Want to make some extra cash selling your clothes online? Vinted is an amazing online marketplace that is growing rapidly.
My friends absolutely raved about this site to me, and now that I’ve been trying it out for a few months to sell old clothes I can see exactly why!
With no fees for listing, and Vinted not taking a cut of your sales, it’s a great way to earn money decluttering your clothes. Or reselling clothes you’ve found online or in charity shops.
I’m going to take you through how to sell on Vinted and whether its worth selling on the app!
You may also like: Best clothes brands to sell on eBay
This article contains affiliate links.
Vinted quick review
Vinted is an online auction site and app primarily for selling fashion, but also for selling household decor, books, games and toys.
The big draw for sellers is there are no fees and postage is paid by the buyer – making it much more appealing than eBay in terms of costs.
It’s grown massively in popularity over the last couple of years and so while it’s not the largest online marketplace for clothes, you’ll find decent secondhand items will sell quickly when priced right.
Getting started with Vinted
Setting up an account on Vinted takes just a few minutes as does getting your first listing online.
In fact on my first day on Vinted I had set up my account, added a listing and made my first sale in less than two hours! Nice!
To get started with Vinted all you need to do is:
- Download the Vinted app
- Create an account – you’ll be asked to choose a unique username. You can upload a photo under your profile if you wish and write a little about yourself too, such as your style.
- If you plan to buy on Vinted you can personalise your feed with details about the type of items you are looking for – ie kids clothes and women’s fashion – as well as sizes and brands you are interested in seeing.
- Set your postal preferences. By default the app will select all postage options for you. It could be that one particular option works best for you, for example where you live one of the postage option drop off points may be closer. Deselect the ones you don’t want.
Listing your first item on Vinted
Putting an item for sale on Vinted takes just a few minutes, but it’s worth taking your time to ensure pictures of the item are decent as this will increase chances of a quick sale.
In order to list an item on Vinted:
- Tap the “Sell” button at the bottom of the screen.
- Upload photos of your item – include multiple angles and close ups of any detail. Take pictures in a room with decent, natural light where possible against a plain background, such as hung on a door.
- Add in a title and description.
- Add what category the item falls under, as well as brand (very important especially if it’s a popular brand) and condition (be honest as returns and bad reviews can impact on your ability to sell on the platform longer term).
- Decide on your price. It’s worth researching this beforehand so that you price it correctly. I suggest looking around on Vinted for the brand and type of item you are selling first. You could also check eBay for this too.
- List it. That’s it! Once it’s listed you can check back to see whether the item has been favourited by anyone and views.
If the item isn’t getting much interest then you can consider boosting it.
What happens once your Vinted item has sold?
One of the things I love the most about Vinted is how easy the shipping process is.
Once your item has sold then Vinted will show you the method of delivery the buyer has chosen.
Most recently the buyer for a dress I sold chose Yodel Store to Door. All I had to do was find my local Yodel drop-off point – which was a small Nisa store that appears along the route of my daily school run.
You will need to package up the item to ship it – you can either buy postal boxes or envelopes – I prefer these type of bags for clothes – or use secondhand parcels you’ve previously received.
Then I just showed someone behind the counter the barcode that appeared on app connected to this sale and they then printed off a label, stuck it on, handed me a receipt and it appeared as posted on the app a few minutes later. Easy!
If a buyer does go for the Royal Mail postage option, you will need to mark up the address on the package and then pay the postage yourself. This payment gets reimbursed to you once the item is received.
You have five days after the sale to send your item. I tend to send a message to the buyer just telling them when I’ll make it to the shipping location so they know when to expect it, this just keeps them updated.
You won’t receive your money until the item has been received by the buyer.
Do I need a printer to ship on Vinted?
You will need a printer at home to ship items through Evry, InPost and UPS.
You do not need a printed to ship items through Royal Mail or Yodel Direct.
If having access to a printer is an issue for you then I suggest you go to your profile and specify that you will only send via these options.
To change your postage options go to Settings > Postage in the app.
What can you sell on Vinted
Items you can sell on Vinted include:
- Womenswear
- Menwears
- Kids clothes
- Shoes
- Toys
- Childcare equipment
- Games
- Books
- Furniture
- Pet care items
- Home accessories (but not Christmas decorations or furniture)
- Games consoles
- Small tech – such as headphones, phone cases and smartwatches
- Board games and puzzles
- Unopened cosmetics and beauty products
Check out the full list of exceptions and allowed items for sale on Vinted.
What fees does Vinted charge?
When selling on Vinted there are no fees for uploading your item and no fee once it has sold!
There is a fee for sellers who want to Bump their listing. This varies depending on how long you want the Bump to last and the item price.
The Bump feature means the item will be displayed higher in people’s feeds, receiving more visibility and reaching more people.
Another feature that costs extra is Wardrobe Spotlight – this is where your seller profile is given a separate section in the feed on Vinted. This costs £6.95.
How does Vinted make money?
Vinted makes money from the couple of options of sellers to boost their listings – Bump and Wardrobe Spotlight – and from buyers.
Buyers pay a Buyer Protection Fee – featuring a fixed cost of between 30p and 80p plus a variable cost of between 3% and 8% of the item’s cost.
Shipping for buyers is charged separately.
Tips for selling fast on Vinted
Now that you know how selling on Vinted actually works, here are some tips to make sure your item sells fast!
Take great photos
Words alone are not going to sell your item, people need to see what they are getting.
Make sure your pictures are amazing, in focus and clear with great lighting – preferably natural light.
Show the entire item in your main photo
Make sure your photo shows the entire item, even if it’s a maxi dress that’s a bit tricky to photograph!
You need to give yourself space wherever you are taking the photo to ensure that the entire item can fit in the frame so people know exactly what they are getting.
Take photos of all angles of the item
Take tons of photos to give the potential buyers all of the angles of the item. Take pictures of the front and back, labels and any defects too so they understand any issues with the item.
Use a plain background for photos
Ideally it’s best to use a plain backdrop to photograph your item so that it stands out in the photo.
You could hang clothes on a door, place it on a white sheet on the floor or show what clothing looks like on you, but make sure you don’t have tons of clutter in the background to distract from the clothes.
Try bundle discounts
As a seller you can offer buyers a bundle discount if they buy multiple items from you.
Buying a bundle is popular as it saves on shipping costs plus can just be a nice incentive to get someone to buy from you as they feel they’re getting a great deal.
You can select how much of a discount you want to set for two, three or five items – for example 30% off if the buyer purchases three items from you.
Write clear and honest descriptions
Note any defects and show them in pictures. You can add extra details in the description such as whether clothing is true to size or any detail about the pattern or when you bought the item.
Don’t overcharge
You need to set your price at a reasonable level. Buyers on Vinted expect to be able to bag a bargain, so the right price is somewhere between what you want to get for it and what a Vinted buyer thinks it’s actually worth.
Check out similar items in order to research what a reasonable price would be for it.
The buyer pays the postage so they will be taking that into consideration when buying your item as well.
Consider reducing the price
If something has not sold and it’s been over a week then take a look around at equivalent items and consider whether you could drop the price a little.
You want to get a decent amount for your item, but there’s no point leaving items languishing on the platform without a sale.
Consider offers
People may message you offering a reduced amount of the asking price.
Whether you accept this is really up to you, but if it’s a reasonable offer and you’re looking to shift the item quickly then go for it.
eBay vs Vinted
The key differences between Vinted and eBay are the fees and size of the marketplace.
While eBay takes a 12.8% cut of any sale you make, Vinted is free to list and the seller keeps the sale amount.
With eBay, say you sold something for £10, you would receive £8.72 once eBay had taken its cut. With Vinted the whole £10 is yours.
In terms of fees for listings, eBay will charge you 35p per listing after you have used up your 1,000 free listings per month.
Vinted does not charge for listings, but you can pay to boost your listing to make it more visible if it is struggling to sell.
So Vinted beats eBay on price, but in terms of the scale of the marketplace eBay has a much larger audience, with 22million users in the UK compared to Vinted’s 8million.
Final thoughts
Vinted is my new favourite platform to sell unwanted clothes! I’m also planning to use it the next time we have a clear out of the children’s toys.
It’s a buyers’ market on Vinted, which means you may see items sell for lower prices, but for ease of use and lack of fees (so you keep all the profits) it’s a winner for me.
You may also like this list of things to sell for cash and ideas for items to buy and sell.
