Camille Richard – Back Market (English Version) : Refurbishing to preserve the planet
«There should be no factual reasons that would push the consumer to buy new products rather than refurbished products», here is the motto that has driven the Startup Back Market since its creation. For this 9th episode, it is with great pleasure that we received Camille Richard, CSR Manager of the French unicorn, at the microphone of On The Way.
On the strength of this leitmotif and with the aim of extending the lifespan of appliances already in circulation, in order to combat overproduction and its harmful effects, the Back Market teams have redesigned the experience of buying refurbished products so that the consumer prefers it to new. This experience must be as good or better than those offered by market leaders in electronics. As an intermediary, one of the challenges for Back Market has been to obtain and present to the consumer evidence provided by reconditioners by setting up specific processes that guarantee this high level of quality, from reconditioning to delivery, which is essential to gain the trust of buyers.
Camille reveals to us behind the scenes of Back Market and underlines that it was crucial to offer the same advantages, the same guarantees, the same range of choices and the same pleasure in purchasing, in order to guarantee the success of this business model based on the circular economy.
Thanks to a bold communication, Back Market has managed to change the perception of refurbished products and thus behaviors. The company has adopted a fairly strong brand image, quite quirky, quite humorous, the idea being to make the refurbished sexy: «the buyer must be proud of having chosen refurbished» Camille rightly tells us.
Back Market also informs the consumer of the environmental impact of buying a refurbished item, right from the selection stage. It’s a way of making consumers aware of these issues.
Even if the price is the primary reason that drives the purchase of refurbished products, consumers are now nearly 25% coming to the site for ecological reasons, whereas they were only 3% at the launch. Thus, to deepen the subject and measure the real impact of a refurbished purchase, for example a telephone, Back Market conducted a particularly instructive impact study with ADEME.
Smartphone manufacturers, for their part, are hammering out a marketing discourse to the consumer in order to push him to buy a latest generation product that he does not necessarily need. With the circular economy and reconditioning, we are in a virtuous logic, which makes it possible to buy a suitable product without feeling guilty and to fight against planned obsolescence.
Finally, we can rejoice that these new parallel circuits, around the circular economy, bring up to date forgotten professions, such as repairers. This is what the Murfy startup with which Back Market works has understood. «Repair is a profession with a future and there are many professional opportunities with refurbished and repair to give a second life,» says Camille.
So much good news, which testifies that we are on the right path!
Good listening !
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The Back Market startup was founded in 2014 and is now present in more than 15 countries. The online marketplace offers products from more than 1,200 refurbishers. She has been part of the French unicorns since May 2021
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The sites mentioned by Camille:
To fight against planned obsolescence: HOP – Halte à l’Obsolescence Programmée (halteobsolescence.org)
To recycle your phone: I give my phone (jedonnemontelephone.fr)
To repair my appliance: Murfy.fr
