Optimise Vinted listings: the words UK buyers actually type

Type “jumper” into Vinted and you get jumpers. The seller who called theirs a “cosy pullover” is counting on the search to work out that the two are the same thing. Nothing is wrong with the knit or the photos. The listing simply does not say what the buyer said.

Most of optimising a listing comes down to that: finding the words British buyers use for your item, then putting each one where it belongs. There are three places. The title, which holds up to 100 characters. The description, which holds up to 2,000. And the item fields (category, brand, size, condition, colour, material), which are what the filters read. This guide takes them in the order you fill them in, with rewritten titles for the things UK wardrobes are actually full of.

What is in your hands: the words and the fields

Vinted does not publish how its search decides what to show, and this guide will not pretend to know. Two things are plain to anyone who uses the app as a buyer, though. A word search brings back listings that contain those words, and your title and description are the only text you give it to read. A filter, on the other hand, ignores your text and reads a field. Writing “navy” in the title does not tick the blue box.

So there are two ways in, and a complete listing uses both. What happens afterwards, the order results appear in and why a listing fades with time, is a separate subject that we cover in our piece on how Vinted’s algorithm treats your listings.

British buyers, British words

A lot of advice about selling clothes online is written in American English, and it leaks into listings. On the UK catalogue, name the item the way your buyer would say it out loud, and keep the other word for the description.

• jumper in the title, with sweater or pullover further down
• trainers in the title, sneakers in the description
• trousers, never pants, which means something else here
• joggers or tracksuit bottoms rather than sweatpants
• dungarees rather than overalls
• waistcoat or gilet rather than vest, and vest top for the sleeveless kind
• wellies, pyjamas, dressing gown, swimming costume

The same goes for the shorthand regular sellers use. “BNWT” and “VGC” mean something to people who list every week, but a first-time buyer types “new with tags”. Condition has its own field in any case, so spell it out if you repeat it in the description.

Three ways to check a word

• Vinted’s search bar: start typing and read the suggestions. They are phrasings offered to buyers, which makes them good candidates for a title
• The label: the style name, the fit and the fabric are often printed on it in full (“501”, “slim fit”, “pure new wool”). Someone who knows the piece searches for it by that name
• Your own search: look for your item as if you wanted to buy it, then read how the listings that come up are worded. If yours shares none of their words, it is unlikely to turn up beside them

The title: 100 characters, no passengers

A Vinted title stops at 100 characters. That is room enough to say what matters and not enough to say it twice. The details that get an item found hardly vary from one piece to the next.

• The brand, spelt as it is on the label
• The item, in its everyday British name
• What sets it apart: the style name, the fit, the fabric or the print
• The colour, in one plain word
• The UK size, as the label gives it

Being there matters more than the order. Lead with whatever the buyer types first: the brand when people search for it by name, the item when they do not. For a supermarket or high-street own label, “black high waisted jeans size 12” followed by the shop reads better than the reverse, because nobody types the shop before the word jeans.

Everything else is a passenger. “Gorgeous”, “bargain”, “must go”, capital letters and exclamation marks answer no search. The one exception worth its space is “new with tags”, because buyers do look for it in those words.

Sizes: write what the label says

Sizing needs a section of its own in the UK, because a single garment can carry three systems at once. Pick the one a British buyer reads first.

• Womenswear: the UK dress size (8, 10, 12), not the EU number printed next to it
• Jeans and trousers: waist and leg in inches as the label shows them (W32 L30), with the dress size in the description if there is one
• Shoes: the UK size, half sizes included, and the EU size in the description since many labels show both
• Children’s clothes: the age band (“age 5-6”, “12-18 months”), which is how parents look and how school uniform is sold
• Shirts and tailoring: collar and chest in inches when that is what the label gives

Whatever goes in the title, set the same size in the size field. If the piece comes up small or large, say so in the description instead of changing the size: the field follows the label, and the description tells the buyer how it really fits.

Before and after: six titles rewritten

Here is the method applied to six everyday pieces. On the left, a title of the kind you scroll past daily. On the right, the same item named in the words of the person looking for it.

Jeans

With jeans, the style and the fit do the work: 501, mom, skinny, bootcut, wide leg, high waisted. Copy the waist and leg straight from the label.

A jumper

Knitwear is looked for by fibre: lambswool, merino, cashmere, cotton. The neckline comes next (crew neck, V-neck, roll neck), then the weight, chunky or fine knit.

Trainers

For trainers the style name outranks everything else: it is what someone who knows what they want will type. Give the UK size in the title, and mention it if the pair comes up small, since that is the first question you will be asked.

A coat

Coats are looked for by type before anything else: wax jacket, mac, puffer, parka, pea coat, duffle. When a brand gives its styles names, the name belongs in the title too, because that is how its regular buyers tell one jacket from another.

A school uniform bundle

Parents look by age band first, so it goes in the title. For a bundle, say how many pieces there are and what they are. Brands and condition, piece by piece, go in the description.

A dress for an occasion

With dresses the shape is the deciding word: wrap, shirt, tea, slip, maxi, midi. The occasion is a search in its own right in Britain (wedding guest, races, prom, Christmas party). Use it in the title when it fits, and in the description when it does not.

The fields the filters read

The title answers the word search. The item fields answer the filters, and you set them from lists when you create the listing. Each deserves ten seconds, because a mistake there does not show when you read your own listing back.

• Category: go down to the most specific level on offer. Shorts filed under trousers, or a gilet filed under coats, are missed by anyone browsing the right category
• Brand: pick it from the list instead of typing your own version. A misspelt brand does not join the real one’s filter
• Size: the label size, in the same system you used in the title
• Condition: the honest level, not the one above. A flaw you mention surprises nobody; a flaw found when the parcel is opened ends in a dispute or a poor review
• Colour: the main one first. “Sage”, “stone” and “oatmeal” are good words for the description; the field offers plain colours, and those are what people filter on
• Material: where the field is offered, copy the main fibre from the care label

The description: room for everything else

You have up to 2,000 characters. Nobody expects you to use them all, but this is where everything the title had no room for should go. Four parts cover almost any item.

• One plain sentence that names the item again, using the words you left out: “Navy crew neck jumper (sweater), relaxed fit.”
• Measurements taken flat: pit to pit, length, inside leg, sleeve. Say whether they are in inches or centimetres
• Condition in detail: bobbling, fading, a pulled thread, and exactly where it is
• Fabric and washing instructions, copied from the care label

Two habits work against a description. One is the block of unrelated words added in the hope of pulling people in: it brings visitors who wanted something else, and they leave. The other is dropping in a brand the item does not belong to, to suggest a look: the buyer who arrived through that name feels misled before reading any further. Describe what the item is, in every honest word there is for it.

Writing all of that takes time once listings pile up. Our article on automatic Vinted descriptions written by AI shows what a tool can draft from your photos, and what is still yours to check.

Fixing a listing nobody finds

You do not have to delete a listing to change its words: the title, the description and the fields can all be edited while it is live. That is also why there is no sense in sitting on an item until the title is perfect. List it as soon as it is complete, fix the words if nobody is finding it, and relist it when demand picks up. Before you touch the price, run through the usual culprits.

• A brand or style name with a letter wrong: check it against the label
• An American word where the British one was needed
• A size in the title that does not match the size field
• One title pasted across ten listings, when each piece has a detail of its own
• A title that tells a story (“worn once to a wedding”) instead of naming the item
• A fashionable word on a piece that does not earn it: “vintage” for last year’s high street, “oversized” for one size up

Our guide to relisting an item that is not selling explains how to bring a listing back in front of buyers, and the one on the best time to post on Vinted covers the hours when they are around.

Words earn the visit, the cover photo earns the click

The right words bring a buyer as far as your listing. The first thing they see is the cover photo. If yours was taken on a dark evening with the ceiling light on, Pikmatic’s photo enhancement can redo it (three photos are free, then it is sold in packs): the item is straightened and centred against a clean background, lit as in a studio. Both versions appear side by side before you publish. Check that the label still reads as it should, and keep your own shot if you like it better. For the rest of the photos, our guide to photographing clothes without any equipment walks through the set-up.

Price, how quickly you reply and how steadily you list all count as well. They are the subject of our guide on how to sell faster on Vinted, which this article does not repeat.

When there are fifty of them to write

For one item, all of the above takes a few minutes. For a whole wardrobe clear-out, or for stock bought to sell on, repetition is what wears you down: the tenth listing of the evening rarely gets the care of the first. The same vocabulary works in the other direction too, when you are scanning a charity shop rail or a badly worded listing for something worth buying, as our guide to where to find items to resell shows.

Pikmatic takes on that repetition. You upload your photos; the AI analyses them and fills in the title, description, category, size, brand, colour and a suggested price. A photo of the label helps it read the brand, the size and the fabric. You review the suggestions and edit whatever needs it, since every field stays editable, and the listing then goes to Vinted from your own browser. The method in this article is still yours: the tool drafts, you decide on the words.

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