About Us
Hi there, I'm Alifa. I've been shopping secondhand for over 20 years, starting from my childhood in Bandung, Indonesia.
I loved the thrill of finding affordable pieces, but I also saw the downsides early on. A lot of the imported secondhand clothes weren’t in good condition — many were dirty, and after spending months on ships from places like the US, some arrived contaminated with bacteria and viruses like Staphylococcus aureus, E. coli, and even HPV. Eventually, the Indonesian government banned the import of secondhand clothing for health and safety reasons.
Fast forward to 2021 — I’d moved to Sydney to be with my partner, Adi. Life was good, and then Covid hit. Suddenly, everyone was hyper-aware of hygiene, and it reminded me of the huge volumes of secondhand clothing sent from countries like Australia — which, by the way, has one of the highest rates of textile consumption in the world. It really struck me how much clothing waste was being shipped off elsewhere, when there had to be a better, cleaner, lower-impact way to deal with it locally.
That's when we decided to build SwapUp.
What started as a Covid project has grown into one of Australia’s largest secondhand communities, with over 40,000 people buying and selling their wardrobes through us.
Every day, we’re working on new ways to make secondhand the easy choice — because we know most people want to reduce fashion waste and give their clothes a second life, but not everyone has the time to do it themselves.
So we built the systems to do it for you — sorting, photographing, listing, pricing and rehoming as many items as possible to keep them in circulation.
Welcome to SwapUp 💜
Our mission is to make it so ridiculously easy to buy and sell secondhand, that we make secondhand mainstream.
Once sellers send in or drop off their items, we do all the hard work of inspecting, steaming, photographing, listing, and shipping items to buyers.
We're all about making circular fashion accessible to everyone ♻️
We believe you should get rewarded for choosing the right thing.
Sellers get paid between 15-60% of the item's price during the consignment period, and earn 20% bonus on top when they use their credit to shop.
While buyers get save up to 70% off retail price, all day, every day, wherever they are in Australia 🇦🇺
Our merchandising team works hard to add hundreds of items to our store every day.
With 800+ brands and 6000+ items available, there is always something for everyone 🌈
We try to minimise our carbon footprint as much as possible.
All orders are sent with Australia Post's carbon neutral shipping and packed using recyclable cardboard boxes or compostable satchels that disappear within 90-120 days of composting!
