The last decade has seen an enormous transformation of the concept of thrifting. With the younger generations’ increase in awareness on sustainability, society seems to look at secondhand shopping in a new light. People buy second hand for a variety of reasons, including lowering their environmental impact, as well as because of the fact that it is less expensive than buying new and more socially acceptable than it was in the past.
This shift has been made easier by the rise of online platforms that are contributing to give a new value and image to secondhand clothing. As of today, the second hand market is estimated to be worth 26.7 billion dollars, and experts say this figure will triplicate by 2025.
Encouraging people to sell the clothes they don’t wear anymore and are just filling their wardrobes, Vinted managed to capitalize on their mission which is “Sell the clothes that have more to give. Shop for items you won’t find in stores.” According to the most recent data, the site accounts for more than 45 million active users and a profit of $32.5 million each year.
Vinted was founded in 2008 by Milda Mitkute and Justas Janauskas, two Lithuanian entrepreneurs. The resale platform is currently among the most successful on the market. This is thanks to competitive advantages the app offers to both sellers and buyers, but also for their successful communication strategy.
Vinted focused on providing the most practical user experience among its competitors. For instance, on Depop sellers are charged a 10% fee on their sale. On Vinted, this fee is instead handled by the buyer. This way more people are encouraged to use the platform to sell their garments. Additionally, services like the possibility to buy visibility boosts for listings and the easy shipping instructions, make it easy and convenient for sellers to use the app.
Buyers are also motivated to use the platform thanks to its buyer protection policy, that eliminates the fear of buying from strangers, and its social media resembling appearance. In fact, seller’s profiles look just like social media profiles, and users can like items on their profiles, which both saves their interests for later and notifies the seller.
But one of the main reasons both sellers and buyers are attracted to the platform is its popularity and good reputation. In fact, Vinted’s communication strategy largely relies on word of mouth and social media community presence. In TV commercials and ads, Vinted’s employment of community voices becomes more deliberate. Recent promotions in Poland, France, and the United Kingdom feature the company’s users as the ads’ main characters.
They advertise their major trademark differentiators, being price, convenience of use, and contribution to the circular economy, depending on the market.
This strategy has allowed the platform to be one of the most successful in Europe, and, as more people besides millennials and gen z jump on the thrifting trend, the market of second hand clothing seems to be getting even bigger and profitable.
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