FAQ

The buying of 2nd hand clothing and other products. This entails the sustainable consumption of recycled clothing.

-60% of new clothing is made from synthetic textiles, that take up to hundred thousand years to decompose are dumped in landfills
-the cotton grown and used in clothes that are mass produced are grown with pesticides that cause water, air and soil pollution

-It allows people to be aware of the toxic fast fashion websites that have been causing global warming and towards ethical second-hand online clothing stores such as Onlythrift

-Buyers and sellers register their accounts on OnlyThrift.

-Sellers submit each of their products on the OnlyThrift sellers form with 4 or more photos of each product.

-Once submitted, the products of the seller are closely analysed to meet the quality standards of OnlyThrift and to be authenticated by OnlyThrifts experienced authenticating team.

-Once approved by the OnlyThrift team the product will be uploaded on the site for buers to see.

-When a buyer finds an item they would like to purchase, they will deposit their funds including the delivery fee. These funds are first deposited to the OnlyThrift account and withheld until the seller delivers the product to the buyers destination and the buyer confirms they have received the correct product only then will OnlyThrift deposit the funds to the seller and the sale and purchase will be deemed successful.

-Sellers are also allowed to enable bids on their products and their product will be sold to the buyer who offers the highest bid. This of course will take a longer duration as bids usually take 3 or more days but this bidding option is of course optional for sellers who prefer a more urgent sale.

-When a customer buys a product, OnlyThrift automatically charges an 9% fee on the total paid by the customer.

OnlyThrift is committed to providing a safe and carefully curated marketplace for buyers with high quality, authentic and exceptional thrift gems. Curating and authenticating each product of course takes a lot of time and effort. Maintaining the platform to maximize the best user experience is also costly thus your support allows us to maintain these high standards to create the best platform for you. 

Here’s how it works:

When a buyer purchases an item for R500 a delivery fee of R100 is automatically included. OnlyThrift then deducts a 9% of the total transaction fee of R600. This means the seller will receive their R546. 

The 9% amounting to R54 will go towards external costs such as the payment gateway fees and bank fees and also goes to internal fees such as paying our admin workers, accountants, IT developers, marketing team, customer relation support, licensing, management and data storage. This fee allows us to improve our service and enhance your user experience.

This fee also allows us to create jobs for young South African creatives and growing our thriftpreneurs so you are not only buying great thrift gems you are also tackling South Africa’s plague of youth unemployment.

-When a buyer has browsed through the site and does not find what they are looking for OnlyThrift is giving a unique, innovative feature to allow customers to hire their own personal thrifter to find them thrift gems.

-The buyer will fill in a form on the “Hire a thrifter” page specifying their contact and delivery details and provide a description of all the items they desire with the support of photos of examples of these items upload.

For example: 

-Tim will fill in this form providing his contact, delivery and sizing info and tell us that he wants vintage jeans, a leather jacket, loafers and 3 trucker caps. He will then also fill in what his budget is. 

-Tim will then be redirected to the payment gateway and transfer R800( his budget) to OnlyThrift. We will then get Tim in contact with one of our experienced thrifters who will send Tim pictures of all the items they have thrifted for team and Tim will accept or decline each item. This process will take a duration of 1-2weeks depending on the amount of items Tim requested.

-OnlyThrift will then deliver all the items to the thrifter.

-OnlyThrift charges an 19% commission for this personalized service. This fee allows us to pay the thrifter for their time and effort and also allows us to hire more thrifters thus creating more opportunities for unemployed youth to put bread on their families tables.

-Bidding allows us to generate the best possible sale for the seller.

-When a seller enables bidding they will set their base price and then choose the increments they would like the price to increase by.

For example

if a seller sets a base price of R300, and the first buyer can place an offer for R300 but if another buyer comes and offers R320 the item will be sold to that buyer unless a 3rd buyer comes and offers R340 then it will be sold to the highest bidder and so forth. This process can continue exponentially until the seller accepts their best offer. 

-Your safety is our number one priority. We have innovated strategies to mitigate your risk to scammers, fraud, malicious activity and poor customer service from sellers.

-OnlyThrift acts as a middle man between buyer and seller.  When a buyer purchases their item, their funds first go to OnlyThrifts bank account and are withheld there until the seller has delivered the product to the buyer and only until the buyer has sent us confirmation then we will send the proceeds to the seller. This ensures that buyers do not get scammed by any seller.

-Should the seller decide to not deliver the item or deliver the items or the buyer receives the items but the item is significantly not as described in the listing or buyer receives the wrong or inauthentic product, OnlyThrift will fully refund the buyer and the seller will be held responsible for proving additional funds of R100 to deliver the item back to themselves. For more information visit the buyer protection policy

-However to be eligible for this the buyer must notify the OnlyThrift customer support that their parcel was not delivered either by our chat portal or email info@onlythrift.com. The buyer must give us details of their order number if it was not delivered so we can immediately contact the seller to deliver the item. if the buyer finds that the item is significantly not as presented in the photographs and description and if the seller did not include the damages, stains, rips, missing buttons or zips on the item then the buyer must send photographs of these damages and send them to our chat portal or to info@onlythrift.com. If the buyer does not provide adequate evidence that the seller misrepresented the item in the listing then they will not be eligible for refund and the proceeds will be sent to the seller.

-OnlyThrift also holds onto the buyers funds in the case of ‘Hire A Thrifter’. Should one of our trusted, experienced thrifters not manage to find the items you desire or at least similar we will refund you for each item they did not manage to find.

-OnlyThrift also encourages online transactions from risk of face to face meet ups during this pandemic allowing users to buy and sell online from the comfort of their homes.

-OnlyThrift also encourages online transactions to eliminate the need for face to face meet ups which could put each party in danger of fraud, robbery or any malicious activity.

-Refer to the buyer protection policy for more information on the extra steps we take to provide safety for our community.

-OnlyThrift gives sellers freedom to decide which delivery option works best for them, wether it be Aramex, Courier Guy, Postnet or Paxi. This all depends on which delivery option is closest and most convenient for the seller.

-When the buyer buys an item the delivery fee will be automatically included in the total deposited to the OnlyThrift account. The seller must use their own funds to deliver these items, which will be reconciled back to the seller once the sale is successul. The seller will receive their sale price and delivery cost.

-For Example:

When Tim purchases a hoodie from Adam for R300, the R100 delivery fee will be automatically included but Adam must first send the hoodie via the listed courier services within 3 days of Tims payment. Adam must use his own R100 to deliver this parcel. When Tim confirms he has received and is happy with his item only then will OnlyThrift release the funds to Adam.

OnlyThrift will send Adam R400-R36(OnlyThrift commsision)=R364 . Thus Adam will receive his R364 total which will cover his initial delivery cost.

OnlyThrift is the revolutionary platform that puts the world of thrifting in your hands. Allowing you to thrift gems from the comfort of your home while supporting sustainability by encouraging a culture of recycling clothing and reducing the plague of fast fashion.

-OnlyThrift, essentially, is a simple buying and selling marketplace of preloved clothing and have them delivered to you.