How You Can Make 6 Figures Selling Tie-Dye Designs
On the zealous quest for unique and authentic clothing, eighteen to twenty-five year olds flock to the online platform Depop. Mirroring a similar format to Instagram, (a boxed feed of photos with likes and follows) Depop serves as both a social app and a clothing marketplace. Anyone can use their personal style, or aesthetic, to accrue a following while simultaneously profiting from selling their clothes.
You know how sometimes you see someone in public who looks so indescribably cool. It feels like they have their own authentic, irreplaceable style that you couldn’t replicate even if you had all the time and money in the world. Depop is like seeing that stranger and being able to buy their style directly off them. Even if that stranger isn’t your size, Depop will automatically show you the same, or very similar, articles of clothing from other sellers. On Depop, you aren’t just buying someone’s used clothes, you’re buying their sense of style.
How Artisans Use Depop
Depop is also a great marketplace for creatives, artists, and fashion designers. Many sellers have found success creating their own designs or upcycling old clothes into something new. Creative voices are loud on Depop, and by offering one-of-a-kind, custom-made clothing, sellers have a wonderful opportunity to brand themselves and their work while consistently receiving feedback. Starting a clothing line or any creative fashion business can be incredibly difficult, especially with all the preexisting obligations and hassles of everyday life; Depop helps eliminate barriers to entry, allowing any clothing artist an opportunity to shine.
There are many sellers who have been able to make a living off of their Depop account, and not just a broke college student living, but closer to a doctor’s living. In 2020, a 24-year-old became the first-seller to reach over one million dollars on the app. Selling a mix of thrifted items and her own designs, she sold a volume of over 40,000 items to achieve her 7-figure status. Of course, that level of success is rare. It may require painstakingly long hours to reach that level of volume, but there are still many other sellers who have been able to generate six figures from their online store. All it takes to sell on Depop is a phone, and obviously, some clothes to sell, but to become a serious seller it takes some level of aggressive strategy.
Could Depop Be Your Next Great Venture?
Now you may be wondering if you should leave that 9-5 job you hate to start a Depop business. If other people, particularly younger, less experienced people, are doing it, could you? Of course, being a successful Depop seller takes cool style and creative vision, a valuable commodity that not everyone has, but in the case of stellar artistic talent, what would it logistically take to make a six figure income?
For starters, Depop has a feature called “top-seller status”. Upon reaching top-seller status, you get exclusive access to perks and resources that help you skyrocket your business growth. To achieve Depop top-seller status, you must sell your items for at least $20 USD on average. That may seem like a pricey premium for inherently off brand clothing, but with the right aesthetic and personal brand, a desirable signature touch could easily sell for twice that. You don’t need to produce superior, massive retail corporation quality items for at least $20 on average, though that is a viable strategy, you just need a cool personal aesthetic that people want to copy or a custom-design that sets you apart from retail.
For every $10 you sell on Depop, the platform takes $1, and to receive the remaining $9, Paypal takes another $0.31. In other words, Depop has a 10% flat fee on all items sold and PayPal has a 3.49% fee (in the US) every time money is transferred. To reach a six-figure annual income, you would need to sell 5780 items at an average of $20 a piece. This would amount to about 111 items per week. To lessen volume a smidge, you would need to sell 4,624 items at an average of $25 a piece, which would amount to about 89 items per week.
While that may seem like a lot of tedious work at the post office, Depop provides sellers with pre-made shipping labels, and sellers even have the option to make buyers pay for shipping. To ship items, sellers simply print out the label; the post-office scans the label and ships the item. Of course, selling over one hundred items a week is going to take some time to orchestrate, but with pre-made shipping labels, the ship time is less daunting than it initially seems.
Additional Strategy and Considerations
A few years back, when tie-dye was trending, some sellers oriented their entire Depop shop around custom-made tie-dye designs. Closely monitoring trends and creating an online store to meet that demand can be an efficient seller strategy and an easy way to create a personal brand. In the case of tie dye, t-shirts and dye could be purchased and produced in bulk. The work would come in doable chunks that feels much more controlled and stable than endlessly upcycling and trying to add a new spin on preexisting fashion. You don’t necessarily need to reinvent the wheel to be a six-figure seller, sometimes you just need consistency.
While a six-figure income from Depop is entirely possible, it will likely require a significant investment of time, especially in the beginning. If you aren’t ready to risk it all, but are looking for a fun, creative side hustle, give Depop a try. Or if you’re looking to experiment and test your skills as a fashion designer, you might as well make some extra cash.
Interested in a subscription to the magazine?
Interested in a digital or print subscription to our quarterly magazine? Or are you interested in reading back issues of the magazine?
