Understanding Depop’s algorithm
When a user searches for an item on Depop, we show them the most relevant search results. This is accomplished in two phases.
First, the algorithm scans the keywords entered and filters applied by the seller across the item name, description, category, brand and tags (e.g. color or style) of all listings on Depop to return an initial set of results.
Second, once the algorithm has gathered all listings relevant to the user’s search query, it uses the information we have about each listing and shop to rank these listings, so that users are shown items that they are most likely to buy, from sellers who follow our guidelines and provide a positive customer experience for our buyers.
There are a number of different factors that determine the order in which these listings are displayed in search results. The most important ones are listed below:
- Relevancy
We match the user’s search word or phrase to listings that include the same words or phrases, whether in the item’s name, description, or in the tags applied by the seller, e.g. brand, category, style or color. Listings that do not contain any matching words or phrases won’t be included in results. For example, a search for “nike blue sweatshirt” will only return items that match “nike”, “blue“ and “sweatshirt” in either the item’s name, description or tags.
When both an item’s description and tags match the search query, then that listing may be ranked higher in results because it’s viewed by our algorithm as more relevant to the search than if the search word or phrase is only used in the listing once.
- Recency
Recency means how recently an item was listed by a seller. New listings rank higher than older listings in the search results to broad queries such as “nike sweatshirt”, where no filters are applied. However buyers don’t typically submit such broad search queries, and if they do, they will find what they are looking for by applying filters such as size, price and color.
For this reason, recency has a significantly lower effect on a listing’s ranking than relevance has, even if the user applies the ‘Newly listed’ sort function.
- Location
Our algorithm prioritizes listings created by sellers located in the same country as the buyer. Listings from other countries will be displayed at the end of the buyer’s search under “items from the rest of the world”.
- Buyer experience score
We want to make sure that buyers have the best experience when they shop on Depop. To do this, we give each seller a buyer experience score. The higher a seller’s score, the more highly that seller may rank in search results. To determine your score, Depop considers a variety of factors that contribute to an overall positive buying experience, including buyer reviews and any violations of our Terms of Service or policies in the past 90 days.
- Boosted Listings
Boosted Listings is Depop’s in-platform advertising service, which enables sellers to promote or ‘boost’ their listing in search results to reach a wider audience. Sellers who boost their listings are charged an 8% boosting fee on the total transaction amount (the cost of the item plus taxes and any shipping costs arising from the seller arranging their own shipping) if their item sells via a boosted tile, in addition to Depop selling fees and transaction fees.
You will see boosted listings appear throughout organic search results in boosted tiles, which are tagged with a ‘boosted’ icon to help you to distinguish these from other listings.
Our algorithm ranks boosted listings separately from organic listings by displaying the most relevant boosted listings to a user’s search query in boosted tiles, which are tagged with a 'boosted' icon. For this reason, boosted listings may appear more highly in search results than organic listings, because the number of boosted listings that are relevant to a user’s search query is likely to be much lower than the number of relevant organic listings.
The same factors that determine the ranking of organic listings set out above also determine the order in which boosted listings are ranked, with relevance being the most important factor.
Read more on Boosted Listings here.
Note: Top Seller or verified seller status does not have an impact on the ranking of listings in search results.
To learn more, check out our Search FAQs. This article is incorporated into and forms part of our Terms of Service.