We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Amanda Oakley. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Amanda below.

Hi Amanda, thanks for joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

It was late summer of 2019 & I was about 5 months pregnant with my third & last baby at 34 years old. I was casually scrolling around on YouTube when I somehow stumbled upon a unique content creator that caught my attention & learned that she, along with many others, were using a platform called Depop to sell their items. The thought of doing something like that became very appealing to me & I already had some experience doing something similar as I had just a few months prior ended a job at a consignment store where part of my job was listing items from the store on eBay & I would also pack up & label the items for shipping. Sometimes I would be receiving items people would bring into the store to sell on the floor so I had to carefully look over each item & either enter it into the system or give it back to the customer if it had any flaw whatsoever. Not only that, but as far back as I can remember I have always loved visiting secondhand stores & yard sales because you really never know what kind of treasures you may find.
I also learned about the massive impact that discarded items that aren’t trash have on the landfills that effect our environment. Each year as much as 92 million tons of clothing ends up in landfills! Only 20% of textiles are collected for reuse or recycling globally. 85% of donated clothing ends up in landfills & that is unacceptable to me & something I want to help with. Finding new homes for discarded items is something I get a lot of joy from.
So the idea of being my own boss, doing things how I want to do them & having creative freedom was exactly what I wanted, so I decided to spend a lot of time researching & building my ‘brand’ & that’s how Thriftphoria was born!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a 39 year old mom of three & animal lover from Central California. I’m passionate about what I do because I get to connect with different people that are interested in buying secondhand which makes me happy because fast fashion & overconsumption places a heavy burden on our planet.
Providing a small little space on the internet called Thriftphoria is a place anyone with any aesthetic or interest can find something they love. & if not that’s ok because I’m constantly adding new & different types of items so that every time you visit, you never know what you may find!
I want to make sure customers feel confident in purchasing from me which is why I take the time to prepare & look over each item catefully before I photograph it. I make sure the photos are clear, well lit & show all the details. I list measurements for everything, am always quick to respond to any messages & all purchases get shipped out with little gifts either the same or next day as long as it’s not a Sunday or holiday.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Not long after I started the process of building my online business I was met with multiple hurdles to overcome.
On Christmas Eve of 2019 I gave birth to a baby boy & then right after that the COVID-19 pandemic happened which meant I suddenly had to homeschool my 9 & 6 year old daughters & take care of a newborn while we were living in my parent’s house.
February of 2021 my parents wanted us all out of their home so we had no choice but to live in a hotel for 10 days until we were able to get an apartment. The space was definitely on the small side, but we made it work for the time being & I continued to try to grow my business given the circumstances.
I actually really enjoy what I do so it helped me feel fulfilled & happy even though there were periods of time I wasn’t even able to create listings because of what was happening.
We now own our own home, my kids have their own rooms with a big backyard & it’s everything I could have ever hoped for.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

I currently use Depop as my main selling platform, but I’m working on branching out & cross listing on other platforms such as eBay, Mercari & Vinted.
Since being on Depop for a handful of years now I obviously like that particular platform & I guess the main reason is the simple layout & listing process. Being able to save listings as drafts & come back to them later is something I really love.
Some of the not so great things about this particular platform in my opinion is the fact that there are a lot of people who make offers to sellers that never purchase. This happens often & to many sellers that are hoping someday the offers will be binding like most other platforms.
Also with Depop in particular, the buyer demographic seems to largely be younger people that follow a certain aesthetic.
My hope is that Thriftphoria will help to provide a vast array of eclectic items to appease all tastes.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/shopthriftphoria
• Other: http://www.depop.com/thriftphoria