Can Vinted Become The Amazon Of Secondhand Fashion In America?

Thomas Plantenga unabashedly says he’s been “stealing” from companies crossed nan globe. The main executive serviceman of Vinted, Europe’s biggest consumer-to-consumer manner marketplace, says he freely borrowed from their strategies to put together an online level that’s now shaking up nan region’s €500 cardinal ($573 billion) manner industry.

“I publication a ton of business reports from Amazon, MercadoLibre, Mercari, Costco connected really they work, what they do, and we’ve picked nan elements of nan champion companies successful nan world to build a transactional marketplace for C2C which nobody’s ever built,” nan 42-year-old Dutch-born executive said during an question and reply astatine Vinted’s office successful a four-storied building successful nan bosom of nan Lithuanian superior of Vilnius.

Vinted’s agency is successful an area that’s conscionable a short locomotion from nan aged city, pinch a operation of Soviet-era factories converted into trendy lofts, imaginative hubs, and sleek, modern business centers. Sitting successful a glass-walled convention room successful jorts and leather mules, Plantenga is relaxed and unhurried connected that July day, matching nan vibe astir him arsenic labor — galore from Vinted’s European offices successful municipality for its yearly summertime gathering — beryllium successful unfastened pantry areas, chatting complete coffee.

Founded successful 2008 arsenic a level for individuals to bargain and waste secondhand clothes, Vinted has created specified a formidable marketplace that nan platform, on pinch immoderate of its rivals, is eating into nan income of manner and luxury houses. McKinsey’s State of Fashion 2026 study says nan secondhand marketplace will turn 2 to 3 times faster than nan firsthand 1 from 2025 to 2027 arsenic penny-pinching consumers activity bargains.

“The consequence for nan wide assemblage is that secondhand clothing cannibalizes nan waste of caller fashion,” analysts astatine RBC Capital Markets wrote successful a statement this month, besides pointing retired that galore world labels are rushing to blunt nan effect pinch resale offers of their own.

With nan taboo astir buying and trading secondhand apparel evaporating, celebrities for illustration Paris Hilton, Paul Mescal and Chloë Sevigny openly talk astir their income connected specified platforms. On nan celebrated podcast “Table Manners,” vocalist Suki Waterhouse said that’s really she buys vintage clothes. “I emotion Vinted,” she said.

As economical necessity and a sustainability-conscious caller procreation assistance nan stigma astir utilized clothes, astir 60% of world consumers are apt to shop resale this year, McKinsey estimates, citing ThredUp and GlobalData. The fig is moreover higher successful China, exceeding 70%, driven by request for premium and branded items pinch affordable value tags.

The world resale apparel marketplace is expected to scope $317 cardinal by 2027, nan consulting patient said, a 23% jump from past year. The standard and exertion of nan marketplaces person brought them to “an inflection point,” letting them move millions of transactions into profits, nan study said.

“The existent driver is nan consumer,” said Poonam Goyal, a elder unit expert astatine Bloomberg Intelligence. After years of inflation, shoppers person go much value-conscious, while younger generations progressively spot buying secondhand arsenic mainstream, she said. “People are proud of buying resale. They want to show disconnected nan woody they found. It’s a wholly different mindset.”

Vinted has led nan battalion successful Europe by massively investing successful logistics, payments and exertion to tie successful much buyers and sellers to its platform. That’s fixed it nan standard and captious wide to support it up of its rivals, pinch Wells Fargo analysts led by Ken Gawrelski calling it “a disruptive unit successful C2C commerce” successful Western Europe.

The company, weighted astatine €8 cardinal during a secondary stock waste this year, counts EQT, BlackRock, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and Schroders Capital among investors, and is gearing up for what could beryllium 1 of Europe’s largest technology-based first nationalist offerings successful caller years.

Although nary determination has been made connected advisers, timing aliases listing venue, Vinted has been preparing for it for rather immoderate time, said Carolina Brochado, a partner astatine nan Swedish backstage equity patient EQT who sits connected nan platform’s board. For now, however, nan company’s guidance remains focused connected expanding nan business alternatively than rushing to market, she said.

Plantenga’s much contiguous situation is cracking nan US market. “In nan mediate of a US description , you’re not going to IPO — that’s nuts,” he said

The US push pits Vinted against established rivals including nan industry’s “original gangster” eBay, which this twelvemonth bought manner level Depop for astir $1.2 cardinal to fortify its secondhand offering, Facebook Marketplace, Poshmark and ThredUp.

“Whether we will beryllium capable to really compete and triumph successful that marketplace is simply a very large question,” Plantenga said, declining to stock specifications of its plans there. Vinted is successful early-stage testing successful nan US and is encouraged by first results, he said. Wells Fargo analysts covering eBay, said successful their July statement that Vinted’s US regular progressive users jumped much than six-fold successful nan 2nd 4th from a twelvemonth earlier pursuing its January marketplace entry.

The world appetite for resale manner has spawned a slew of players. They see platforms for illustration Japan’s Mercari; nan UK’s Hardly Ever Worn It and Depop; Vestiaire Collective successful France; The RealReal successful nan US, among respective others. Many person struggled to construe request into accordant profitability. Vestiaire Collective expects to station its first yearly profit successful 2026, much than 15 years aft it was created, while successful Asia — 1 of nan fastest-growing regions — platforms for illustration Alibaba-backed Idle Fish, Poizon, Mercari and Kream are scaling rapidly.

Access to inventory — either done brands looking to offload excess supplies aliases individuals looking to make a subordinate from items they nary longer deterioration — is 1 of nan biggest hurdles for nan platforms.

After taking complete successful 2016, Vinted’s Plantenga overhauled nan company’s business model, astir notably by removing seller fees and charging buyers instead. The changes attracted much inventory, improved marketplace liquidity and laid nan instauration for profitability, allowing Vinted to put heavy successful its infrastructure that investors now position arsenic its cardinal competitory advantage.

Vinted processed €10.8 cardinal of merchandise successful 2025, up 47% from a twelvemonth earlier, while gross roseate 38% to €1.1 billion. Net profit fell 19% to €62 cardinal arsenic it accelerated finance successful Germany and successful Vinted Go, its logistics business. That driblet didn’t extremity investors from valuing nan institution astatine €8 cardinal this year, up from €5 cardinal successful 2024.

Sweden’s EQT, which first invested successful Vinted successful 2021 and remains 1 of its largest shareholders, argues nan company’s competitory advantage now extends good beyond secondhand fashion. Brochado says nan institution progressively resembles scaled marketplace companies for illustration Airbnb, Uber and MercadoLibre because of its web effects, exertion infrastructure and expanding ecosystem.

“Vinted has nan imaginable to go nan Amazon of secondhand,” she said.

The institution has continued expanding crossed Europe and entered caller merchandise categories, including electronics, books and toys. Through Vinted Go, it operates much than 18,000 pickup and drop-off points crossed Europe, including lockers and designated shops, while Vinted Pay extends its scope into nan payments ecosystem.

Vinted’s exemplary is simple: Selling connected nan level is free for nan seller, who gets to support 100% of nan listed price. Sellers simply return photos of nan items they want to sell, adhd a description, group nan value and people nan listing connected nan app. When personification purchases an item, Vinted charges nan purchaser a mini interest and provides nan seller pinch a pre-paid shipping label. The seller past packs nan point and drops it disconnected astatine a section shipping point. Once nan purchaser acknowledges receipt, Vinted releases nan money into nan seller’s virtual wallet.

Erika Orlovskiene, a Vilnius-based mother of two, has utilized Vinted for astir a decade to bargain and waste everything from children’s apparel and dresses to books and a food tank.

“Kids outgrow apparel truthful accelerated — it piles up quickly, and what do you do pinch apparel that are hardly worn?” she said, estimating that she had saved “thousands of euros” complete nan years. “It’s not only astir saving, it’s besides astir sustainability.”

As its users person grown, Vinted has plowed resources into building its ain shipping infrastructure, costs systems and customer support software. It moreover runs its ain servers alternatively than utilizing unreality services — unglamorous investments, Plantenga acknowledged, but ones that underpin its costs advantage.

“Everything Vinted is doing connected nan shipping broadside and nan payments broadside is successful work of nan marketplace,” EQT’s Brochado said, arguing little transaction costs yet use consumers while reinforcing nan platform’s economics.

It’s that exemplary that nan institution wants to bring to nan US. Whether Vinted’s buyer-fee work tin beryllium replicated successful nan US remains an unfastened question. Bloomberg Intelligence’s Goyal says US buyers would beryllium overmuch much resistant to paying a fee, particularly if it’s added successful separately alternatively of being built into nan price.

But “if they tin make it activity successful nan US, they could extremity up mounting a caller modular that competitors mightiness yet follow, making nan full assemblage much profitable,” she said.

Plantenga said he’s already seeing signs of nan shift. Rivals including Poshmark, Depop and Mercari person each moved toward Vinted’s buyer-fee exemplary successful caller years — a sign, he argued, that nan European attack is mounting nan manufacture standard. Depop, which has stuck pinch nan exemplary and uses celebrities for illustration popstar Zara Larsson to show really easy it is to database connected nan platform, is now nan strongest performer of nan three.

Meanwhile, accepted retailers — acting connected nan belief that if you can’t hit them you request to subordinate them — are diving into resale. H&M acquired a mostly liking successful Swedish resale level Sellpy successful 2019, while Zalando has expanded its pre-owned offering and collaborated pinch Vestiaire Collective connected authenticated luxury resale. Inditex launched Zara Pre-Owned successful nan UK successful November 2022, expanding into nan resale, repair and aid of Zara garments. The level now operates successful 16 European markets and nan US.

“Secondhand is becoming a overmuch much earthy portion of nan measurement customers shop,” H&M CEO Daniel Erver said successful an interview, calling Sellpy “our measurement of staying adjacent to that shift.” Sellpy is not presently profitable because it’s successful description mode, but “we judge nan underlying business exemplary has each prerequisite to beryllium profitable while continuing to grow,” he said.

Back successful Vilnius, Plantenga believes Vinted has helped put Lithuania connected nan world firm map. When he “stumbled into” his CEO domiciled almost by accident, small did he cognize that he would helm thing of an manufacture disruptor, he said.

He was past based successful New York scaling a mobile marketplace startup alongside task superior patient FJ Labs. He had helped build nan startup, sold it disconnected and was somewhat free, skating and enjoying life successful nan Big Apple. That’s erstwhile Vinted executives reached out, seeking his counsel.

“I wanted to help,” Plantenga said. “We knew that it was very risky and could spell severely wrong.”

Less than a decade on, Vinted had go Lithuania’s first exertion unicorn — a startup weighted astatine much than $1 cardinal — and sparked an ambition to go thing a batch much significant. The company’s office beryllium straight crossed nan thoroughfare from Nord Security, nan cybersecurity patient down NordVPN and itself a unicorn. Another vicinity company, Oxylabs, a web information postulation platform, became Lithuania’s second-biggest unicorn aft Vinted this month, weighted astatine $3.6 billion. The section autobus extremity serving nan companies is named “Vienaragių” aliases “Unicorn.”

Plantenga laments that Europe has created only 1 mega institution complete nan past 30 years — Spotify, which is astir weighted astatine $100 cardinal — while nan US has built aggregate trillion-dollar businesses.

Vinted’s existent valuation “feels mini and insignificant, and it feels arsenic a coagulated stepping crushed to build thing that is bigger, overmuch bigger,” he said. “Not aiming for that is an unthinkable waste.”

Seputyte and Lindeberg constitute for Bloomberg.