For the Lithuanian resale platform Vinted, its recent platform update linking its U.K. and U.S. marketplaces was meant to signal a new era for the European resale giant, which launched in 2008. However, it is facing resistance from U.K. users unhappy with the changes.
The company confirmed the update in a statement shared when contacted about the change. “Starting this week, we are enabling transactions between our U.K. and U.S. members,” stated a spokesperson from the company in an email. “This is an exciting step that will expand the variety of items for buyers and create more selling opportunities for our community. We are notifying all members of these changes and have provided a summary of what’s new to ensure transparency. We have seen a positive reaction to the announcement of the connection so far, but understand that some members naturally have questions about how it will work.”
Vinted has technically been available in the U.S. since 2013, but only with a small user base with low visibility of its product assortment. Therefore, the move to combine the U.K. and U.S. experiences marks the company’s first meaningful attempt to actively scale in the American market. Earlier this year, Vinted made news when it was reported to be the biggest seller of clothing in France, in terms of sales volume, exceeding Shein, LVMH and Amazon.
But across Vinted’s core U.K. community, the reaction to the new changes has been far from positive, bringing ill-timed tension. According to a November 16 article in the Financial Times, Vinted is now exploring a 2026 share sale that would value the business at around €8 billion ($8.7 billion) and allow early investors to cash out. The company’s revenues are expected to rise more than 40% to over €1 billion ($1.08 billion) this year, with gross merchandise value reaching €10 billion ($10.8 billion) and net profits quadrupling to €76.7 million ($82.5 million).
The backlash to the markets merging began when users discovered a major change to the platform’s sizing system. Vinted had replaced individual U.K. sizes with broader grouped ranges, like 8-10 and 16-18, without notice. On November 12, user @carolinegooseyphotography commented on a Vinted Threads post, “You’ve absolutely wrecked the user experience. I won’t trawl through countless items only to find it was never my size.” On November 8, @faithistohavewings_ posted on the same feed, “Vinted has given me access to affordable clothes for the first time in my adult life and it’s just slipping away!” On November 11, @helzgregory posted, “Petition to return to proper sizes! Numerical and S/M/L are two different types.”
For sellers, the change was also disruptive. Nicole Goddard, founder of the fashion resale company The Fruit Moth and a top Vinted seller who has sold more than 350 items since July, felt forced to manually edit hundreds of listings after the grouping system went live. This involved updating the auto-assigned size range to the actual size. “No notice was given,” she said in an interview with Glossy. “There are no standard sizes on the U.K. high street that lump multiple sizes together.” The confusion, she said, has led to her having a “huge drop in sales,” with buyers no longer trusting the size tags on their feed.
Other social commenters said the change felt like Vinted was prioritizing a smooth U.S. rollout over the platform’s largest and most loyal market. On November 7, @claireandherbooks wrote, “It’s infuriating that Vinted have ruined their U.K. customers’ experience for the sake of pandering to U.S. customers.”
As the new U.K.–U.S. update went live, many users found they could not prevent international buyers from viewing or purchasing their items, nor filter out U.S. listings from appearing in their own feeds, prompting concerns about customs, postage and accidental cross-border sales. On November 6, one seller (@effeffess_whatnow) shared a screenshot from Vinted support confirming that, “There is no possibility of filtering item locations.”
With U.S. import rules tightening, shipments from the U.K. to America now face full customs clearance, duties and tariffs even at low values. With the so-called “de minimis” exemption effectively eliminated in August, items that once could pass duty-free now carry extra costs and complexity. According to guidance for U.K. exporters, parcels shipped to the U.S., regardless of value, now require full customs documentation, country-of-origin codes and Harmonised Tariff classification, and may incur a base tariff of around 10% or more. The Harmonized Tariff classification is the international code system that tells customs how much tax to charge on any item shipped across borders. Shipments lacking proper compliance can be delayed or rejected, and the additional duty and brokerage costs may fall on the seller or buyer, depending on the arrangement.
The change places both sellers and buyers in a sticky position. A U.K. seller listing items to U.S. buyers may suddenly face shipping, duty and customs costs they hadn’t factored into an item’s price. And a U.S. buyer may face surprise import fees. One seller on Threads said: “I’m not interested in faffing with import tax and international postage. That’s probably better for my bank account.”
The concerns matter. Vinted’s appeal, and its ability to justify a valuation approaching $9 billion, has been built on simplicity, localization and user trust. The U.K. resale market, which surged during the pandemic lockdown, became a turning point for the company, pulling millions of users away from eBay, thanks to its speed and ease, as reported by The Guardian last year. However, eBay still far outpaces Vinted with roughly $23 billion in annual revenue, according to its third-quarter 2025 earnings.
When asked about the customer concerns, the company shared the following statement: “The recent sizing updates in the U.K. were introduced to help members find a more accurate fit by aligning sizing for international brands. With the launch of the U.K.–U.S. connection, these improvements also make it easier for U.K. members to shop across both markets with confidence and consistency. We are actively engaging with members to provide guidance on listing sizes, through our member communications and social media. Our teams are also monitoring feedback carefully and working to clarify the benefits and reasons behind the update.”
The power of negative buzz has been documented by other brands. For example, the athleisure brand Lululemon shed nearly $2 billion in market value during its 2013 “see-through leggings” scandal, when customers complained about product quality and transparency. Vinted is also currently under investigation by French authorities for failing to prevent underage access to adult content on its platform.
The seller Goddard said the misstep could have big implications for Vinted, if there is not a solve in the near future. “The most obvious thing would be to let sellers choose exact sizes, like S, M, L or 10, 12, 14,” she said. “They’ve [changed sizing] to suit international buyers as they expand to the U.S.” By Sunday, she had already begun uploading her company’s items to eBay. “The whole thing may be the downfall of Vinted,” she said. “I think eBay will be rubbing their hands together after this week.”
With a major share sale on the horizon and global expansion set as the next frontier, Vinted now faces a delicate balance between satisfying investor expectations while rebuilding trust in the community that powered its rise.
