UK vintage is a Depop-first, own-site-forever game
Depop is the UK vintage discovery channel. Gen Z default, 30 million users, mobile-native, 10% fee. Vinted is the volume play (zero seller fees). eBay UK for higher-value pieces. Etsy Vintage for pre-1980s items only (their rule — anything 20+ years old).
The pattern that works for UK vintage sellers: list on Depop for discovery. Move the resulting repeat buyers to your own Freewebstore. First sale on Depop costs you 10%; second sale on your own site costs 2.5% (Community) or 0.5% (Startup). Effective platform fee blends down from 10% toward 3% over a year of trading.
Open My Free Vintage ShopThe VAT Margin Scheme — a big UK advantage
The single most valuable UK-specific rule for vintage sellers.
Standard VAT: on a £100 dress you charge 20% VAT (£16.67), keeping £83.33.
VAT Margin Scheme: on a £100 dress you bought for £40, you only charge VAT on the £60 margin. That’s £10 VAT rather than £16.67. Kept: £90.
The scheme applies to VAT-registered UK sellers of eligible secondhand goods (clothes, jewellery, homeware, collectables, books). HMRC VAT Notice 718 has the detailed rules and recordkeeping requirements. Freewebstore lets you set VAT per product to accommodate margin-scheme accounting.
Under £90,000 turnover: no VAT registration required, so this all becomes moot until you scale up.
Built for UK vintage sellers
Unique-piece product listings
Every vintage item is one-of-one — set stock to 1. When it sells, the listing goes out-of-stock automatically. Archive sold items (keep them visible for SEO but marked unavailable) or take them down. Freewebstore handles both patterns.
Condition & measurements fields
Custom fields for exact measurements (chest, waist, length — vintage sizing is unreliable), condition detail, era (1970s / 80s / 90s), material, provenance. Displays as structured info on the product page — the way vintage buyers judge worth.
Klarna at checkout
Vintage AOV in the UK is often £40–£120. Klarna and Clearpay lift fashion conversion significantly at those price points. Both integrate with Freewebstore natively alongside Stripe and PayPal. No surcharge on any gateway.
