Vinted in Switzerland: no Swiss shop — here's how people still order

Why you can't order from Vinted directly

Vinted runs separate country marketplaces and connects them in fixed pools — Germany, for instance, trades with France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Austria. Switzerland isn't in any pool. There is no Swiss version of the site or app, an existing account can't be switched to Switzerland, and shipping runs exclusively on Vinted's own prepaid labels from carriers that don't offer a Swiss option. The checkout will simply never accept a Swiss delivery address.

The workaround: a forwarding address in Germany or France

Swiss buyers who want a Vinted find use a parcel-forwarding service: you shop with a German (or French) delivery address the service gives you, and it forwards the parcel across the border, handles the customs declaration, and bills you its fee. Some services even place the Vinted order for you, since a Vinted account normally requires residence in a marketplace country.

That convenience has a price. As of August 2026, MeinEinkauf.ch — the best-known Swiss service — charges around CHF 18 per delivery and adds a surcharge of 20% of the item value for Vinted orders; competitors have similar models. On a CHF 15 blouse that can more than double the effective cost, so the route makes most sense for pieces that are genuinely hard to find or clearly cheaper than Swiss resale prices.

What the Swiss border actually charges

• Customs duty: zero. Switzerland abolished import duty on industrial goods — including all clothing, shoes, and accessories — on 1 January 2024. And Swiss customs makes no distinction between new and second-hand: a used item is taxed on the price you actually paid, nothing more.
• Import VAT: 8.1%, but only above roughly CHF 62. VAT is calculated on the price paid plus shipping, and amounts under CHF 5 aren't collected — so if item + shipping stay under about CHF 62, nothing is due at all. Many single second-hand purchases fall under that line.
• Clearance fees: usually inside the forwarder's price. Forwarding services typically deliver "customs cleared" — their fee covers the declaration. A parcel that instead arrives by regular post would trigger Swiss Post's clearance fee (CHF 13 from the EU plus 3% of the value) — but only when there's actually VAT to collect.

Want numbers for your specific order? The calculator does the VAT and fee math for any value and shipping cost.

Second-hand isn't tax-free — it's just usually cheap enough

There's no special exemption for used goods. What keeps most Vinted-style purchases charge-free is simply the low price: a CHF 25 pair of jeans plus CHF 10 shipping is far under the CHF 62 line. Where buyers get caught is bundling — forwarding services consolidate several purchases into one shipment, and one consignment worth CHF 90 owes VAT where three separate CHF 30 parcels wouldn't. If you're close to the line, ask the forwarder not to consolidate.

Don't ask the seller to mark it as a gift

The CHF 100 gift exemption covers genuine gifts sent from one private person to another — a birthday parcel from your aunt, not a marketplace order. A paid Vinted purchase is a purchase, whoever the seller is, and declaring it as a gift is a false customs declaration that can be penalized. It also doesn't survive contact with reality: the customs declaration and the forwarder's paperwork show what was paid.

Returns: assume the import charges are gone

Sending an item back abroad does not automatically refund Swiss import VAT — a refund requires a formal re-export claim with paperwork filed at export, and with a private seller reached through a forwarding service that's practically out of reach. For orders under the CHF 62 line there's nothing to lose; above it, factor in that the VAT and fees likely stay with you even if the purchase goes wrong.

Frequently asked — Vinted