Depop removed its 10% seller commission in the UK, US and Australia, and now earns from a buyer marketplace fee and optional Boosted Listings. This teardown works through the before-and-after numbers, including the $20 price point where the old and new models earn the same. It also covers the eBay acquisition and what marketplace builders can borrow.
TL;DR (Too long; didn't read)
- Depop removed its 10% seller commission in the UK (March 2024), the US (July 2024) and Australia (July 2026).
- Buyers now pay a marketplace fee of up to 5% plus a fixed amount of up to $1, excluding tax and postage.
- Sellers still pay payment processing (3.3% + $0.45 in the US) and can opt into Boosted Listings, now 12% on UK and US listings boosted since 23 March 2026, charged only when a boosted item sells.
- On a $40 sale, the buyer fee earns Depop up to $3.00 against $4.00 under the old commission. A boosted sale earns it up to $7.80.
- Depop generated about $1 billion in gross merchandise sales in 2025, and eBay completed its $1.4 billion acquisition on July 30, 2026.
- The structure Depop landed on is close to Vinted's: no seller commission, a buyer fee, and paid promotion on top.
Depop now earns its money from buyers and from sellers who pay to be seen, not from a commission on every sale. In the US, buyers pay a marketplace fee of up to 5% of the item price plus up to $1. Sellers pay a payment processing fee, plus 12% extra only when an item sells through a Boosted Listing. The old 10% selling fee is gone in the UK, the US and, since July 2026, Australia.
That fee flip happened while the company changed hands. Etsy bought Depop in 2021 for about $1.6 billion, and eBay completed its purchase on July 30, 2026 for roughly $1.4 billion. This post walks through the model before and after the change with the arithmetic worked out, then covers what a marketplace builder can borrow from it.
What was Depop's old 10% commission model?
Until 2024, Depop charged sellers a flat 10% selling fee on every sale, the standard seller-commission structure. Sell a $40 jacket and $4.00 went to Depop before payment processing. The buyer paid the listed price and shipping, and nothing on top.
That was the model Etsy bought in June 2021 for about $1.625 billion, and it works for as long as rivals charge roughly the same. Then they stopped. Vinted never took a seller commission. Mercari dropped its 10% seller fee in 2024, and eBay made selling free for private sellers in the UK the same year. A seller comparing platforms had an easy question to ask: why hand over one sale in ten to Depop when other apps take nothing? If you are weighing flat, tiered and category-based structures for your own marketplace, Shipturtle's guide to marketplace commission models shows how each one behaves once real orders start flowing.
How did Depop remove seller fees, market by market?
Depop did it in three stages between March 2024 and July 2026, and recent fee guides still show the 10% fee in other markets. Each stage paired the removal of the seller fee with the start of a buyer fee within days.
Comparision
| Market | 10% seller fee removed | Buyer marketplace fee starts |
|---|---|---|
| UK | March 2024 (new listings) | 15 April 2024 |
| US | 15 July 2024 | 18 July 2024 |
| Australia | 22 July 2026 | 22 July 2026 |
Two details stand out. The UK went first and the US followed about four months later, a gap that would have given Depop time to read the UK results before moving its biggest market. And Depop's US announcement says the zero selling fee applied to new listings, to US-based sellers and to USD sales only. One market, one currency, new listings first: that is a sensible template for anyone changing fees on a live marketplace.
It is also where flexible rules pay off. Shipturtle's commission automation works at the global, vendor, category and product level, so a new rate can go to one cohort or one category before it reaches the whole catalogue.
“Depop did not remove its commission. It moved it to the buyer and made the rest optional.”
How does Depop make money now?
Depop earns from three fee lines, and two different people pay them. The buyer pays a marketplace fee. The seller pays payment processing and, if they choose, a boost fee.
- Buyer marketplace fee. In the US it is up to 5% of the item price plus a fixed amount of up to $1, excluding taxes and postage, charged at checkout. Depop says it funds Depop Protection, customer support and platform improvements. It does not come out of the seller's payout.
- Payment processing. 3.3% plus $0.45 per US sale and 2.9% plus £0.30 per UK sale, calculated on the item price, shipping and tax. Sellers pay it. Depop presents it as a processing charge, so the maths below leaves it out.
- Boosted Listings. Optional promotion that sellers pay for only when a boosted item sells. It launched in 2022 at 8% and is now 12% for UK and US listings boosted from 23 March 2026, according to fee guides that cite Depop's help centre. Depop says the percentage varies by region, so confirm the current rate before you model it.
Put plainly, Depop did not remove its commission. It moved it to the buyer and made the rest optional. That shape, a baseline fee on the transaction plus an optional paid visibility product, is one of the hybrid structures in Shipturtle's breakdown of marketplace revenue models, and seven ways to monetize an online marketplace covers the alternatives.
What does one sale earn Depop before and after?
On a $40 item, Depop earned $4.00 under the old commission and earns up to $3.00 from the buyer fee now. The new baseline pays Depop less than the old one on anything above $20 and more on anything below it.
These figures use the top of Depop's published "up to" range (5% plus $1), ignore shipping and tax, and leave out payment processing, which applies on top. Actual buyer fees can be lower, so treat the right-hand column as a ceiling.
Revenue Models
| Item price | Old 10% seller fee | Buyer fee now (ceiling) |
|---|---|---|
| $10 | $1.00 | $1.50 |
| $20 | $2.00 | $2.00 |
| $40 | $4.00 | $3.00 |
| $100 | $10.00 | $6.00 |
The $20 crossover comes from the fixed dollar. At 5% alone the buyer fee would always trail the old 10%. Adding up to $1 flat means cheap items now pay Depop more per sale than before while expensive items pay it less, so a catalogue weighted toward low-priced fashion leans heavily on that fixed component.
Now look at who gains. The seller keeps $40 instead of $36 before processing, which is 11% more per sale. The buyer pays up to $43 instead of $40, unless the seller lowers the price to absorb the difference. The fee did not disappear. It moved to the side of the transaction that is less sensitive to it.
Add a boost and the picture changes again. If that $40 item sells through a Boosted Listing, the seller pays 12%, which is $4.80. Add the buyer fee of up to $3.00 and Depop earns up to $7.80, or 19.5% of the item price, nearly double the old commission. Boosting does the job the commission used to do, but only on the listings a seller chooses to promote, and only when they sell.
Why did Depop move the fee to the buyer?
To get more listings. Depop said removing the seller fee would help its community "list more, sell more and earn more", and seller supply is the hard part of any resale marketplace. Buyers arrive where the inventory is.
The numbers describe a platform with momentum to protect. According to FashionUnited's report on the deal, Depop reported about $1 billion in gross merchandise sales for 2025, close to 60% year-over-year growth in the US, and 7 million active buyers, nearly 90% of them under 34. Vinted entered the US in January 2026 and is competing for the same young sellers.
The catch is conversion. A buyer fee raises the checkout total, and the seller has to cover the gap with lower prices or accept fewer sales. Depop's answer is to spend the fee on search, recommendations and support. In its announcement it claimed buyers were 42% more likely to find what they wanted through search after recent investment. Whether that holds is the real test, because buyers will pay the fee only while the experience feels better than the cheaper alternatives.
Supply is the same problem on any platform, whatever the fee. Sellers list when signing up is easy and payout is predictable, which is why Shipturtle's vendor onboarding feature and its guide to simplifying seller onboarding matter as much as the commission rate itself.
What changed when eBay bought Depop?
The owner changed. As far as the fee guides we checked show, the fee model has not. eBay and Etsy announced the deal on February 18, 2026 at about $1.2 billion in cash, and eBay completed it on July 30, 2026 for roughly $1.4 billion once about $200 million of net adjustments and interest were added. Etsy had paid $1.625 billion in 2021, so it sold for less than it paid.
Depop keeps its name, platform and culture, and Peter Semple stays on as CEO. eBay has said it plans to bring services such as Authenticity Guarantee and shipping to Depop and to widen the reach of Depop's inventory, including through cross-listing.
There is a pattern here. eBay made selling free for UK private sellers in 2024 and later added a Buyer Protection Fee and managed shipping to replace the lost seller revenue. The two biggest consumer-to-consumer fashion players now charge in a similar way: no seller commission, a buyer fee and paid promotion. For anyone building a marketplace, a seller commission as the default is no longer a given in consumer resale.
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What can a marketplace builder borrow from Depop?
Four things, plus one to check before you copy anything.
Price for the cheapest item you expect to sell. The fixed dollar in Depop's buyer fee protects revenue on low-ticket orders. If your average order is small, a pure percentage will starve you, and the crossover table above shows where the break-even sits.
Add the optional layer after supply is dense. Paid promotion only works when there is enough inventory competing for attention. Depop launched Boosted Listings in 2022, years after it built its catalogue, and raised the rate in 2026.
Tie the fee to something buyers can see. Depop attached its buyer fee to protection, support and search. A fee with a visible job is easier to defend than a fee that looks like a toll.
Keep your rules flexible. Depop's fees changed by market, by date, by listing cohort and again for boosts in March 2026. Every one of those is a rules problem before it is a pricing problem. Shipturtle is a Shopify-native multi-vendor marketplace platform that handles vendor onboarding, order splitting, commissions and payouts, and its Shopify App Store listing covers C2C and P2P marketplaces as well as multi-vendor ones. Commission structures can be set per vendor or per category, a mixed cart is split automatically so each vendor sees only their own items, and payout integrations automate vendor payments through Stripe and PayPal. Marketplace setup typically takes one to two weeks at most, and the customers page shows how live marketplaces structure their fees.
One thing to check first. A buyer-paid fee at checkout is configured differently from a seller commission. If your plan leans on one, scope how it will be set up before you commit to the pricing.
Depop did not give up its take. It changed who pays it and made part of it optional, and the arithmetic shows the effect: cheap items earn more than before, expensive items earn less, and boosted items earn the most. Whether that structure suits your marketplace depends on your average order value, how much supply you need to attract, and whether your platform can change rates without a rebuild. If you want to test a fee structure like this on your own marketplace, book a demo with Shipturtle and walk through how the commission and payout rules would be set up.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Depop still charge sellers a fee?
Does Depop still charge sellers a fee?
Not a selling fee in the US, UK or Australia. The 10% fee was removed in the UK in March 2024, the US in July 2024 and Australia in July 2026. Sellers still pay payment processing and the optional boost fee, and other markets still show a 10% selling fee in recent fee guides, so check Depop's help centre for your region.
How much is the Depop buyer marketplace fee?
How much is the Depop buyer marketplace fee?
In the US and Australia it is up to 5% of the item price plus up to $1 (or A$1), excluding taxes and postage. The UK fee is also described as up to 5%. Because it is an "up to" figure, the exact amount at checkout can be lower.
How does Depop make money without seller fees?
How does Depop make money without seller fees?
Mainly through the buyer marketplace fee, plus the 12% Boosted Listings fee that sellers pay when a boosted item sells. Payment processing fees cover the cost of moving money rather than acting as a marketplace commission.
Who owns Depop now?
Who owns Depop now?
eBay. It completed the acquisition on July 30, 2026 for roughly $1.4 billion in cash, buying Depop from Etsy, which had owned it since 2021. Depop keeps its brand and platform.
Can I build a marketplace like Depop on Shopify?
Can I build a marketplace like Depop on Shopify?
Yes, for the marketplace mechanics: vendor onboarding, commission rules, order splitting and payouts, which Shipturtle's marketplace product covers for multi-vendor and C2C models. Depop's social discovery and Gen Z community are a separate product and audience challenge that no platform provides for you.
About The Author
Disha Krishnani
Disha Krishnani is a marketing professional with hands on experience in building and scaling digital businesses. With a background in finance and e-commerce, she’s passionate about helping startups grow smarter, not just bigger.
Currently working in the C2C marketplace space, Disha combines SEO, business development, and a deep understanding of user behavior to create strategies that drive visibility and sustainable growth. She believes every marketplace has its own story, and her goal is to help brands tell it better while optimizing for conversions.
A postgraduate from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Disha approaches every project with a practical mindset, blending creativity with real-world business insight. Her curiosity for how startups evolve keeps her exploring new ideas, tools, and trends that shape the future of digital commerce.