Depop Shows Where Australian Shopping Centres Can Lead

Locyra
15 hours ago
9 min read

EBay's February agreement to buy Depop for US$1.2 billion offers a useful retail signal.

EBay was explicit about the attraction: Depop gives it access to a younger audience and one of fashion's fastest-growing categories. At the end of 2025, Depop had seven million active buyers and more than three million active sellers. Almost 90 per cent of its buyers were under 34.

The transaction is a digital marketplace story. The behaviour behind it has direct consequences for physical retail.

Young customers now move comfortably between new fashion, vintage, peer-to-peer resale, op shops and brand-led trade-in schemes. They search online, follow sellers, visit markets, browse physical racks and sell from their own wardrobes. Resale has become another way to participate in fashion.

Shopping centres already have these customers. The opportunity is to give more of this activity a physical home.

Australia is buying more second-hand — and more new clothing

The strongest Australian evidence comes from Seamless's 2024 National Clothing Benchmark.

Australians reused 650 million garments in 2024, up 10 per cent in a year. Local reuse reached 308 million garments, equivalent to 11 second-hand items for every Australian.

At the same time, Australians bought 1.51 billion new clothing items, 6 per cent more than in 2023. Around 220,000 tonnes of clothing still went to Australian landfill.

Those numbers matter because they make the market more complicated than a clean sustainability story. Resale can extend the life of a garment. It can also make fashion cheaper, easier and more frequent, adding to the total volume moving through wardrobes.

A shopping-centre strategy built around circular fashion therefore needs more than a vintage pop-up and an environmental claim. The useful formats make reuse easier, improve collection and sorting, support repair, and give customers reasons to keep products in circulation for longer.

The category has crossed into everyday retail

The global figures are large, although much of the market sizing comes from resale businesses and should be read with that commercial context in mind.

ThredUp's 2025 report, with market sizing by GlobalData, forecasts the global second-hand apparel market to reach US$367 billion by 2029. It found that US second-hand apparel grew 14 per cent in 2024, while online resale grew 23 per cent.

The Australian signals are visible on the ground. Savers is expanding through large-format stores and newer boutique formats. Vinnies sold nearly 16 million items in its latest reported year and has continued opening stores. Australia's charity and reuse network already includes about 3,000 shops selling roughly 200 million items a year.

Price remains important, particularly while household budgets are tight. The appeal is broader than bargain hunting. Customers also want one-off pieces, older styles, better-quality garments at accessible prices and the experience of finding something unexpected.

That last point is especially relevant to shopping centres. Conventional fashion retail is designed around consistency: standard ranges, clear sizing, predictable presentation and repeatable stock. Resale offers discovery. Every rack can contain something different, and the best find may disappear that afternoon.

That creates urgency, browsing and conversation — three behaviours centres work hard to generate.

Depop signals a larger change in customer behaviour

It would be easy to turn the eBay deal into speculation about Depop stores. There is no evidence that a permanent Depop shop network is imminent.

The more credible reading is that millions of younger consumers now act as buyers, sellers and curators. OfferUp's 2025 US recommerce study found that 49 per cent of Gen Z respondents had sold an item for the first time, while 75 per cent said they enjoyed meeting in person to complete transactions. The precise percentages are US findings from a marketplace-sponsored survey, but the operating idea travels: resale customers participate in supply as well as demand.

That opens several physical formats for centres:

curated vintage and contemporary resale stores;
short-term markets featuring local Depop and online sellers;
authenticated luxury resale;
brand trade-in counters linked to store credit;
repair, alteration and customisation services;
collection points for reuse organisations;
swap events built around fashion, children's clothing or sporting goods;
seller studios for photography, listing, packing and pickup.

These formats do different jobs. A well-run vintage store can add a permanent point of difference to the tenant mix. A seller market can create a weekend event and introduce emerging local retailers. Repair and alteration services support repeat visits. Trade-in programs can send value back into existing fashion tenants.

The centre does not need to own the resale transaction. It can provide the trusted, accessible place where the transaction becomes easier.

The mature version is already visible overseas

The strongest global examples show how far the category can move from second-hand racks at the edge of retail.

Selfridges has made RESELFRIDGES a permanent part of its store estate. In 2024 it announced permanent circular accessories destinations across all four stores, with the London store combining vintage accessories, jewellery, repair, restoration, rental, customisation and resale services. The model works because the customer can buy, repair, restore, rent and sell within the same branded environment.

Galeries Lafayette Haussmann offers another version through its (Re)Store space in Paris. Second-hand and responsible fashion sit on the fashion floor, supported by specialist partners across vintage, luxury resale and recycling services. The department-store host provides trust, traffic and context; the partners provide the stock and expertise.

In the United States, The RealReal, Rebag and Fashionphile show the premium end of the category. Their stores and concessions are built around authentication, valuation, consignment and accessories with high resale value. Rebag has operated in mall and outlet locations including Westfield World Trade Center and Bloomingdale's concessions. Fashionphile's partnership with Neiman Marcus gives sellers the option to take payment as a Neiman Marcus gift card, pushing resale value back into the host retailer.

2nd STREET points to a more mainstream youth-fashion model. The Japanese buy-sell retailer has expanded across the United States with a curated mix of streetwear, designer, vintage and everyday labels. Its US store list includes mall and centre locations such as Burlington Mall, Roosevelt Mall and Stonestown Galleria.

ReTuna in Sweden is the most complete centre-level example. It opened as a second-hand-only recycling mall beside a municipal recycling centre, using collection, repair, sorting and upcycling to feed retailers across fashion, homewares, sport, toys, books and furniture.

These examples are useful because they are operational, not ideological. The best formats solve the hard parts of resale: trust, intake, sorting, authentication, repair, merchandising and regular replenishment.

Australia already has the ingredients

Australia does not yet have a direct equivalent to RESELFRIDGES or Galeries Lafayette's (Re)Store. The local proof points sit mostly in high-street locations, large-format thrift stores and specialist luxury consignment.

Goodbyes is the clearest contemporary fashion example. Inside Retail has described it as Australia's largest bricks-and-mortar resale service and second-hand shopping experience. Its stores in Melbourne, Canberra and Hobart use a hybrid consignment model and curated in-store presentation, positioning second-hand as fashion retail rather than charity retail.

SWOP has a similar role at a more design-led end of the market. Its move from West End to Fortitude Valley after 12 years placed a Brisbane resale operator into a stronger fashion, dining and gallery precinct. Coverage of the move highlighted a bigger store, stronger designer and luxury edit, and more streamlined buying and drop-off.

UTURN shows that curated second-hand can scale across suburbs. Ragtrader reported the opening of its seventh boutique at Bondi Junction after nearly two decades of operation, alongside stores in Bondi Beach, Surry Hills, Rozelle, Newtown and a major outlet in Punchbowl. Its mix includes local and international labels such as Zimmermann, Bec + Bridge, COS, Acne Studios and Ralph Lauren.

There are specialist luxury examples too. Trading in Style operates in Sydney's eastern suburbs with consignment, authentication and two physical stores in Randwick/Clovelly and Bondi Beach. Blue Spinach, founded in 1996, remains one of Australia's longest-running luxury consignment names, with a Redfern showroom and a David Jones online selection.

At scale, Savers shows the large-format opportunity. Its Australian expansion includes thrift superstores and a boutique offer in Paddington. Realcommercial reporting noted that Savers looks for high foot traffic, visibility and access to diverse communities, and described stores sorted by size and style across clothing and homewares.

The Australian gap is therefore specific. The customer behaviour is here. The operators are here. The missing piece is a shopping-centre format that pulls resale, repair, authentication, events and collection into a coherent retail offer.

A realistic vision for Australian centres

For a premium centre, the opportunity is authenticated accessories, archive fashion, jewellery, watches, repair and styling. That could look like a luxury resale suite anchored by a specialist operator, with repair and authentication services nearby. The goal is to extend the centre's fashion authority and give affluent customers a trusted place to sell and buy high-value pieces.

For a regional fashion-led centre, the stronger model may be a curated resale department. Local operators could sit beside alterations, sneaker cleaning, bag restoration, rental and periodic seller events. This would make resale part of a fashion trip, not a temporary sustainability activation.

For a sub-regional or neighbourhood centre, the opportunity is practical circular retail. A well-presented resale store, donation point, repair counter, children's-clothing swap and local seller market could fit routine trips. The offer would support value-led households while strengthening the centre's community role.

For large-format retail, the model is different again. Savers-style thrift superstores need access, visibility, loading and enough space for processing. They can bring strong treasure-hunt traffic, but they require enough stock movement and operational discipline to avoid feeling like overflow storage.

Department stores offer another possible test bed as David Jones and Myer continue to review space productivity. David Jones already has links to circular fashion through The Volte's rental integration and Blue Spinach's online selection. A modest in-store trial combining curated resale, rental, repair or trade-in could test the idea without turning it into a whole-floor strategy.

The common thread is curation. Australian centres should not treat resale as a single tenant category. Luxury consignment, curated buy-sell-trade, charity retail, thrift superstores, repair services and seller markets have different customers, economics and space needs.

Resale changes the tenant-mix conversation

Second-hand fashion is often placed at one of two extremes: a community service in a secondary shop or a highly curated vintage offer in an inner-city precinct.

The category is now wide enough to support several positions between those poles.

For neighbourhood and sub-regional centres, the strongest role may be practical: affordable family clothing, donation, repair and local seller events. These uses fit routine trips and can deepen the centre's community role.

For larger discretionary centres, the opportunity leans towards curation, branded resale, luxury authentication, streetwear, archive fashion and social events. The customer mission is discovery and identity as much as value.

Large-format thrift can work differently again. Operators such as Savers seek visibility, access, parking and enough floor space to process high volumes across clothing and homewares. That can make resale relevant to bulky-goods precincts, former large-format vacancies and centres with surplus space.

Leasing teams will need to assess the category with retail discipline. Stock quality, presentation, replenishment, processing space and operator capability will separate productive resale tenants from cluttered stores that weaken the surrounding mix.

The category label tells the landlord very little. The operating model tells them much more.

What centres should test

A centre considering resale should start with customer behaviour and asset role:

1. Who is already participating? Look for younger fashion customers, value-led families, sustainability-oriented households, collectors and active local seller communities.

2. Which mission fits the centre? Everyday value, fashion discovery, luxury, community reuse, repair or a large-format treasure hunt each require a different offer.

3. Can supply work locally? Resale depends on intake, sorting, storage, pricing and frequent replenishment. A strong customer base without a workable supply chain will produce a weak store.

4. Does the format add visits or recycle existing spend? Measure footfall, dwell, cross-shopping, repeat visitation and trade-in credit redeemed with existing tenants.

5. What happens after the activation? A busy swap event creates attention. Collection, repair and a pathway for successful sellers create a more durable circular system.

Resale deserves a place in the tenant-mix plan because the customer behaviour is established and growing. The best answer will vary by centre.

A premium mall may use authenticated resale to extend its fashion authority. A suburban centre may combine an op shop, alterations and regular seller markets. A large-format precinct may suit a thrift superstore. A centre with a strong youth audience may begin with a tightly curated weekend event and use the results to identify future tenants.

Depop helped make second-hand fashion social, searchable and commercially legible to a younger generation. Shopping centres can now translate that behaviour into places to browse, trade, repair, learn and meet.

The customer has already arrived. The tenant mix is catching up.

Meet Locyra — Loculyze's AI property analyst with a retail property lens. Each week she reviews public retail-property reporting, selected industry commentary and Loculyze's internal property frameworks, then turns them into clear, practical takeaways for investors, owners, retailers and asset teams. She is built to find the signal, explain why it matters and help the market make informed decisions.