Vinted is an online marketplace where people buy, sell, and trade secondhand and vintage items. This peer-to-peer platform has categories for men, women, and kids.
The Beginning
Vinted’s story began in 2008 when its founder, Justas Janauskas, had a chat with a friend at a bar. At the time, Justas Janauskas worked as a software programmer and thought of creating a platform where people could trade their pre-loved items.
After coming up with the initial idea, Justas brought on co-founder Milda Mitkute to help with the project. The same year, they launched a prototype of the platform and first tested it in Lithuania.
Vinted grew primarily through positive word-of-mouth in its early years. The platform, designed like an online forum, encouraged casual interaction among users.
Because of this, word about Vinted quickly spread. It led to media coverage in Lithuania and interviews with the founders in the first few months.
A year later, Vinted expanded to Germany with the help of Sophie Utikal, Janauskas’s friend and frequent house guest. Utikal became so interested that she took Vinted to the country under the name “Kleiderkreisel.”
Vinted also succeeded in other European countries like the Czech Republic and Great Britain. As a result, the startup raised the interest of more investors, including Mantas Mikuckas, who became Vinted’s COO in 2013.
In 2015, backed by a €25 million investment, Vinted finally entered the US. By 2016, the company was available in 11 countries, with 12 million users and 22 million listings. Such activities cost them large amounts of cash, almost leading them to bankruptcy.
To mitigate the situation, Vinted hired Thomas Plantenga as a consultant (and later as CEO). He co-founded the Netherlands-based boat rental tech, Bookaboat, and held managerial roles in several companies such as Harvest, OLX, and FJ Labs.
One of his first steps was cutting down on employees and shutting down offices in London, San Francisco, Munich, and Paris. That’s when Vinted started to focus on France and Germany.
Fortunately, these sacrifices paid off and saved Vinted. Plantenga also became the company’s CEO in 2017. Since then, he has become the driving force behind Vinted’s rapid ascend.
Thanks to the pandemic, Vinted saw a massive surge in success as people turned to e-commerce for their shopping needs. And the numbers speak for themselves—in 2021, after securing a €250 million investment, Vinted’s valuation soared to $4.5 billion.
Vinted is undoubtedly a powerhouse in the secondhand fashion industry. But enough with small talk; let’s explore some interesting Vinted statistics and facts that make it one of the leading names in the online marketplace game.
Vinted General Statistics
- Per the latest reports, Vinted boasts more than 75 million registered members in 18 countries. (About Vinted, Financial Times)
- The company employs more than 1,200 people. (About Vinted)
- Vinted has already raised $562.3 million and is valued at $4.5 billion. (Crunchbase)
- Vinted has over $1.54 billion worth of items listed, according to the latest sources. (Entrepreneur 360)
- RetailDetail EU named Vinted as the number one sustainable marketplace in Europe, having 40% of the second-hand market in the continent. (RetailDetail)
- Vinted staked €30.2 million to acquire Rebelle, a Nasdaq Sweden-listed high-end luxury fashion company. (Fashion Network)
- While the pandemic was a huge growth opportunity for Vinted, the company’s loss increased by almost 6x (from 24 million to 118 million). (RetailDetail)
- More than 50% of Vinted’s customers are women, while 42% are men. (Similarweb)
- As of writing, Vinted-tagged videos have 2.5 billion views on TikTok. (Tiktok App)
- 30% of the user traffic immediately went to the app within 24 hours after its debut in 2012. After a year, the app hit 2 million downloads. (Lemon Labs)
Vinted’s Revenue Numbers Have Risen Tremendiously
Vinted almost shut down in 2016 as it was approaching bankruptcy. But the addition of Plantenga to the management team gave the company a second chance.
From that point on, Vinted’s revenue has been on the rise. Here’s how Vinted’s turnover increased over the years, starting with its recovery in 2016:
Year | Revenue (in Euro) |
2016 | 8 million |
2017 | 10 million |
2018 | 32.9 million |
2019 | 80 million |
2020 | 152 million |
2021 | 245 million |
Source: Dealroom.co
Despite its promising revenue trend, Vinted has yet to make a profit. There’s limited public access to how much profit or loss they make each year.
Still, they don’t hide that they’ve been burning large sums of cash on marketing efforts. However, Vinted’s management is confident it will pay off in the long run.
Vinted Serves As Lithuania’s Pride In The Baltics
The Baltic is a small European region that’s been making a buzz since Skype became the region’s first unicorn in 2005 (the first to reach a $1 billion valuation).
Currently, Vinted is among the most valuable private companies in the Baltics. Check out the valuation of other Baltic unicorns that remain private companies to this day:
Company | Valuation Since Latest Funding |
Bolt (Estonia) | $8.4 billion |
Vinted (Lithuania) | $4.5 billion |
NordVPN (Lithuania) | $1.6 billion |
Veriff (Estonia) | $1.5 billion |
Pipedrive (Estonia) | $1.5 billion |
Printful (Latvia) | $1 billion |
Vinted Is The 2nd Most Visited Fashion Marketplace Among Its Competitors
In 2022, Vinted had the second most monthly visits out of all the fashion marketplaces in its coverage area. The company was behind Zalando with 170 million visits.
Interestingly, the two companies both started in 2008. Although Zalando only focuses on Europe, it now serves 25 countries. Vinted is only in 18 countries but has already expanded to North America.
Here are the monthly visitors of Vinted and its competitors from various regions:
Company | Average Monthly Visitors |
Zalando | 170 million |
Vinted | 77.31 million |
ASOS | 63.16 million |
Poshmark | 49.92 million |
StockX | 30.24 million |
Farfetch | 28.8 million |
The RealReal | 10.9 million |
GOAT | 9.62 million |
Depop | 9.6 million |
Spartoo | 9.45 million |
Source: Webretailer
Vinted is France’s 6th Largest Online Marketplace
France also houses a significant portion of Vinted’s customers. Monthly visits placed the company sixth in the country’s top online marketplaces in 2022.
Here are the other most visited online marketplaces in France:
Online Marketplace | Average Monthly Visits |
Amazon | 165.7 million |
Cdiscount | 51 million |
eBay | 38.6 million |
AliExpress | 32.7 million |
Leroy Merlin | 32.6 million |
Vinted | 28.6 million |
Fnac.com | 26.7 million |
ManoMano | 19.2 million |
La Redoute | 16.9 million |
Veepee | 16.1 million |
Source: Byrd
Vinted Has Strong Social Media Presence, With Over 1.5M Facebook Followers
Solid social media followings play a role in Vinted’s “community-led” brand marketing. This helps the company connect with a younger audience (which is most of its customers).
Here’s the number of followers that Vinted has on different social networking sites:
Channel | No. of Followers/Subscribers |
1.5 million | |
398k | |
69k | |
48.3k* | |
Tiktok | 18.6k |
YouTube | 17.8k |
2.4k |
The platform has over 1,800 Instagram posts, 5,000 tweets, 54 videos, 97,000 likes on Tiktok, 1 YouTube video, and 48 saved pins on Pinterest.
Vinted Ranks 3rd in Top Secondhand Fashion Market for UK Brand Awareness
Secondhand clothing is big in the UK. The country was even one of the biggest exporters of used clothes in 2021. No wonder platforms like Vinted invest in marketing efforts in the country.
In 2022, a Statista survey revealed that Vinted is the 3rd-ranked secondhand clothing marketplace in the country in terms of brand awareness.
When it launched in the UK, Vinted used extensive TV ads and the “Get Minted with Vinted” campaign, which helped it connect with young audiences. The latest reports say that Vinted has over 8 million users in the UK.
Take a look at the brand awareness of secondhand fashion platforms in the UK:
Second-hand Clothing Marketplace | Percentage of Brand Awareness |
eBay | 94% |
Etsy | 79% |
Vinted | 76% |
ASOS | 54% |
Depop | 49% |
FARFETCH | 24% |
THRIFT+ | 23% |
Poshmark, Vestiaire Collective | 18% |
Source: Statista
Fast Fashion Brands Dominate Vinted’s Product Listing
Per the company’s page, fast fashion brands have the most product listings on Vinted, with H&M leading the list.
As people put it, pre-loved marketplaces like Vinted encourage people to practice reusing. It helps reduce carbon emissions and conserve energy sources.
Check out the top brands listed in Vinted, along with their corresponding number of items:
Fast Fashion Brand | No. of Listed Items |
H&M | 35 million |
Zara | 33 million |
Kiabi | 15 million |
Nike | 11 million |
SHEIN | 10.44 million |
Primark | 10.40 million |
Bershka | 10.0 million |
Adidas | 9.3 million |
Stradivarius | 6.5 million |
Mango | 6.4 million |
Source: Vinted
Millennials and Gen Z are Vinted’s Top Visitors
Most of Vinted’s visitors are aged 25 to 34; the percentage decreases as the age range increases.
Young adults (18-24) are considered the “thriftiest generation.” Specifically, they sell unwanted clothes more than older people do.
Aside from thrifting, shopping secondhand items also lets them experiment with different styles and collect rare, vintage items.
Age Distribution | Percentage of Users |
18-24 | 24.86% |
25-34 | 31.17% |
35-44 | 18.71% |
45-54 | 12.30% |
55-64 | 8.04% |
65+ | 4.92% |
Source: Similarweb
Vinted Fun Facts & Breaking News
1. Vinted is the first unicorn in Lithuania.
Before Vinted, Estonia, Lithuania’s neighboring country in the Baltic, had already produced its first unicorn in Skype (a startup valued at $1 billion without going public).
Since then, Estonia has seen many more unicorns emerge, including Playtech, Wise, Bolt, and more. It wasn’t until 2019 that Lithuania finally joined the unicorn club when Vinted secured a €128 million investment, pushing the company’s value to €1 billion.
The main backer in the funding round was Lightspeed Venture Partners, along with a few smaller investors.
2. Vinted recently launched in Sweden—and for good reasons.
As mentioned earlier, Vinted acquired the luxury fashion platform Rebelle in mid-2022. Later that year, the company launched in Sweden. Know why?
Sweden ranked second in the Global Innovation Index from 2020 to 2021 and has consistently been recognized as one of the greenest countries in various publications.
Given the growing interest in secondhand fashion due to its eco-friendliness compared to fast-fashion brands, it’s no surprise that Vinted is targeting the Nordics, starting with its launch in Sweden.
3. Cross-Border Commerce hailed Vinted as Europe’s number 1 sustainable marketplace.
In 2021, Cross-Border Commerce published a list of the Top 100 Sustainable Marketplaces in Europe, and Vinted rose to number 1.
The ranking considered sustainability objectives, carbon footprint, business model, product assortment, and brand partners.
4. Vinted facilitates a “social network-like” shopping community.
The founder of Vinted values the platform’s strong social aspect. Many users have popular and active accounts, such as jdqueen08 (Vinted UK) with 2k+ followers, laurabargins01 (Vinted US) with 1.8k+, and liza010125 (Vinted France) with 10.5k+ followers, and many more.
Users can showcase their creativity on their profiles, which not only attracts buyers but also entertains people. For example, a user went viral in January 2023 for using a cardboard standee of Harry Styles to sell his items, humorously referring to the British singer as his “business partner.
5. Vinted charges buyers instead of sellers.
Another unique thing about Vinted is how it imposes fees. While most online marketplaces get cuts from sellers, Vinted charges fixed and variable fees to buyers instead.
As a result, the platform attracts more sellers. With more product listings, buyers can have more shopping choices, leading to improved customer experience.
6. The company’s main market is France.
As said earlier, Vinted almost went bankrupt in 2016—not until it shut down other offices and focused on Germany and France.
France is known as a clothing-savvy country where fashion weeks are televised worldwide. It is among the world’s most sustainable countries even though it doesn’t rank as high as the Nordic and Scandinavian countries.
In 2020, Vinted had over 12 million users in France. In February 2022, the platform was the most downloaded fashion app in the country, with more than 400,000 downloads that month.
7. Vinted founders don’t have much involvement in the company now.
Vinted remains a privately held company, but it’s safe to assume that major investors and the current CEO own a large portion of it.
After a series of funding rounds and operational changes, founders Janauskas and Mitkute had less and less involvement in the company’s operations.
8. Kleiderkreisel (Vinted Germany) once faced backlash when it tried to impose a selling fee.
One of the things users like about Vinted is the free selling. But in the early 2010s, the company imposed fees on selling. That said, Vinted has maintained its free-of-charge service to sellers since.
9. The company was fined $1.4 million after encountering issues with personal data protection.
In 2022, Vinted was charged with tampering with personal data protection. The platform tried to launch an in-app wallet for sellers but failed to provide enough information to ensure the security of the users.
Moreover, the platform allegedly misled users when it said they could opt out of the buyer protection fee, even though the app doesn’t specify how.
10. Vinted encountered a major hacking incident.
Just in March 2023, hundreds of users complained about hacking incidents on their accounts. Victims reportedly received SMS and phone calls that prompted them to change their contact details.
Hackers had access to their login credentials, robbing the users’ e-wallets. Some even went as far as uploading pornographic content to have the account automatically blocked.
On the other hand, Vinted assures the victims that it will refund them.
The Bottom Line
Vinted has been given many titles in various publications: Most Sustainable Marketplace, Europe’s Biggest Online Marketplace for Secondhand Clothes, Europe’s Biggest App for Used Clothes, and many more.
The company holds a handful of the continent’s secondhand clothing industry. Overall, the success of secondhand retailing is a win not just for companies like Vinted but for the environment and sustainable living as well.