Online shopping has become something quite normal nowadays. However a new achievement has been made. In the UK online shopping via a smartphone, with a 52% figure, has outnumbered the visits made via a desktop for the first time. Figures show 36% of UK online sales are now completed on a smartphone or tablet. Social commerce is hereby a large driver of online shopping.
Last Wednesday, we discussed in class whether we buy items online via our mobile phones. The result was that most of us don’t prefer using this channel for online shopping, including myself. However there is not only a market for buying items online but also for selling them.
One of the applications that’s becoming more popular at the moment is called Depop. it’s an online marketplace that looks like a cross between Ebay and Instagram selling everything from clothing to art, in other words a combination between m-commerce and social networking. It has a very modern looking interface, as it looks a lot like Instagram. Users can follow each other, which makes it easier to see when your friends/ favorite sellers have something for sale. It also has several independent stores as partners and a lot of bloggers have a Depop-account and post about it. A new milestone was when Kate Moss’s sister, a Calvin Klein model, shared her Depop account with her many followers, which can contribute to their credibility.
I actually just made an account because I saw a lot of interesting Instagram users using this app, which made me want to follow them. So the social aspect of it definitely convinced me to download this app. While learning more about Depop, I discovered the most convenient aspect of it is that it works very quickly. I’ve been wanting to sell some of my clothing and shoes for a while, but never wanted to take the time to sell it via Ebay or Marktplaats as it seems too time-consuming. Although I don’t prefer buying items via my smartphone, I do prefer selling them via my smartphone.
Would you prefer selling your items via your smartphone? Knowing about Depop now would you choose this as a channel to sell your clothes, because of the social aspect it has, rather than via Ebay/Marktplaats? Do you think Depop will outplay these big competitors?
Sources:
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/sep/02/online-shopping-mobiles-overtakes-desktop
