Launched in 2014 in France as a marketplace for buying and selling refurbished tech, Back Market has been rapidly growing in the UK since it arrived here three years ago. Back Market’s general manager for the UK Katy Medlock speaks to Retail Week about the brand’s journey so far and fulfilling its purpose to eliminate e-waste.
How does the process of buying and selling on Back Market work?
“Our mission as a company is all about reducing e-waste. We’re not going to achieve that mission unless we make the process of buying and selling on Back Market just like the process of buying new electronics.
“We’re trying to remove that consumer obsession with buying new and to do that we need to have a super-sharp user experience on the website, where it’s easy and enjoyable to purchase a refurbished phone. We need to make sure that the after experiences are the same as buying new as well. So customers can split payments, receive a refund within 30 days if they change their mind, and receive a 12-month warranty.”
Is there more of a demand for refurbished technology now?
“We’re seeing huge growth in the UK and it’s our fastest growing market. But globally, this is an industry that is really taking off and that’s phenomenal to see.
“I think consumers are becoming aware that they don’t need the latest gadget. A lot of its features they probably won’t even use, plus there’s not as much difference as there was in the early years of smartphones. That, combined with the fact that people are becoming more aware of e-waste, especially when they’re sustainably minded regarding their carbon footprint, means we’re seeing huge growth.”
How has Back Market grown since it was founded in 2014?
“Since launch, we’ve raised more than US$1bn. We’ve got around eight million customers worldwide and more than 1,500 resellers and refurbishers working on the platform. We’re doing this at scale and we’ve made it into something that is tested, trusted and respected. Back Market is leading the way as a global player in 18 markets.”
How does Back Market ensure that its refurbished devices are reliable and trustworthy?
“If we’re going to reach our mission of reducing e-waste, then we know that we have to be absolutely impeccable on quality. How we work at reassuring and making sure that that quality is there is by having a 25-point quality check on every single device that’s refurbished and sold on Back Market.
“And because we’re a marketplace, when customers are looking online we have an algorithm that serves up the seller that’s offering the best quality and that’s because they’ve been selling on Back Market for years. We know every time they’ve had a return, why there has been a return, what the issue was, and we’re able to not only deal with the customer’s issues, but to use that data to make sure we’re serving the best offer at the right time at the right price. It’s all very transparent.
“We’ve also just done a fantastic campaign where we had old Apple gadget experts trying to tell the difference between new, straight-out-of-the-box devices and our refurbished ones and they couldn’t tell the difference.”
What is next for Back Market?
”We’ve launched an online trading service to try and get people to think about what’s in their top drawers and actually trade in their unwanted electronics. Customers can get money through trading in a four-year-old iPhone and the process takes two minutes. It’s an opportunity to tell customers that they’re actually sitting on a mini goldmine in the middle of this cost-of-living crisis.
“We really want to make sure that circularity exists on the website by offering recycling services as well. We’re making sure that we’re diverting any electronic waste from going into landfill.
”We’re not even at the tip of the iceberg. We’re really just at the beginning of this. But for us to have a global impact, we need to keep expanding and growing in the countries that we’re already in. We’re also launching in new countries – we’ve just launched in Australia – but we want to expand our product lines to ensure that we are the one-stop shop for all refurbished electronics.”
No comments yet