Ipsos iris data shows Vinted has seen a 23% increase in users year-on-year, with over a quarter of the UK’s online population now visiting the platform to buy or sell second-hand items each month. Users earning over £50,000 per year have grown the most over the last 12 months compared to other income bands, though there has been growth across the board.
The Ipsos finding is important because it comes from behavioural data, not survey self-reporting. Ipsos iris tracks actual platform visits across the UK online population. The finding that the fastest-growing income segment on Vinted is the highest earners is not a survey response artifact. It is observed behaviour.
The Scale of the Platform This Is Happening On
Vinted now has more than 17 million users in the UK alone, which puts it just behind Primark and Next in terms of customer reach. The UK second-hand fashion market is now worth more than £7 billion, with nearly one in four fashion transactions involving resale.
Vinted revenues totalled €1.1 billion for 2025, up 38% year on year, with gross merchandise value surging 47% to €10.8 billion across 26 countries.
A platform with 17 million UK users and €1.1 billion in revenue that is growing fastest among its highest-earning user segment is not a niche resale app. It is a mainstream retail channel with a counterintuitive demographic profile that most brands have not adequately factored into their competitive analysis.
The “Vinted Math” Behaviour That Changes the New Purchase Funnel
According to Vinted’s own 2025 Impact Report, nearly nine in ten UK buyers, 88%, now check Vinted before purchasing fashion items brand new. Dubbed “Vinted Math” by the platform, the trend reflects a growing mindset where shoppers consider not only the upfront cost of an item but also its long-term resale value.
88% of UK buyers checking Vinted before buying new is the data point that should change how every fashion and lifestyle brand thinks about its pricing and product strategy. The consumer is not choosing between new and secondhand. They are using Vinted as a price anchor for new purchases, and as a substitute when the new price does not clear that anchor.
A consumer who can see a six-month-old version of the jacket they are considering, in excellent condition, for 45% less than the new price, is making a different calculation than they would without that reference point. The new jacket has to justify the premium. That justification needs to be about something the secondhand market cannot offer: newness, the brand experience of buying direct, or a quality story that the secondhand market reinforces rather than undermines.
Why High Earners Are the Most Active Secondhand Buyers
The finding inverts instinctive assumptions but makes sense when you think through the mechanism.
Savings intentions among the top 20% of British earners have almost doubled since Covid, according to a Bloomberg analysis of GfK data. Costs for higher-income families are rising faster than for lower-income ones for the first time since early 2025, mainly due to petrol costs, as well as restaurant and hotel price increases.
High earners are not shopping secondhand because they cannot afford new. They are shopping secondhand because they have simultaneously doubled their savings intentions and found that their specific cost basket is rising faster than average.
The response is not to trade down on product quality. It is to route more purchases through the secondhand market where the same quality product is available at a lower price, and to direct the savings toward genuine splurges where the new-purchase premium is clearly justified.
This is the same consumer psychology described in the NIQ barbell market report we covered this week: consumers simultaneously trading up in categories they care about and routing other purchases through value channels. Vinted is the infrastructure that makes the routing efficient for high earners.
The Barclays Data That Quantifies the Broader Shift
Barclays data shows 38% of UK consumers bought from a resale platform in the past year. New clothing and accessories are the most commonly cut discretionary spend, with 55% of cost-conscious consumers actively avoiding new purchases since 2023.
Despite pressure, UK clothing and footwear spending still grew 1.7% year-on-year in 2025, forcing retailers to compete harder for share. Resale adoption is highly age-skewed, with one in four 16-24-year-olds using resale platforms to save money, compared with just 9% of over-55s.
38% of UK consumers buying from a resale platform in the past year means resale is now mainstream. The age skew toward younger consumers is the forward indicator: the cohort most actively using resale platforms today is the cohort that will have the highest purchasing power over the next decade.
Our Take
Vinted Has 17 Million UK Users. More Than Half of the Highest Earners Have Used It.
The Retail Week data that over half of UK households earning over £80,000 have used Vinted, compared with 34% of those earning under £20,000, is the single most disruptive data point for UK retail brand strategy published this week.
It requires brands to update three assumptions simultaneously: that their highest-value customers are not using secondhand platforms, that secondhand is a substitute for budget rather than a substitute for mid-market, and that the new purchase funnel begins when the customer arrives at their website.
With 88% of UK buyers checking Vinted before buying new, the funnel now begins with a secondhand price check. Brands that understand this are building their value proposition against that anchor. Brands that do not are losing customers at a decision point they do not know exists.
