How Lithuanian Startup Vinted Spun Secondhand Clothes Sales Into Gold | Forbes

Thomas Plantenga bet the future of Vinted on a television advertisement. The secondhand clothing resale app was burning $1 million per month and had less than a year of cash left when Plantenga made an $800,000 gamble on French television. It was May 2016, and Plantenga had recently been hired to save the eight-year-old Lithuanian startup. After its founding at a college party in 2008, Vinted had grown rapidly as people from 10 countries used its platform to buy and sell secondhand clothes.
But it was free for users, barely covering its server costs with advertising, and an attempt in 2014 to bolt on a Poshmark-style 20% sales commission resulted in a user revolt. Traffic almost halved overnight. The Netherlands-born Plantenga, who had never been to Lithuania, signed up for a five-week gig as a consultant in May 2016. He ended up becoming Vinted’s CEO 18 months later.
Seven years later, Vinted is one of Europe’s largest consumer marketplaces, with over $600 million of revenue in 2023. It now counts 100 million users glo­bally. Last year, it posted its first annual profit-at least $20 million-distinguishing it from its loss-making American cousins including The Real­Real (valued at $360 million), ThredUp ($200 million) and Poshmark (sold for $1.2 billion). Vinted became the Baltic nation’s first unicorn in 2019 when it raised $140 million at a $1.1 billion valuation, and sales have since grown sixfold.
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[@nikitakellermann6012]

It's nice that Jesus is helping regular folks in Lithuania..

[@fit6673]

😂

[@konfunable]

Very religious country.

[@Brazauskas123]

That's why wine is cheap over here!

[@nikitakellermann6012]

@@Brazauskas123 Water turned to wine. On sale at your local Maxima :))))

[@Brazauskas123]

@@nikitakellermann6012 Sounds about right! :D

[@moritzvilnius]

I live between Basel, Switzerland and Vilnius, Lithuania for 5 years now and I can see that the country is growing rapidly! Great people, everyone speaks English and they are very into making business. :) Lot's of good cafes too haha

[@beatrixhideg6227]

I really like that as the buyer pays the fees and as a seller I have nothing to pay. It's also cool that they organize the shipping and I don't have to deal with printing a label in a world where almost no one has a printer anymore.

[@05lmarsh]

Vinted provides a superior user experience. The eco-system enables me as a buyer and seller to track every step of the process.

[@1789Bastille]

I just want an EU wide vinted. There is not even an EU wide search and you have to search each country individually.

[@konfunable]

Looks like they are slowly moving that way. For example, Poland - Lithuania - Finland is one common market.

[@alarud]

@@konfunable hmm, Poland + Czech Repubic as well

[@beatrixhideg6227]

Yepp, I would be glad we in Hungary wouldn't be limited to Poland and they expanded the availability to at least the neighbouring countries

[@pir006]

It’s frustrating as Depop has allowed this for a few years

[@TomasBankauskas]

I'm glad Vinted is featured in Forbes. This is perhaps the most famous startup from Lithuania.

[@UtamagUta]

Nord Security, hello? But I agree on the basis that it might be the most known for regular people. Just like everybody knows Hello fresh, but nobody knows that it's German

[@TomasBankauskas]

@@UtamagUta Thank you for comment. Yep, I agree that Nord Security also well known, but more for people in tech space.

[@balticprimal1306]

Ive been using this website back when it was a lithuanian name and I was in 7th grade. Still using it 15years later to buy my kids clothes

[@indrebutku]

What was the name before?

[@paulinastasiukynaite9713]

@@indrebutku manodrabužiai

[@Retronize84]

I think Ebay got too greedy and will suffer long term. 20% fees is insane...

[@OMGs-Life]

it 10-12% for me in clothing and videogames

[@sandraonye]

Plus vat on fees and 30p , it’s 20%

[@Micfri300]

Vinted are blocking too many people and are going to end up being irrelevant.

[@free_a_navalny]

Can only agree with you. There are so many stories when people with an excellent selling story on Vinted were blocked without the reason and the customer support did nothing to help them.

[@anmnou]

Same with Poshmark!!

[@leoprg5330]

When I gained 10kg in just one year I didn't want to spend on completely new wardrobe and so I swop all my clothes to size up for almost nothing compared to if I had to buy new

[@soul_baking3262]

Love Vinted, works perfectly for me

[@TreeYogaSchool]

I just started following you, Forbes. These videos are very inspirational and insightful. Thank you.

[@sararichardson737]

It works! I use it and I recommend it.

[@vivekaaraga]

Second coming for secondhand clothes

[@szidoniamakranczi9927]

It's true that Vinted provides security for buyers, but as a seller, there's more risk involved, and it seems Vinted doesn't do much to address this. Compensation for lost or damaged packages is minimal, so I avoid selling high-value items on Vinted. Buyers get full refunds, but sellers often don't get fair compensation for the actual value of their items if it is damaged/lost.

[@KRISTIANSMILJANIC]

Last time I bought something that disappeared during delivery I was informed that the seller kept the money I’ve payed and that I was refunded by Vinted themselves

[@hannamelnikava6838]

I’m waiting for it in Latvia!!!

[@PaulNYC7]

Wonderful idea, wonderful startup!

[@darlingyou2122]

🇱🇹🇱🇹🇱🇹🇱🇹🇱🇹🇱🇹🇱🇹 Go Lithuania!

[@1789Bastille]

We need to be able to buy from other european countries. The limitation to buy only from your local country is annoying. On ebay I can buy from someone from Spain to Sweden. In Vinted only your country. But clothing trends do not care about national borders. Vinted has not even realised their potential

[@markcartwright6547]

Good idea, but shipping fees are high internationally. Also if you need to communicate, a common language is important. It could be possible, but it adds a lot of complexity.

[@karlijnhtc]

I buy from other countries through vinted?

[@teresamesa]

not me being in portugal and so far only bought from france. i see ads for clothes from france, netherlands, belgium, italy, germany, spain and portugal.

[@petra8944]

In the Czech app version we can buy from Czechia, Slovakia and Poland, and I think there are other common markets. I think in the future it is going to be more and more international.

[@daianasamartseva4728]

Come to Hong Kong !

[@arpxdagoodone]

It would be good if the countries could be selected or deselected. Me as a Hungarian, I can do business with fellow Hungarians and Polish. And to be honest I don't want to do business with them. Yes I had bad experience. So it would be great if neighbour countries can be chosen freely... And the second one, I don't know why can't I choose for example Austrians or other countries...

[@AntanasSadauskas]

proud ❤

[@Encantada10]

My country 🏆 Vinted and not only 🤩

[@littlebrit]

This is a amazing company and I am user for few years. What I like the most is that they don't use AI. There are very few companies left who don't user] AI.

[@Micfri300]

Vinted don't use ai lol 😂😂😂😂

[@littlebrit]

@@Micfri300 If he was using AI, he would have mentioned it. It is a buzz word now.

[@phillipwong3754]

RIP to them in UK soon. Is now free on eBay for buyers and sellers

[@beatrixhideg6227]

The UK has so harsh competition with all these platforms like Poshmark, Depop etc. most of which didn't expand outside of the UK

[@phillipwong3754]

@@beatrixhideg6227 but they are both in the UK. I'm signed up to both of them.

[@thijsverheuladventure]

Love Vinted

[@krisjanisbelavskis]

let’s go!

[@seuncole]

What's with the jesus look

[@TLBxFinds]

Vinted failed in Canada like many other companies

[@beatrixhideg6227]

I'm curious why?

[@TLBxFinds]

@beatrixhideg6227 guess they prefer shopping on other platforms

[@CLee-qi8dn]

charging no fee doesn’t make a sustainable business 😮

[@sebastianyepes8154]

5% fee not 20% 😊

[@GroovyRoo]

we cant talk bout tread up in europe cause it doesn’t exist. The platform only caters to usa and canada. the rest of the world is not in it like in depop. you can compare vinted to depop and tread up to the H&M second hand platform Sellpy besides that, we can talk about a global market of tread up cause it doesn’t exist outside usa and canada. Vinted is in all the continent of europe from uk to italy. As a shopper or seller you can make business with people inside those countries. Which makes it way better than other platforms.

[@natalias50]

Vinted is new eBay, because eBay is too expensive

[@agunabor]

The founder looks like Jesus

[@G.P._Art]

He is not the founder, founders are Milda and Justas!

[@Chicago48]

Failed website. I tried to create an account and have asked for a "verify code" 3 times. The site still needs work.

[@sallaa1000]

I have been using it for 7 years just fine...

[@ravimakwana1632]

How it’s different from ebay ?

[@ET76001]

it s not, just newer, for young generation who are obsessed with anything older than them is not cool LOL perfect for startups to capitalize on them

[@hova2781]

the difference between ebay and vinted comes from the fact that on ebay you can buy or sell anything second hand while vinted focuses on clothes only as a niche

[@santostv.]

Besides the uk and a few others ebay isn’t popular here, vinted is focus on clothes so they have the market locked, my country eBay is olx (it’s owned by naspers) but everything is sold there , nowadays we also have wallapop (it’s Spanish). You question is like asking why bolt,glovo,grab ect exists if we have uber already.

[@K78644]

@@hova2781 lol not true. you obviously don't read or aren't a book dealer. vinted is huge in the book industry

[@K78644]

it's A LOT better than the american platforms

[@magdam8290]

No it's not. Don't use it, app has serious security issues

[@nektokomilfo]

It's a bullshit full of fakes

[@khadijahaouam6797]

if someone has skin disease in his clothes

[@bimbam4600]

Mashallah!

[@SalmanovGadzhimurad-pj9qq]

Как простить предательство -не на ту напал Россия самая свободная страна в мире и ее союзник Северная Корея .

[@funkerman7]

sorry, who gives a flying F about 'sustainability' and CO2 garbage? lmao, thanks for wasting 20% of the video on utter nonsense

[@shahzadiqbal219]

Another fraud

[@santostv.]

I don’t know about profitability but they are very popular here in Europe, nowadays most sell second hand clothes with them. Why you say it’s a scam?

[@K78644]

you're just jealous that you haven't succeeded on it. Keep it up!

[@OMGs-Life]

@@santostv. i have never used them for my second hand clothes. I use ebay and kleinanzeigen in germany