Is Patatam the new place to go for second-hand clothes?

Offering 70% off, the French online retailer has launched in the UK – and you’ll soon be able to sell it your clothes as well.

Patatam has just arrived in the UK after five years in France and sells second-hand clothing for women and kids. 

You can pick up anything from jackets and dresses to sports gear and tops and most items are typically high street brands from the budget end including Primark and Matalan to Gap, Zara, Monsoon and M&S.

All items are checked in its warehouse before being bought and put up for sale online, as Patatam say it only accept items in ‘excellent condition’. 

The firm says that, from next year, you’ll be able to sell it your clothes.

Fixed prices

There’s no bidding here, unlike eBay, as all items are advertised at a fixed price that’s set by Patatam. 

In fact, the most you’ll pay for any item is £19.99, but after a trawl through the site, I found the vast majority of items are much cheaper, at under £10. 

However, don’t expect to get lucky and bag a super expensive brand at a snip, as you’re much less likely to find top end high street brands like LK Bennett, Reiss, Whistles, Ted Baker on sale here than you would on eBay.

Instead, you'll get brand like Next, Asos and H&M.

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Quality photos

Unlike other sites, where the quality of snaps will be dependent on the seller’s photographic ability, with Patatam, all items are clearly photographed and displayed on mannequins.

When you find what you want, pop it in your bag and payment is by card or PayPal, and there’s free delivery if you spend over £40, otherwise it’s £2.

First timers also get an additional 20% off by signing up for the online newsletter.

Free returns

While Patatam says all items are excellent quality, there’s no option on the site to ask questions, like how many times an item’s been worn, if its ‘dry clean’ only or the length of dress or jacket before buying.

However, a big bonus with Patatam compared with other sites is that you get 14 days to return items. 

So, if you’ve misjudged your size, don’t like the style or aren't happy with the quality, you can get your money back.

Where does stock come from?

You can’t currently sell your clothes to Patatam, which raises the question of where it gets its ‘top quality’ second-hand stock from.

When I asked, it says clothing comes into its warehouse from “different companies and charities”, although it won’t name companies for ‘confidential’ reasons, but does say this includes buying surplus stock from second-hand shops and working “with companies like Cash4Clothes”.    

Incidentally, Cash4Clothes is a company that buys up unwanted clothing, (paying 45p per kg), and sends items abroad to countries like Ukraine and Romania.

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Other options 

There’s also several other sites and apps where you can buy second-hand clothing.

Vinted.co.uk

Here you can buy, and sell, second-hand clothing and accessories for men, women and children.   And there’s a big range of labels for every budget from Primark and Next to Converse, Michael Kors and Gucci.

With this site, you’re buying from the seller direct, although there’s no bidding as items come with a fixed price plus postage.

Payment is by debit or credit card, PayPal or your ‘Vinted’ account.  And there’s buying fees to factor in, at up to 8% of the item price, plus a fixed fee of up to 80p which all cover processing and protection.

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Oxfam

As well as high street shops, Oxfam’s got an online outlet that sells second-hand clothes as well as other items. www.oxfam.org.uk/shop

You can see good, clear photos of items plus a description and delivery is a standard £3.95 per order.  Free returns here up to 28 days.

As with Patatam, you can’t ask questions, but with the free returns option, you won’t be out of pocket if you don’t like something.

eBay

I’ve always been a big fan of eBay for second-hand clothes as its detailed search facility means you can hunt down ‘worn once’ items in seconds or hunt for items in certain colours, sizes or with a certain length of sleeve.

My tip is to always ask about faults, even if the item’s listed as being in great condition.  I drop the seller a message asking them to confirm that there’s no, ‘marks, rips or snags’, just to be totally sure the item’s in excellent condition.

Payment is by PayPal, which means protection if you’ve got a problem as you’ve got 180 days to raise a dispute, in the event the issue can’t be resolved directly with the seller.

Shpock

This is basically a ‘boot sale app’ for buying and selling in your local area.  

It’s great if you want the ‘community’ factor, but could prove a pain if you buy a lot and have to spend evenings walking round the neighbourhood to collect your purchases. 

Read our article on it here.

Depop

Think Instagram meets eBay rolled into one with this shopping app.

You can read more about it here