One of them is Vintello, a Romanian online fashion resale platform, that offers anything from luxury items to more affordable pieces of clothing or accessories.

Sometimes, most of us can feel guilty of accumulating more clothes and accessories in our wardrobes than we really wear, but that doesn't mean that the excess is necessarily waste, as it can actually be donated or resold.

In fact, the fashion resale industry is expected to grow significantly in the next few years, reaching approximately 77 billion dollars in 2025, which is why these kind of platforms can actually be both profitable, but also beneficial for the environment, with less waste being generated.

How Vintello wants to revolutionize the fashion resale market in Romania

Vintello was started in 2021, and after some research on the fashion market, the team launched the platform to the wide public in March, 2022, with the first transactions already taking place.

Diana Enăchescu, one of Vintello's founders, believes that young people will be more invested into purchasing clothing items and accessories from fashion resale platforms, considering "the increased interest for sustainability and putting money more towards experiences, rather than objects."

Diana Enăchescu had some previous experience as an entrepreneur, by founding the dental medical platform IziDoc, alongside experience in the consultant management sector.

The other founders of Vintello are Laur Neagu, founder of the Academy "Te Fac Programator", Alex Zamfir, who has experience in developing mobile apps and Radu Rugiubei, with experience in business and tech development.

The need for a new fashion resale platform in Romania

Diana was set to develop Vintello since she wasn't satisfied with the existing online solutions, and she thought she could provide a better solution for people looking to sell their worn or slightly worn clothes.

She wasn't fond of selling through Facebook or physical stores, as according to her, it "requires a lot of management, lacks confidentiality and bears some risks, while selling with physical resale stores requires physical visit and acceptance of the articles."

So, she wanted to create a platform where it would be "very easy to list and sell from the comfort of your home, while the online shopping experience is similar as for the new items."

Photo source: Vintello Facebook

Listing the products in a few minutes

Selling a product through the platform, which is consumer to consumer (C2C), takes just a few minutes and it is supposed to be very easy, as all you have to do in order to make a product available on the platform is select the attributes that match your product, upload at least three images of the product, add a short description and set the price tag.

That's it, and after someone buys your product, it will be shipped through a courier for free, which is basically a hassle free system.

Diana told us that "the seller receives payment in her account if the transaction is closed. Retour is also available, for free."

Resale platforms can grow alongside with online shopping popularity

She is also aware that while, in the Western side of the continent, online resale fashion platforms are more widely used, there is a lot of potential for growth in this segment in Romania as well, especially since the pandemic, when online purchases have become more popular.

Also, there is the fact that consumers, especially young ones, are looking at sustainability and reusing as much as possible, and according to Diana, "younger generations become more concerned about the environment and not so willing anymore to pay the premium price of a new item."

Sustainability, one of Vintello's pillars

"Sustainability is one of Vintello pillars, as we are contributing directly to the environment protection by recirculating such fashion items. Producing a new fashion item consumes on average 3.000 liters of water, according to Vestiaire Collective. Reusing it saves 82% of its carbon footprint", she added.

The challenges of an online fashion resale platform

There were also some challenges when it came to getting Vintello started, and the first challenge was building the actual C2C marketplace, which is not as predictable as a regular store, with fixed locations.

Diana elaborated on this, saying that the "technology team had to develop a custom platform that would meet the specific requirements of a C2C marketplace. Integrating shipping services for both sellers and users, while managed by us, was another challenge we faced, as typically businesses sell from fixed locations to clients. But with our partners, we managed to find solutions that led to providing the necessary functionalities."

Now all the team has to do to make Vintello gain traction is to educate the public with regards to online resale fashion platforms, which they are confident isn't going to take all that long, since the development of the other markets in this direction and the power of example should help.

A project started with bootstrap financing

In order to get the project going, the team spent nearly 50.000 euro, money of their own, which they used to build and launch the platform, including the website and the mobile applications, for iOS and Android, tech development, brand identity, platform design and the initial marketing efforts.

Vintellor will remain to function as an online exclusive platform

Vintello is currently working as an online exclusive marketplace, and the founders plan for it to remain like this, since they think it will be a more effective and efficient way of running the business, providing relevant benefits to their customers, such as direct shipping, guaranteed authenticity and competitive selling fees.

"We are confident that we will be able to manage the business in a more effective way like this, with the support of future smart tech functionalities to be added", Diana told us.

The competition on the fashion resale market

In terms of the competition, Vintello has some, but the team is confident that they can differentiate themselves through a more easy-to-use and cheaper solution.

We learned that "the online fashion resale landscape in Romania comprises of several dedicated Facebook groups, Bulgarian based Remix Shop and a slight penetration of the international luxury fashion resale platform, Vestiaire Collective. Vintello differentiates from the competition with the most easy-to-use local fashion resale solution, adapted to our market in terms of brands and costs."

The global fashion resale market can double its value by 2025

In 2021, the global fashion resale market was estimated to 36 billion USD and by 2025, it is believed that it will reach 77 billion, according to a report by ThredUp, which is why online fashion resale platforms could prove to be a huge success in the future, both financially, and for the environment.

In Romania, 2021 was the year when half of the online shopping was done for purchasing clothing items, which is what gives Diana and the team at Vintello hope that their platform could thrive.

The team also plans to expand their business in other countries in the near future as well, but before that, they plan to refine it and get some solid enough background in their home country.

Customers, more and more interested in sustainability

The company can be successful since more and more people, especially young ones, are looking forward to spending money on experiences, such as vacations, rather than paying a premium price tag for luxury clothing, that's at least what Diana believes.

She also cited a BCG report, saying that "today, 70% of preowned buyers “like the sustainable aspect” of secondhand consumption, compared with 62% in 2018", which should mean that we might see an increase in popularity for the pre-owned clothing platforms.

Photo Source: Facebook Vintello

Protecting the users and the possibility of collaboration with big brands

Since the platform sells high-end and luxury items as well, the team needs to be very careful as to how they evaluate these products in order to protect both the sellers, and the customers.

Diana told us that "in order to protect our positioning, that includes premium-to-luxury brands resale, Vintello provides listing availability for specific brands in the platform, or for additionally approved brands, based on sellers’ requests. The luxury items also are authenticated by our team. The selling price is set by the seller, based on the perceived value of the item."

Vintello also considers collaborating with fashion brands that are looking into sustainability and protecting the environment more than making profit, as this seems to be the trend going forward in the industry, whether voluntarily or by regulations.

"Resale platforms are definitely an attractive option for such brands initiatives. We are also considering such collaborations, in line with our premium fashion resale positioning", we were told.

In order to promote the platform, the team behind Vintello uses digital channels dedicated to people who are interested in fashion and they also want to achieve customer excellence in order to build trust among customers and attract more of them through recommendations.

Plans for growth

As for future plants, the team is looking forward to 2022 as the year when they will attract both fashion, and sustainability enthusiasts in order to build their business and they also plan to raise a pre-seed early-stage financial round to help them grow their business further.

"For 2022, our goal is to make Vintello well known among fashion & sustainability enthusiasts, in order to embark them on this resale global trend. We are expecting to onboard several thousand users this year and to generate a significant number of transactions. We are also planning to raise a pre-seed early-stage financing round, that would fuel our further growth", Diana concluded.

Vintello could achieve success, as the online resale fashion platforms get more and more traction, with people looking to save some money and also adapt a more sustainable lifestyle that can help the planet.

Photo source: Vintello Facebook