European eCommerce delivery provider InPost Group has signed a five-year deal with secondhand clothing eCommerce platform Vinted to become one of its shipping partners in the U.K., Poland, Italy, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain, according to a Thursday (Feb. 17) press release.
“This is our first pan-European delivery partnership involving all eight markets where we’re present, and we’re confident that this is just the beginning,” said InPost CEO Rafał Brzoska in the release. “Our agreement with Vinted proves that InPost has the scale and the skills to be a strategic out-of-home delivery partner for companies operating on markets across Europe, with a particular focus on out-of-home services.”
InPost has a cross-border network of 35,000 out-of-home delivery sites, allowing Vinted members to choose when they pick up their deliveries at its Automated Parcel Machine (APM) lockers and other locations. That reduces carbon dioxide emissions by as much as two-thirds compared to door-to-door services, the release stated.
Vinted has more than 50 million members in 13 European countries, the U.S. and Canada. InPost has more than 20,000 parcel lockers in Poland, the U.K. and Italy and provides courier and fulfilment services for more than 40,000 eCommerce merchants in Poland.
In May, Vinted raised 250 million euros (about $300 million) from investors in a Series F funding round for international growth, hiring and increasing memberships, giving the company a 3.5-billion-euro (about $4.2 billion) valuation.
Read more: Secondhand Fashion Platform Vinted Nets $303 Million in Funding
“We are contributing to a seismic shift in the secondhand fashion market, enabling more sustainable, socially responsible shopping habits,” said Vinted CEO Thomas Plantenga at the time. Today’s milestone is a vote of confidence in our commitment to the circular economy and our relentless effort to build a business that encourages more people to buy and sell secondhand.”