Isn’t it annoying when no one will buy the things you want to sell?
As a frequent seller of clothes/tech/furniture and pretty much anything else I don’t use anymore, this is a situation I’ve found myself in more than once. Vinted is my platform of choice for selling clothes, so I know a bit about shifting items that have stalled.
Although Vinted’s platform is free to sell on, sellers can opt for a number of additional paid services to increase their chances of making a sale.
Most of these are more likely to appeal to people selling large amounts of clothing or using Vinted as a business, so regular folk selling the odd pair of shoes won’t bother with them. However, if you are trying to offload something that isn’t getting the sort of attention you hoped there is another paid-for tool that can help: bumped listings.
Bumping is a relatively cheap way of propelling your item back to the top of the listings. It is a premium feature that is totally optional, but gives your item a greater chance of selling by displaying it to more of the right kind of buyers.
Buyers can see when an item has been bumped, the word is displayed under the listing. This lets them know that the item has been shown to them specifically based on their current search or their search/purchase history, but it also lets them know you are having trouble selling it.
I’m more of a buyer than a seller so whenever I see the word ‘bumped’ my Spidey senses start tingling and I’m more likely to make a cheeky offer. This is something to be aware of, but it doesn’t mean that bumping isn’t worth it.
On top of the advantageous repositioning of your item, you also get data and insights into how well your item is performing. You can see how many views it has had for example, which you can cross reference with how many favourites it has had to give you some idea of how well people are responding to it. This might give you ideas as to how to change your listing to get the item sold.
Plus, Vinted’s algorithm will work harder for you to get your item in front of buyers who have bought or liked similar items in the past. So in many cases a bumped listing can totally do the trick and get your stuff sold, which makes it completely worth it if the price is right.
Here’s everything you need to know.
How to Bump an Item
This is soooo easy.
You can bump your item as soon as you list it if you want to, but my advice would be to wait – it might sell really quickly and then you will have wasted your money.
If your item has been up for sale for a while and needs a bump, the process is really easy.
Go to your profile and you will see all your items next to each other. You can bump them from there, or, open an individual listing and bump it that way. If you open the listing you will see something like this:
You see that red arrow pointing at the ‘Bump’ button? Well guess what? If you click that you will start the bumping process.
Don’t worry if you hit it by accident or just want to see how much it would cost, you won’t be charged anything at this point.
If you hit the button, you will see a pop up showing you the price:
This blazer is listed at £10 and the cost to bump is:
- 3 days – £1.00
- 7 days – £1.55
These are the only two time periods you can bump for, and the 7-day period is always ‘best value’ but equally is always ‘most expensive’ 😂.
I’m not actually going to bump this, it’s not worth it, I’m just going through the process to show you what it looks like.
So choose how long you want the bump to last, bearing in mind that you pay the same whether it sells after 5 minutes or 5 days, then go on to review your order.
This is the last step, where you choose how to pay and finish the transaction.
The payment is taken right away. This is a service that you pay for regardless of whether or not the item sells afterwards.
As you can see it is very easy to set up, but that also makes it dangerously easy to get carried away with, especially if you are a bit impatient like me.
So use sparingly!
Is It Worth the Cost?
I’ve never 100% figured out the pricing structure for bumps, but usually it costs around 95p when I have thought about doing it.
It can be as low as 75p and as expensive as £10 if rumours are to be believed, but you would have to be selling something pretty impressive to incur that kind of bump cost – like a Jenny Packham wedding dress or something.
Vinted say it is based on the following:
- The price of your item
- Duration of the bump (3 or 7 days)
I have heard people suggest it is also based on the category your item is in, with in demand categories costing more, but this is unsubstantiated.
As for whether or not bumping is worthwhile, that’s going to depend on what you are selling and how quickly you want to get rid of it. There is also the data and insights to consider. If you would find those useful then you might see additional value in bumps.
Personally, I don’t see the point in paying to bump something worth less than £20 because the cost would eat into the money you make from it. Other people might see it differently.
How to Bump Listings for Free
If you have a cunning mind like mine, you might already have realised that there is a way around this. You can effectively bump your item on Vinted for free.
How?
Simple. De-list the item and re-list it from scratch.
Like I said, newer items appear higher in searches, so if you list your item again it will end up back at the top when listings are displayed. You might also try strategically timing your listing, because when you add new items your old ones can end up getting more views. I’m not sure if this is an algorithm thing or just people clicking through to my profile from the newer items and viewing the older ones, it definitely happens though.
But is this going to have the same effect as a bump?
Not quite.
Besides the fact you will have the hassle of creating another listing, you will lose the views, bookmarks and favourites you may have got from prospective buyers. All of the data gathered by Vinted on the initial listing will be gone too.
When you bump an item you get all of the insights I talked about earlier, as well as the algorithm doing its thing to try and show your item to more motivated buyers. So you do get premium features when you bump that you don’t get by relisting.
However, if your item has had very little interest you could definitely re-list for free and skip the bumping fees, but perhaps rethink your listing too and explore how you could make your item more appealing.
Happy bumping!