If you’ve got children, then you’ll know just how quickly they can grow out of their clothes, especially when they’re babies. For our first child, I bought everything new but I quickly cottoned on to just how much money I was wasting! For our other two children, I often bought clothes second-hand and sold them on once they’ve grown out of them. At the time when my three were really little, we used eBay to buy and sell clothes. Either that or I would just take our items to charity shops. But over recent years I’ve heard more and more about Vinted. I wanted to give Vinted a try for myself and find out how does Vinted work, so that I could share that with you as a way to sell your unwanted clothes and buy replacements.
How does Vinted work?
Vinted is an online marketplace and mobile app where users can buy and sell their unwanted items. Vinted is primarily geared up for the sale of clothing items, and that’s how it originally came to be known, but it has expanded slowly over the years and you can now use the marketplace for other items too.
You can sell all kinds of clothing items including jeans, skirts, shoes, boots, purses, handbags, backpacks and even lingerie. You can also use Vinted to see your unwanted accessories such as watches, sunglasses, belts and jewellery. But it’s not only clothing and accessories. Vinted also have other categories too, including home items, entertainment and pet care. Users can browse listings of items available for sale, and choose from them. Once the transaction is complete, buyers receive their items and sellers get paid. One of my favourite thing about Vinted is that buyers are protected. So, if there are any problems with an item, it’s down to the seller to rectify it. This is also why I always, always choose to pay for things with PayPal when I have the choice, it’s so easy to get a refund on undelivered or faulty items! Unfortunately, Vinted doesn’t currently allow PayPal as a method of payment, so you’ll need to register a debit card.
Getting started with Vinted
First of all, you’ll need to set up an account on Vinted so that you can use the platform to buy and/or sell. It’s really easy to sign up and takes a matter of minutes to get started.
- Head over to Vinted and click on “sign up”.
- Choose a username – I recommend using something you’ll remember!
- Verify your phone number
- Head to your profile settings and fill in a few details about yourself. Whilst this might not actually help you sell your items, it can be good for buyers to know who they’re buying off and you may have more success with a few details filled in.
- Make sure you fill in your payment details and postage details whilst you’re there as this will speed things up when you do start buying and selling and make it easier to make your first withdrawal.
- Take some time to check the privacy settings. There are a few things you might want to disallow such as allowing Vinted to use your images for their own marketing purposes. Obviously, these settings are down to personal preference!
How to list your first item on Vinted
Once you’ve set up your account, you’re ready to go ahead and list your first item.
- Click on “sell now” in the top right-hand corner
- Fill in the form to list your item
- Add as many photos as you can, you can add up to 20 photos and items with more images are more likely to sell.
- Be honest about the condition of your items for sale so that buyers know exactly what to expect. This will help to minimise the risk of any issues once your items are received.
Notice that at the bottom of the form, you can tick “I’m interested in swapping this”. This will add a circle of arrows (similar to the recycle symbol) to your listing that shows a potential buyer that you are interested in swapping this item for another item rather than selling it for a fee. You can find out more about how to swap items here.
Vinted shipping options
The selling process is really simple, but make sure you take some time over things like how you’ll ship your items at the time of listing so that the whole process runs smoothly. It’s actually down to the buyer to select and pay for which shipping option they would like to use, but they can only select from the options you have available on your listing.
You can opt to use a prepaid shipping label and ship via UPS, InPost, Yodel or Evri. Or, you can opt to use Royal Mail. The type of shipping you choose will obviously depend on the types of item you’re selling.
Collection is also available if your buyer lives locally to you, but they will only be able to see this if you allowed your city to be visible in your profile settings when you first set up your account.
Do things sell on Vinted?
Absolutely. In the early days, sales were perhaps a little slow, but Vinted is now really well known and is one of the most popular places to buy and sell second-hand fashion items.
As with any marketplace, initially, you might find it takes a while to get your first sale. But, once you start to receive feedback, your items will generally sell far quicker.
Is Vinted better than eBay
For years, eBay was THE place to buy and sell a second-hand item. But Vinted has really given them a run for their money!
Over the last couple of years, I have seen so many eBay sellers complain about the cost of selling on eBay, and Vinted doesn’t charge a penny to list and sell items using their marketplace.
There are also items that Vinted won’t allow you to sell whereas you can sell these on eBay, so there is definitely a market for both platforms!
I would always start off by listing my preloved clothes or unworn clothes on Vinted and Facebook Marketplace first, giving them a week or two to see if they sell, before then heading over to list them on eBay.
One of the biggest reasons why some sellers are sticking with eBay is that you cannot resell items on Vinted. Reselling is where you buy items with the intention of selling them on for a profit. Some resellers make a living from trawling the charity shops to find preloved clothes and other items which they then sell on at a profit. There is big money to be made if you know the types of second-hand clothing to look for. Some brands are really sought after.
One of the main differences between eBay and Vinted is that when you list an item on eBay for auction, you list it with an end time. If the item doesn’t sell, you then have to pay again to relist it. With Vinted, there isn’t an end date, so your items will stay live online until you’ve either sold them or removed them. Just be aware of this if you’re going away, as you have to post any sold items within 5 days. You can select to put your account into holiday mode. This will hide your items for up to 90 days.
What can you sell on Vinted?
Vinted only allow the sale of certain products, you can see a full list of what you can and can’t sell here. Out of the list of prohibited items, these were the ones that I found interesting, as you can sell these on eBay:
How does Vinted make money if they don’t charge to sell items?
Unlike other platforms, there is no selling fee when you sell an item through Vinted.
Vinted make their money by charging buyers rather than charging sellers which makes it really attractive to people wanting to declutter their kids old baby clothing or their own second-hand clothes. Vinted charge a fixed and variable fee on every purchase made through their site. This fee is called the Buyer Protection Fee. You will be able to see the total fee payable on the checkout page when you go to buy an item.
It’s also possible that Vinted earn commission from postage too, but this isn’t 100% clear.
What does vinted buyer protection cover?
Vinted Buyer Protection Services give the buyer protection against faulty or misleading sales. This makes the refund process really simple and gives the buyer protection if the item is not as described, fails to arrive, or arrives damaged.
Is it worth bumping listed items?
If you’ve listed your items and they’re just not getting the views you need, then you can pay a fee to bump your listing. This gives the listing a boost and pushes it to the top of the search pages making it far more visible to potential buyers.
It’s not always worth bumping items though. Bumped listings tend to be more successful for items made by a well-known brand. Cheaper items don’t really benefit and you’re unlikely to see a quick sale just from bumping the listing.
What happens when you make a sale?
Once you make a sale, you’ll receive a notification that it’s time to ship your item. You will then need to package up the item and send it via the buyer’s chosen shipping option.
How to withdraw money from Vinted
When your item sells, the buyer’s payment will sit in your pending balance. Once the buyer marks the item as received and that they’re happy with it, the money is then transferred into your account. You can then either withdraw the money into your bank account, or use it to pay for purchases you make on Vinted.
When you first make a withdrawal, you will need to verify your account. This is pretty standard these days for many sites like this, and it’s fairly straightforward to do. You will need to enter your bank details along with uploading your ID. Verification doesn’t take long, but it is worth doing even before you make your first sale just in case there are any hold ups or your uploaded ID image doesn’t get accepted first time.
Once you’re verified, you can hit the withdraw button. Withdrawals can take up to 5 business days to hit your account, but they are often there within 3 days.
Vinted Refer a Friend
When you create your account on Vinted, you will automatically be able to use their Refer a Friend scheme. When somebody signs up to Vinted using your referral link, you will receive a £5 voucher if they list their first three items within 7 days of signing up. You can then use your voucher towards any purchase of £15 or more.
Where else can you sell unwanted clothes?
If Vinted really isn’t for you, or you’re finding that your items just aren’t selling, then don’t give up just yet, there are plenty of other places you can use to make those sales.
Firstly, try listing your items on Facebook Marketplace. It’s completely free to list, but you are probably limited to a very local audience.
You can also try eBay, Preloved, Depop and if you’ve got the time, you could even try the good old fashioned carboot sale, although this wouldn’t be much good if you just have single items to shift.
If you’ve been wondering just how does Vinted work, then I hope this post has helped to answer some of your questions. The listing process is really simple, and selling your unwanted clothes on Vinted is a really great way to make some extra money rather than just bagging it all up and sending it to the charity shop. The fashion industry is always under fire for fast fashion, and selling our unwanted clothes gives us the chance to both help the environment by making sure they get reused, and it gives our bank balances a boost too.
