Fashion and Money Conscious Student

Age: Late Gen Z 16-24

Interests: Fashion, Sustainability, Socio political issues

Where: Ireland, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Latvia (GoogleTrends, 2022)

90% of Depop’s consumers are Gen Z (Under 25s), (Maguire, 2021). “In the U.K., where Depop is headquartered, it is estimated that one in three 15-to-24-year-olds (Gen Z) is registered on the platform”, (Schneier, 2019).

The search term “Depop” had the highest interest by Ireland, followed by the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Latvia, (GoogleTrends, 2022). This shows that users are global, and tend to be in first world countries, Consumers will have access to wifi due to the online nature of Depop. Often live in large, built- up cities where most fashion is consumed.

75 % of Gen Z rejected “easy categorisation of their race, gender or sexuality”, whilst 60% felt their identity was linked to “a broad mix of factors, including race, culture and language”, (Hulu, 2020: Via: Maguire, 2021). Trends also come and go a lot quicker due to the fast pace of information coining the term ‘microtrends’, this is also due to the fact that there are a lot more smaller trends going around as everyone seeks individuality, (Marriott, 2020). Gen Z are self autonomous and care about social- political issues more than previous generations, (Francais et Hoefel, 2021), for example; LGBTQ rights, or the Black Lives Matter (BLM) campaign, (Casey, 2021).

Gen Z spend 43 minutes more shopping online after the pandemic (Bump, 2021). Gen Z spend just under 3 hours a day on social media (Hastie, 2020) 75% of Gen Z users on Depop use the app to reduce clothing consumption, over half of Gen Z use the Depop app to find one of a kind pieces and 45% of Gen Z Depop users use the app to “tap into trends” (Maguire, 2021). Gen Z most used social media is YouTube with 77% of Gen Z using the platform, Instagram with 67%, and TikTok with 64% (AFPRELAXNEWS, 2021). Gen Z are also more likely to be openly LGBTQ+, and therefore more likely to use gay dating apps (Casey, 2021).

Depop shares their socio-political views through their website blog, for example; “BLACK LIVES MATTER THEN, NOW, ALWAYS.”, and “Black. Trans. POC. Queer. Whoever you are – Depop is a platform for you”, (Depop, 2022)

Gen Z also care about sustainable clothing more than other previous generations with Mintel data showing 70% of 16-19-year-olds agree that “sustainability is an important factor when purchasing fashion items”, (Kale, 2021)

These values align with those of Gen Z who are progressive and support minority groups (Casey, 2021), 41% of Gen Z say LGBTQ discrimination is a social cause/issue they’re most passionate about compared to 23% of Millennials (Ypluse, 2020).

Depop operate on 3 pillars: community, entrepreneurship and sustainability. The community pillar is focused on “committed to empowering diversity within the fashion community” (Depop, 2021). One aim of the brief is to “tap into youth culture trends and communities”: this will be done by showing affiliation with youth culture through presenting models and clothing as gender fluid, supporting the LGBTQ+ for non binaries and connects with Gen Z as progressives in social issues such as gender fluidity, (Casey, 2021).