As part of our Channel Partner Profile series, today we’re introducing a channel for a niche market: a used electronics marketplace operating on a global scale. Here’s what you’ll want to know if you wish to sell on Back Market.
Back Market: The world’s largest channel for selling refurbished goods.
Refurbishment used to be a highly fragmented market. Buyers would look up used items on local classified websites, or they would look for the Used section of a brand’s website for bargains, or on auction sites like eBay that sell general merchandise items. But that’s changing.
Now, Back Market brings buyers and sellers of electronics together on a single, dedicated platform. Sellers of used, refurbished electronics like smartphones, laptops, game consoles, TVs, and other devices are discovering this relatively new sales channel that lets them sell not just anywhere in their own country, but cross-border as well.
Back Market by the numbers
>1000 certified sellers
More than 1,000 certified sellers use Back Market to sell refurbished goods. It is currently live in the U.S., France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the U.K., and Austria.
200,000 featured products, 12 million monthly sessions
Back Market has a global community of refurbished buyers browsing through more than 200,000 products in an average of up to 12 million monthly sessions. The average number of monthly sessions has edged up in recent months.
$120M in new funding for expansion
Back Market is a France-based company which started up in 2014, so it’s a relative newcomer. With startup backing from LVMH chairman and chief executive Bernard Arnault, the company also now raised a $120M funding round through Goldman Sachs, Aglaé Ventures and Eurazeo Growth.
The new funding, they say, is not for expanding into more countries. The focus will be on core markets, starting with the U.S., Germany, and the U.K. Back Market plans to expand its quality control team and introduce new services around refurbishments as a move toward vertical integration. The new funding will also enable them to source spare parts for sellers, introduce test protocols, and other enhancements.
270 factories as refurbishment partners
Because quality assurance is of paramount importance, Back Market maintains relationships with over 270 factories for handling refurbishments, including the Apple factory. It also works with third-party sellers and other refurbishers.
Buyers give Back Market high ratings
Back Market has 5,875 reviews from buyers on Trust Pilot, where it’s earned a 4.7-star rating for both product quality and customer service.
Consumers appreciate the fact that Back Market has vetted each seller, to ensure the quality of all products sold on the marketplace. Back Market benefits from a high level of brand awareness and a strong reputation among consumers worldwide.
Tools for sellers
The website uses machine-learning tools to analyze listed products against 15 different quality indicators,. These factors help it both forecast demand for merchants and display product recommendations to customers.
It also leverages a buybox algorithm that factors in the determination of seller quality, enabling the highest-ranking sellers to rise to the top on product listings, and also yields them higher margins.
The new funding it just secured will enable the company to roll out even more enhancements for sellers while driving it toward future growth.
HOW TO CONNECT: Visit Back Market’s Seller Page to get started.
See more in our Channel Partner series here:
Channel Partner profile: How to Sell on Etsy
Channel Partner Profile: How to Sell on eBay
Channel Partner Profile: How to Sell on Walmart.com
Channel Partner Profile: How to Sell on Rakuten
