French refurbished specialist Backmarket celebrated its tenth anniversary. The company took advantage of this event to talk about its future ambitions and upcoming initiatives.
During the very first keynote speech led by the second-hand retailer Backmarket, its CEO, Thibaud Hug de Larauze, announced that the French company would be profitable this year for the first time since its creation in 2014. In 10 years, the refurbished specialist Backmarket has sold 30 million products to 15 million unique customers. For Thibaud Hug de Larauze, these figures prove a growing confidence of their customers: “They are repeating their purchases with us, it’s a great success.” On the sellers’ side, individuals sending in their unused devices received 203 million euros.
Backmarket’s main objective is to make the purchase of refurbished devices more commonplace, in order to limit the carbon emissions of tech. Currently, the purchase of second-hand products on the platform has saved 1.6 million tons of CO2. “We don’t want to stop there, our goal is to always have the best possible impact”comments the CEO. Thus, the company is projecting itself into 2034 and hopes to sell its repaired products to 5 billion customers (90% of the adult population).
Thibaud Hug de Larauze points out that even if this objective seems unattainable, another sector has made this transition to reconditioned: “The majority of consumers buy their cars second-hand, and change parts when necessary. With the same level of service, a quality guarantee and a lower price, there is no reason not to turn to reconditioned.” Furthermore, he emphasizes that Manufacturers will soon be forced to sell spare parts of their devices in order to combat planned obsolescence, an advantage for the development of reconditioned products.
Go where the customers are
Thus, to encourage the adoption of second-hand products, Backmarket announces that it has signed a partnership with Bouygues Telecom. From now on, conditional smartphone offers, accompanied by packages, can be subscribed with a refurbished Backmarket phone. In addition, 15 Parisian boutiques of the operator will offer in their departments used smartphones. “This partnership allows us to take our first steps into physical retail, comments Thibaud Hug de Larauze, and thus reach 50% more people.” The company also announced a similar partnership with Visible by Verizon, to extend this offer to the United States.
Finally, Backmarket has signed an agreement with Sony Playstation, to sell refurbished consoles directly in store or on the brand’s website. “If we want to expand the adoption of refurbished, we have to go to customers where they are”explains Thibaud Hug de Larauze.
Backmarket’s new services
Beyond partnerships, Backmarket is launching a number of new features on its site in 2025. Among them, the product comparison tool thanks to AI allows customers to more easily find their way among the 500,000 items on sale on the site.
To encourage second-hand consumption, consumers must also be encouraged to resell their unused electronic devices. Thus, from Black Friday 2024, by connecting to the application, users will only have to shake their phone for it to be recognized and will be able to obtain an estimate of how much its resale could bring them.
Finally, the big new feature offered by Backmarket is the “Tel!”. For a fixed price of 299 euros, Customers receive a refurbished phone without knowing the brand in advance. The idea is to offer a “phone that does everything a phone should do” and is accessible to all budgets.
Source: www.ecommercemag.fr
