What to sell on Vinted in summer: a UK guide, May to August

A British summer is short, and nobody trusts it. That is exactly why it sells so well on Vinted: people do not wait for the forecast, they buy for a date. The flight on Saturday, a wedding in June, a festival, the last day of term. The buyer knows what they need and by when, and pays quickly once the right thing turns up in their size.

May and August are hardly the same season, though. Summer opens with bank holidays and wedding invitations, runs through weeks of packing, and closes with parents thinking about school uniform. Below, month by month, are the categories UK buyers look for between May and August, when each one takes off, and what to relist when it does.

What summer changes for a UK seller on Vinted

First, there are two kinds of demand, and only one of them depends on the weather. The first warm Saturday of the year sends everybody looking for sandals at once, and that demand fades with the next grey week. The other kind is steadier: people shopping for a holiday abroad buy swimwear and linen in a drizzly June without a second thought.

Second, the diary sets deadlines. May brings two bank holiday weekends and, for most schools, a half-term week. Weddings run from late spring into September. Schools in England and Wales break up in the second half of July, those in Scotland and Northern Ireland around the end of June. Every one of those buyers has a cut-off: a parcel that lands after the taxi to the airport is no use to them, so the closer the date, the harder they look at how fast you post.

Third, the photos. Summer light is awkward: midday sun hardens the shadows and bleaches pale fabric, a bright window turns a dress into a silhouette, and the picture taken on the bed of a holiday let shows the open suitcase as much as the swimsuit. This is where Pikmatic’s photo enhancement comes in. It redoes the cover photo so that the item sits straight and centred, on a clean background, under studio light. It is free for three photos and sold in packs afterwards. Before and after are shown together ahead of publishing, and the original stays available if you find it truer.

May and June: the first warm weekends

The season opens abruptly. One sunny bank holiday and the whole country is in the garden, discovering that last year’s shorts no longer do up.

Dresses, skirts and linen

The summer dress is the piece of the season, and there is no shortage of listings. To stand out, give what the photo cannot: the fabric, the length and whether it is lined. Someone typing “linen midi dress” or “floral wrap dress” already has a picture in mind.

• Photograph the care label: linen, cotton, viscose and silk feel very different on a hot day
• Measure the length flat, shoulder to hem, and say whether the dress is lined or sheer
• Give the UK size and say how it fits, since sizing varies from one label to the next

Sandals, espadrilles and canvas trainers

Open shoes sell as soon as the boots go away. Buyers look first at the footbed, where the foot leaves its print: clean it, then show it as it is, and photograph the underside. The UK size belongs in the title, with a word if the style runs narrow or wide.

The layer for the evening

This is the British addition. Even in a good summer nobody goes to a barbecue without something to put on at nine o’clock. Denim jackets, light cardigans and a packable mac sell right through the season here, so relist them alongside your dresses.

Weddings, the races and prom: outfits worn once

This is the most underrated summer category. A wedding guest dress, a fascinator, a pair of heels, a three-piece suit, a page boy outfit: all worn for a day and then put away. Guests know it and are happy to buy second-hand.

Two other dates work the same way. Race days in June and July call for a hat and a dress. And school proms, held at the end of the summer term once exams are over, send teenagers and their parents looking for a long dress or a suit for a single evening. In every case the buyer wants the outfit early enough to try it on and, if need be, have it altered. List these pieces as soon as they are ready, in January if that is when you clear the wardrobe, and name the occasion in the title.

In the description, give the flat measurements, the heel height for shoes, and say if a hem has been taken up. Remember the accessories people only buy for the day: clutch bags, wraps, fascinators, bow ties.

The holiday shop: what goes in the suitcase

From early June, many buyers are no longer dressing for the weather outside. They are packing for a week somewhere reliably hot, and they shop in the weeks before they leave. Demand rises clearly ahead of the end of term in July.

Swimwear

The category where condition counts most. A swimsuit that is new with tags, or tried on and never worn, finds a buyer; one that has gone baggy or faded in the pool mostly does not. State the condition in the title, photograph the lining and the labels, and give top and bottom sizes separately for a bikini. Men’s swim shorts and children’s costumes follow the same rule.

Shorts, linen trousers and cover-ups

Denim shorts, chino shorts, linen trousers, playsuits and kaftans sell all season. Their weak point is fit, which a photo cannot show. Give the waist and the inside leg measured flat: those two numbers stand in for the fitting room.

Sunglasses, hats and beach bags

For sunglasses, photograph the model reference printed inside the arm, the lenses held up to the light to show they are not scratched, and the case if it is the original. A straw hat or a basket bag mostly needs careful packing: send it in a box, not a mailing bag.

Festival season: wellies as much as glitter

Festivals run from late spring to the late August bank holiday weekend, and the British version has a dress code written by the mud. The pieces that sell steadily are the practical ones: wellies, a packable waterproof, a bum bag, a bucket hat, a fleece for two in the morning.

Put the word “festival” in the title of anything that fits, and be honest about wellies: show the tread and check for splits where the boot creases at the ankle. Relist before the big weekends, the late August bank holiday included.

Children: sun hats, sports day and six weeks off

A child almost never fits last summer’s clothes. Every spring parents start again from nothing, and they readily buy second-hand what will be worn for three months.

The summer term adds needs of its own. Sports day calls for shorts and trainers that actually fit. Scout and Guide camps and school residentials come with a kit list, and parents know that part of it will not come home, so they look for bundles. Then come the summer holidays, about six weeks of them in England and Wales.

What goes best: bundles of T-shirts and shorts in one size, closed-toe sandals, sun hats, UV swimsuits and light waterproofs. Write the age in the title the way the label gives it (“age 5-6”) and get it all online when you do the spring sort-out. Relist it in June, before the end of term.

August: summer still selling, September in sight

August splits in two. In the first half, swimwear, sandals and dresses still sell: this is the moment for a last relist of your summer listings. In Scotland, where term starts again in the middle of the month, attention has already moved on. Elsewhere it shifts in the second half of August, when uniform and school shoes take over. That is the next season, which we cover in our guide to what sells on Vinted when term starts.

Your summer listings have no reason to disappear. A linen dress unsold at the end of August is not overpriced, it is out of season. Leave it live and relist it in spring.

The demand calendar from May to August

Here is what UK buyers start looking for, fortnight by fortnight. All of it can be online long before: this table tells you what to relist, not when to list.

As for the time of day, that is a separate question, answered in our article on the best time to post on Vinted.

What sells less in summer

Warm clothes are in their quietest months, which is no reason to leave them in the loft. A listing published in July will already be there in October. List them after your seasonal pieces.

• Winter coats, puffers and parkas: low demand until autumn, relist when the cold comes back
• Chunky knits, wool cardigans and scarves: same pattern, relist in October
• Ankle boots and lined boots: demand returns in October, ankle boots with the first downpours and lined boots once it turns cold

Do not cut their prices in July either: nobody compares puffer jackets in a heatwave, and a discount would not change that.

List everything, then relist when the sun comes out

You list what is ready without asking whether it is the right month, because an item that is online can find its buyer and one in a drawer cannot. Then you follow the calendar: the week a category takes off, you relist the matching listings. A dress listed in April has slipped down the results as newer ones arrived; relisting puts it back in front of the people searching. With Pikmatic a repost carries the listing across with nothing to retype, so there is nothing to gain by holding a piece back until its moment.

Holiday photos are not wasted either. If you photograph a swimsuit on the patio in full sun, the cover photo can go through Pikmatic’s photo enhancement. On the comparison, look closely at the labels and at the item’s shape, and keep your own photo if it suits you better. For the other pictures in the listing, the simple habits in our guide to taking clothing photos with no equipment are enough: open shade beats direct sun.

If a big clear-out leaves you with thirty items to put online, you can publish your items automatically. And once the wardrobe is more than you can keep in your head, our guide to managing a Vinted shop at scale shows how to keep stock, listings and parcels together.

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