algorithm is the gatekeeper to your listing's visibility, and keywords are its backbone.

Harnessing the Power of Keywords

The algorithm assesses item descriptions to match them with what buyers are searching for. To maximize your chances of being found, incorporate essential keywords at the very beginning of every item description. These should include:

• Brand: Always include the accurate brand name.
• Item Type: Be specific (e.g., "denim jacket," "midi skirt").
• Color: Use clear color descriptors.

If possible, you should also include an applicable aesthetic keyword. Terms like "Y2K," "Cottage Goth," "grunge," or "corpcore" are powerful because they tap into the specific styles buyers are actively seeking.

Using Hashtags Effectively

Think of hashtags as another way to add important keywords. They work best for very general, aesthetic-focused terms (e.g., "#barbiecore," "#darkacademia") and for unique garment attributes like "#floral" or "#puffsleeve."

However, you must use them correctly. Misusing hashtags by adding trending but completely irrelevant tags will not increase your sales. In fact, Depop has been known to penalize sellers who do this by lowering their overall listing visibility. Stick to relevant terms to attract the right buyers.

How to Run a Sale on Depop: A Step-by-Step Guide

Once your listings are polished and optimized, you're ready to launch a promotion. Depop offers several built-in features that make running a sale effective and straightforward. Here are three key methods to incorporate into your strategy.

Method 1: Strategic Price Drops and Discounts

Depop has a unique and powerful system for discounted items. When you lower an item's price, the platform gives you an instant marketing boost. Every shopper who has liked the item, saved it, or added it to their cart will receive a notification about the price drop.

This creates a sense of urgency and can be the final push a buyer needs to make a purchase. Additionally, shoppers who find your listing through search will see the discount displayed with strikethrough pricing, making it clear they are getting a good deal. This visual cue can significantly increase your click-through rate.

Method 2: Offering Bundles for Increased Sales Volume

Depop actively encourages sellers to offer bundles from their store at a discount. This is one of the most effective ways to dramatically increase your sales volume. By incentivizing a single buyer to purchase multiple items, you can increase your average order value.

A great way to make bundles even more attractive is to offer free shipping on them. Often, shipping two or three items together costs the same as shipping just one, so you can absorb the shipping cost without losing much profit. In contrast, it's recommended to avoid offering free shipping on individual items, as the cost can take too big a chunk out of your revenue on a single sale.

Method 3: Engaging Buyers with "Offers to Likers"

Depop is not just a marketplace; it's a community. The platform emphasizes user interaction, and successful sellers are active and engaged. The "Offers to Likers" feature is a perfect example of this in action.

This tool allows you to proactively send a discounted offer to users who have liked your item. It’s a form of direct negotiation that can turn a passive "like" into an active sale. Consistently using this feature, answering buyer messages promptly, and striving to get more followers will improve your reputation and increase your sales.

Manually sending offers can be time-consuming, especially as your business grows. Scaling these engagement efforts requires a better system. At Reeva, our platform includes features that automate sending personalized offers to buyers, saving you time and helping you make more sales without lifting a finger. See how our automation tools can transform your selling process with a free trial.

Advanced Depop Promotions and Growth Tactics

Mastering the basics of sales and promotions will get you far, but to truly scale your Depop business, you need to employ more advanced strategies. These tactics focus on maximizing your visibility and reaching a wider audience.

Staying Ahead of Fashion Trends

Fashion is cyclical and always changing, and keywords are not an exact science. To keep your sales steady, you must stay on top of what's fashionable and trending on Depop. Aesthetics function as powerful, if somewhat subjective, keywords on the platform.

You can utilize trending aesthetics without resorting to irrelevant hashtags. For example, a simple cardigan might appeal to buyers searching for several different styles. By including applicable hashtags like #grandmacore, #90s, #corpcore, #cottagecore, and #darkacademia, you make that one listing visible to buyers across multiple aesthetics. This dramatically increases your shopper pool and the likelihood of making a sale.

Boosting Visibility with Strategic Relisting

Depop's algorithm tends to prioritize new listings over old ones. Newer listings overwhelmingly rank better in search results, leading to more impressions and a higher chance of conversion. If you have items that have been listed for a while but aren't getting much traction, they've likely been buried by the algorithm.

A simple yet powerful tactic is to delist and then relist these items. This pushes them back to the top of search results as if they were brand new. For professional sellers with large inventories, doing this manually is a daunting task. Listing manager tools like ExportYourStore or Crosslist can help, but a fully integrated platform is even better.

Leveraging Social Media and Influencers

Depop not only allows but actively encourages sellers to promote their listings on social media. You can link to your social accounts directly from your Depop profile and are strongly recommended to take full advantage of this feature.

For this to be effective, you should create separate social media accounts for your Depop shop. Promoting your listings on your personal account is more likely to annoy friends than increase sales, unless you are already an established influencer in the secondhand fashion niche.

If the DIY social media route isn't for you, consider a collaboration with social media influencers. They know exactly how to leverage their following to drive sales. You'll need to research to find the right partner, as some influencers have a more monetizable audience than others. Look for those with followings in relevant niches like sustainability, styling, or mending.

Supercharge Your Depop Promotions with Reeva

Implementing all these strategies—optimizing listings, running sales, relisting, and cross-platform promotion—is the key to growth. However, it's also incredibly time-consuming. As your resale business grows, manual tasks become a bottleneck that prevents you from scaling. This is where we come in.

Our all-in-one platform is built for resale businesses looking to simplify selling, automate tasks, and grow. We give you back the time you need to focus on what matters: sourcing great inventory and making more sales on Depop, Poshmark, eBay, and more.

Automate Time-Consuming Tasks to Boost Sales

Imagine keeping your products at the top of search results without spending hours manually delisting and relisting. Our platform handles it for you. We offer powerful automation tools designed to boost your visibility and maximize sales.

• Automatically relist stale products to keep them fresh in the algorithm.
• Send personalized offers to buyers without lifting a finger.
• Instantly delist sold items across all marketplaces to prevent overselling.

As reseller AlistairBP from Georgia told us, "The feature I use 100% the most—and couldn't live without—is the AUTO-DELIST feature." This single tool solves one of the biggest headaches of multichannel selling.

Sell Smarter and Faster Across Marketplaces

Selling only on Depop limits you to a relatively small pool of buyers. Cross-listing your inventory to other platforms like eBay, Poshmark, and Mercari is a proven way to boost sales. We make this effortless.

With our platform, you can list your items everywhere with one click, without ever switching tabs. Our unique system allows you to turn photos into complete listings instantly; just upload your photos, and we'll create the titles, descriptions, and prices for you. As FabFam from Washington says, "Reeva has cut my listing time by more than half... By the time I put the item away, my listing is ready to go live."

Ready to stop wasting time on manual tasks and expand your reach? Start your free trial of Reeva today and see how easy it is to grow your resale business.

What Resellers Say About Us

Don't just take our word for it. Resale businesses across the country are using our platform to scale with ease.

• Vintage Vault WV saw their sales increase by 372% and can now list 10 times more items per hour.
• TUFFNY from New York cut their admin time by at least 30%, which allowed them to source more products and expand their offerings.
• Nuzzydeals in Denver experienced a 7x increase in sales and a 60% increase in listing speed.

The Importance of Customer Experience

A promotion might bring a buyer to your shop, but excellent customer service is what will earn you a positive review and turn them into a repeat customer. The best way to get more sales on Depop is to show potential buyers that they can shop with you in confidence.

Fulfilling Orders Promptly and Professionally

Once you make a sale, your job isn't over. You need to fulfill the order promptly and professionally. Always ship your items as soon as possible after they are sold. Depop even lets potential buyers know how long it typically takes you to ship, and faster shipping builds confidence.

Whenever possible, use a tracked shipping method. This protects both you and the buyer. When packaging your item, ensure it is securely packed to arrive safely. At a bare minimum, every garment you ship must be freshly laundered.

Building a Strong Reputation Through Service

Consistently providing excellent customer service is the simplest way to build buyer confidence. This means answering messages in a timely manner, being professional in all your communications, and being transparent about your items.

Think about the buyer's entire experience and look for ways to make it better. Small, personalized touches can go a long way. Consider including a short, handwritten thank you note and perhaps even a small surprise gift item with your orders. Finally, always encourage your buyers to leave positive feedback, as good reviews are social proof that you are a trustworthy seller.

Your Path to Increased Depop Sales

Increasing your sales on Depop is a continuous process that requires a multi-faceted strategy. It starts with a strong foundation of high-quality, optimized listings with excellent photos and keyword-rich descriptions.

From there, you can effectively run a Depop sale by using strategic price drops, offering discounted bundles with free shipping, and engaging buyers with offers. To truly scale, you must stay on top of trends, use tactics like relisting to boost visibility, and provide five-star customer service that builds trust and earns positive reviews.

As your business grows, these tasks can become overwhelming. Juggling listings, managing inventory across multiple platforms, and keeping up with customer communication takes time away from sourcing and strategy. That's why we built Reeva. We handle the tedious work so you can focus on growth.

Stop juggling spreadsheets and start scaling your resale business with ease. Try Reeva free for 7 days and discover how our automation, cross-listing, and business management tools can transform your workflow and boost your sales.