What Is Relay on Vinted? The Lesser-Known Shipping Option Explained
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Vinted's postage settings list several options, and most of them are self-explanatory: Evri, Royal Mail, InPost, DPD. Then there's Relay. It doesn't have the brand recognition of the others, and most sellers either leave it on by default without knowing what it is, or turn it off because they're not sure about it. This article explains both what it is and how to decide whether it belongs in your setup.
What Relay actually is
Relay isn't a Vinted service at all — it's Relay Technologies, an independent London delivery startup (launched 2022) that Vinted contracts with alongside other retailers like ASOS and TikTok Shop, in the same way it uses Evri or Royal Mail. It has no ownership link to Vinted, and it's a different company from both Vinted Go (Vinted's own in-house logistics arm, which currently operates in mainland Europe rather than the UK) and InPost, despite the similar-sounding name to InPost's French "Mondial Relay" service.
In the UK, Relay comes in two forms: Shop Pick-up, where the buyer collects from a participating shop near them, and Home Delivery, where the parcel goes straight to their address instead. As the seller, your side of it is the same either way — you drop the parcel off at a participating local shop; which version the buyer sees and selects at checkout is down to them.
The seller experience is similar to other courier options. Once your item sells and the buyer selects Relay at checkout, you get either a printable label or a QR code in the app. You drop it off at your local Relay drop-off point and that's your job done.
Tracking is available through the Vinted app, and delivery typically takes two to five working days.
Why buyers often choose it
The most practical reason Relay appears regularly is that it's often one of the cheapest options available at checkout. Vinted's buyers — particularly the more cost-conscious ones — tend to choose on price, and when Relay is available and cheap, it wins on that basis.
That's also the relevant frame for sellers thinking about whether to enable it. Relay being available can actually increase your chance of a sale for price-sensitive buyers — not because of anything specific to the service, but because it expands the range of affordable options at checkout. Buyers who might have abandoned a transaction because postage looked expensive have another route.
The coverage question
Here's the most important thing to know about Relay: it's not available everywhere in the UK.
Coverage is concentrated in major cities and surrounding postcodes — London and Manchester are the confirmed areas with meaningful coverage, with some additional postcodes in other areas. It does not operate as a national network in the way Royal Mail, Evri, or InPost do. A buyer outside the covered areas won't see Relay as an option even if you've enabled it.
This means the effective consequence of leaving Relay on is asymmetric: sellers outside covered areas will never have a buyer choose it anyway (because those buyers can't select it), and sellers inside covered areas might have it chosen fairly regularly, particularly if it's the cheapest option.
Worth checking: if you've ever had Relay enabled and noticed buyers selecting it, that's a signal you're in or near a covered area. If you've had it enabled for months and never seen it used, you may simply be outside current coverage — or buyers in your area are consistently choosing other options for price or convenience reasons.
Should you enable it?
The honest answer is: probably yes, unless you have a specific reason not to.
The Relay drop-off experience is straightforward if there's a participating shop convenient to you. Labels are available as QR codes, so it's compatible with printer-free selling. The service works well when it's available. The buyer collects at their own convenience, which some buyers prefer over home delivery.
The one reason to turn it off: if your nearest Relay drop-off point is significantly less convenient than your usual PostOffice or InPost locker, then enabling it means potentially shipping to that inconvenient location for certain orders. If that's the case — if a buyer choosing Relay would mean you're walking to somewhere you wouldn't normally go — the practical answer is to leave it off.
The approach many sellers land on is: enable it, use it when buyers choose it, and see whether the drop-off location works for you. If it doesn't in practice, turn it off. If it does, it's a free extra option that might be the thing that tips a borderline buyer into purchasing.
The Royal Mail Large Letter comparison
One thing worth knowing alongside Relay: the Royal Mail Large Letter option has become, for certain item types, even cheaper than Relay. If your item is small enough to qualify as Large Letter (max dimensions 353mm × 250mm × 25mm — that 25mm depth is the key constraint, roughly one inch — and under 750g), Royal Mail Large Letter will often undercut Relay on price.
The catch is that Royal Mail Large Letter requires a printed label, not a QR code. If you don't have a printer, you can't use it. And it's genuinely only for flat, thin items — folded lightweight t-shirts, thin accessories, small flat items. A hoodie doesn't fit. Jeans don't fit. Anything with much body to it doesn't fit.
The practical setup question for most sellers is: which is cheapest for my items, and can I actually get the parcel to the right drop-off point? Relay and Royal Mail Large Letter often sit at similar price points for eligible items, but Large Letter needs a printer and Relay needs a nearby drop-off.
What is Relay on Vinted?
Relay is an independent London delivery company that Vinted uses as one of its UK couriers, alongside Evri, Royal Mail and InPost. You drop the parcel at a participating local shop and the buyer either collects from a shop near them or has it delivered to their door.
How does Relay work on Vinted?
When a buyer picks Relay at checkout you get a QR code or printable label in the app. You take the parcel to your nearest Relay drop-off shop, they scan it, and tracking then runs through the Vinted app. Delivery usually takes two to five working days.
Does Relay home delivery require a printer?
No. Relay labels are available as a QR code in the Vinted app, so both Shop Pick-up and Home Delivery work without a printer. The shop scans the code when you drop the parcel off.
Where is my nearest Relay drop-off point for Vinted?
Vinted shows the participating shops near you in the app once a buyer has chosen Relay. Coverage is concentrated in London, Manchester and surrounding postcodes, so if no drop-off point appears you are probably outside the current network.
The shipping options that suit different sellers
There isn't a universally correct set of postage settings for every Vinted seller. The right setup depends on which drop-off points are convenient to you, whether you have a printer, what sizes your items are, and how much you want to optimise for buyer choice versus personal convenience.
The general principle is: enable more options rather than fewer, provided you can actually use them. More choices at checkout means fewer barriers between an interested buyer and a completed sale. Just make sure every option you've enabled is one you can ship with — an enabled courier you can't easily use is more hassle than it's worth.
Worthmore helps with the pricing side of the equation. Once your postage settings are sorted, knowing what your items are worth is the other piece that makes selling consistently successful.