https://soundcloud.com/user-50671348/depop/s-OdpSjuxF674
Host Intro: In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has transformed consumer habits with more people shopping online than ever before. This has led to the popularity of online marketplaces such as Depop, where buyers and sellers can easily connect on a social platform. Arianne Gonzalez talks with two young sellers about how business has been for them on the platform during the pandemic.
AMBI: Train sounds pulling in at the train station.
TRACK: I’m pulling into the Croton Falls station on the Harlem Line of the Metro-North on a crisp fall day to visit Jean Basiletti in her art studio. The pandemic has been a difficult time for many artists, but she tells me that she is managing and even thriving.
ACT: I think my creativity has increased, to be honest. I’m very lucky. I think… how do I put this? Well, I’ve got tons of free time, and I have all these things that I’ve always wanted to do.
TRACK: Basiletti, a 19-year old college student from Brewster New York has been artistic most of her life. Hailing from a creative family and developing her skills since the age of 2, she has used her summer free time to work on different projects.
ACT: I’ve started carving stamps. I’m looking at it right now. And I’ve been stamping them onto paper—a form of printmaking with rubber blocks. I’ve also been sewing a lot, sewing shirts and dresses and bandanas. And posting them on Depop actually where they have been, they did sell pretty well but that was more of my summer thing.
TRACK: Depop, a mobile marketplace for art and fashion, has grown in popularity over the past year. Basiletti says she first got onto the platform as a way to resell clothes she didn’t want anymore, but then she started designing things to sell.
ACT: I made a friend at college who was very into fashion and she would also sew her own stuff. And I would look at it and I would be like, “Oh it’s so cool, like I want to try.” She has a style of shirt, the design she created by herself and I was like, “Can I try to make what you made?” And she was like, “Yeah, sure, and you can resell it too.” And I was like, “I probably won’t, but ok”. And I made it and it turned out really nice, but it was probably something I would never wear. So I was like, ‘let me try.’ And it totally took off.
TRACK: The London startup has 15 million users worldwide. Despite the competition, there are ways for users to be easily recognized as a top seller. Sophie Scott, a verified seller on Depop based in Denver, Colorado, tells me of the Top Seller program the platform has.
ACT: I’m a verified seller by Depop, which means that they just kind of like promote my shop. And I get like a little blue checkmark on my account and like I’m, I’m in like a group chat with all of the top sellers in the world. To stay in the top seller program, you have to sell 50 items, a month.
TRACK: Scott, who has just reached her 400th sale, has been a member of the platform since the summer of 2019 but has only dedicated her time to it at the start of the pandemic.
ACT: I got home from school. I didn’t have a job and like I really couldn’t get a job. I’m also a type one diabetic. So, my immune system is already more compromised. So, for me to like, for instance, get a job at like a grocery store or somewhere where there’s a lot of traffic like that can be very compromising towards my health. And so like Depop really allows me to kind of be my own boss and work with myself.
TRACK: She mostly sells clothes she finds at local thrift stores and makes sure to follow Covid-19 protocols when handling her shipments.
ACT: I wear masks every time I go to the thrift store and just try to stay away from people. And then I like wash everything that I buy which you should do, regardless if we were in a pandemic or not, you know, you just don’t know what kind of germs are on these random people’s clothes.
TRACK: Basiletti concurs about washing clothes, and also adds wearing gloves and sanitizing before packaging items. She also notes the risk with shipping items.
ACT: I think when you do receive packages or send things out you do have to admit there is a little bit of a risk when you’re getting your stuff. But you trust the other person is also taking care of themselves.
TRACK: Scott hopes to keep up to par with the worldwide top sellers as the competition continues to grow.
ACT: I have noticed that what I’m doing, has become more of a popular thing especially during the pandemic. So competition is getting higher. So I’m hoping that I can like keep going, you know, and knock it like pushed out of it, in a way.
TRACK: She also mentions hope of opening her own in-person store, expanding her business from the online platform to the physical world.
ACT: Regardless of what happens with Depop. I’m hoping to like open a store or like convert like a bus or something and do like a mobile vintage store go to like events. Hopefully, the pandemic will be over by that time
For Baruch College, this is Arianne Gonzalez in Croton Falls, New York.