Overall, the second-hand apparel sector is growing. “I see a deep and sustained change in how people buy and how people think about things that they own,” says Adam Jay, the chief executive of Vinted’s main marketplace arm, who has been in the job since 2022.
“We’re becoming a very meaningful part of the retail scene in other categories as well,” he says.
Take Great Britain, for example. According to Jay, in the last five to ten years, the country has embraced secondhand buying to a far greater degree, boosting not only Vinted but eBay – the subject of a recent $55.5bn (£41bn) takeover bid – and the UK startup Depop, Facebook Marketplace, as well as numerous other smaller rivals.
The same trend can be observed in other places across the world, too. Preloved items now make up about a tenth of global fashion sales, and Jay believes there is much further to go.
While Vinted’s green-tinged ambition to make secondhand the first choice may seem a world away from Shein or Temu, which sell cheap stuff direct from factories based mostly in China, Jay says they are all benefiting from shoppers’ hunt for value as their spare cash is squeezed by rising energy and food costs.
He says Vinted, Shein, and Temu are all growing for “fundamentally the same reason”, which is “because it’s cheap and easy.”
But Vinted shoppers save an average of 72% on the price of buying an equivalent new item, according to the company’s impact report. Almost a third of the marketplace’s users say they use the savings to cover essential household expenses.
“My 84-year-old mother is selling on Vinted,” Jay adds.
“Pretty much everything in our family is secondhand. The last two Christmases we had secondhand only Christmas or Vinted-only Christmas.”
The company was valued at €8bn ($9,30bn) in April when it sold €880m in shares to provide income for some longstanding investors.
Sales through the site hit €10.8bn last year, putting it almost on a par with Primark on a global scale. Vinted, which takes a commission on each sale, generated €1.1bn in revenue, with net profits of €62m in 2025, down 19% compared to the previous year after a spending drive to expand its operations.
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We might get many more similar lists in the future. Jay says Vinted is prepared to try lots of categories – even if some might not work right away.
“We want people to be thinking about how they can give every item as long as possible life. Don’t allow things to sit in the back of the cupboard for years and years untouched. Get them to someone who’s going to love them, wear them, use them.”
Plus, it’s not like there’s a pot of disposable gold on the horizon for us, either. In the United States, for example (where Vinted also operates), nearly 60% of people say they don’t have enough money to make fun plans this summer.
According to a survey of more than 5,000 Americans, 48% of the nation feels like they lack fun in their lives, and 12% can’t even remember the last time they had a free day to enjoy themselves.
