Upcycling old furniture or buying vintage clothes, giving things a second life is hot. Even big chains like IKEA are now diving into the refurbished market. Omar Ouchene already did so a few years ago, when he and Joost Angelier founded Refurbished.nl in 2016. The company has since grown into a successful crossborder business that can call itself one of the nominees of this year's CrossBorder Top 30. What is the crossborder direction of this Dexport customer and market leader in refurbished phones, laptops and tablets?
In late 2015, Omar came up with the idea for Refurbished.co.uk. The desire to digitize everything and develop as many specific devices for everything as possible, followed by the aspect around sustainability that was becoming increasingly important to consumers, got Omar thinking. Broken or obsolete appliances were increasingly given a second life and repair companies were springing up like mushrooms, Omar explains: "There was demand, supply, sustainable thinking and knowledge. It was immediately clear to us."
Unique market
The refurbished market is not a typical market. Since everything must come from returns, leftover inventory or bought-up equipment from end users, it works differently than a new market. Each provider can only offer a small piece of that immense pond. "Then the idea arose: what if we offered a platform for that? That became Refurbished.nl." Says Omar about the unique platform. "For consumers, it's a place to compare, weigh choices and order safely with the best quality and warranty in one place, and for the suppliers it offers a platform to sell without fuss."
Platform
Therefore, Refurbished.co.uk does not have to depend on big players like Amazon in Germany; it is its own marketplace. Refurbished is responding to platformization and the trend toward niche marketplaces. The combination with the trends toward sustainability and the circular economy make this an interesting proposition. If you want to become successful in Germany as a seller you can hardly ignore Amazon, but its power and popularity has also made it partly arrogant and in that arrogance the consumer is often put above the supplier or seller, Omar believes. "Amazon has a knack of disproportionately favoring consumers at the expense of sellers when something has gone wrong unexpectedly." Refurbished.co.uk maintains a healthier balance between customers and sellers. "We don't work with commissions, but simply with a margin. We invoice a customer instead of the vendor. So we are customers of the vendors. We are not in between just to capture commission like a stereotypical platform like Amazon does. We see ourselves as a hybrid platform. Everything that is annoying for a seller we have managed to optimize." So for Refurbished.co.uk, it is important to consider not only the interests of consumers, but also those of vendors. After all, the more suppliers and sellers, the better. "We have to protect the supply of products, that is the strength of our platform, without compromising the continuous quality we offer our customers."
Crossborder rollout
From the beginning, there was a desire to pull the Refurbished.co.uk concept worldwide. "Early on, we were able to register our foreign domain names freely, only a few were purchased," says Mr. K., "and we were able to do so." After the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria and then France were next. With the domain name Refurbished.store, Omar's desire got a start and they are selling worldwide. This global move was not very exciting for Omar. "We offer products that everyone worldwide knows and uses. Not an archetypal Dutch product like a stroopwafel that still needs to be marketed completely. For us as Internet entrepreneurs it's simple. Every webshop starts with www. and from there you look further. From your office in the Netherlands you can easily serve all of Europe.
Difference
But serving all countries indiscriminately is not in the cards anyway. A different culture and language remains a challenge. The market is sometimes different, as are the consumers and their search and buying habits and the suppliers, which are so important to Refurbished.nl. "Setting up customer service in another language is not such a challenge, but targeted marketing is." For Germany specifically, for example, Omar notices that a different SEO strategy needs to be applied. Each piece of marketing needs a different approach. That something like this can still change within a market with the same products he finds quite remarkable. "You would expect those products to be leading for success, but unfortunately that is not the case." The Netherlands is at the forefront of this market and has even become a testing ground. "If apple has a new service, the Netherlands is high on the list to test it first. Dutch consumers adopt everything quickly." Unlike Germany. When it comes to Refurbished, they are not so far along. Refurbished is searched for, but a German is not specifically looking for a refurbished iphone. The terms commonly used as keywords in Germany are related to: 'used' (gebraucht waren).
Germany unique
Despite the fact that, according to Omar, crossborder business is an automated game in which you can succeed anywhere with the right analysis, countries can be very different from each other. Germany is also unique in this regard. German consumers find truthful communication and honesty very important. It is, according to Omar in Germany really important that you fulfill all your agreements 1 on 1. "It goes without saying that your goal as a company is to serve your customer as well as possible, but of course sometimes things go wrong unexpectedly. The German consumer can then start screeching faster than the Dutch. "If something goes wrong you logically solve it as quickly and as well as possible, but the German consumer can be demanding then and proper handling is incredibly important in such a case."
Marketing mix for Germany
The focus for Germany is mainly on SEO and SEA. SEO, according to Omar, offers a technical basis in which you do something for the long term. Patience is very important in this and the domain names are also indispensable. SEA is a matter of analysis and optimization. That has an immediate effect in the short term. Affiliate marketing, in addition, is the thing that allows you to get a lot of traffic to your website fairly quickly. "In the short term that has a good effect and in the long term you are visible in the market."
"Once the basis for SEO and SEA is in place, it is important to raise awareness of the brand in Germany. Refurbished is capitalizing on platformization and the trend toward niche marketplaces. In total, there are more than 170 German marketplaces in the DACH region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) and this number is growing steadily. The number of marketplaces has doubled in the last five years. The combination with the trends towards sustainability and the circular economy make this an interesting proposition. German millennials in particular are opting for sustainability and competitive prices. Social commerce via Facebook and Instagram, among others, offers Refurbished huge opportunities in the next growth phase."
Andreas Giese - CEO Dexport
The future
Omar's dream for the future is to offer everything through Refurbished. Right now it's laptops, phones, tablets, and it's already expanding soon to include game consoles and other electronics. "We are now going for anything with a plug, laughs Omar. Next will be white goods, and someday it will be furniture. "Everything that can be refurbished, we want to eventually offer," he says. And that worldwide. Within now and five years, Omar wants to realize that Refurbished.nl delivers anywhere in the world. "In the coming years we will expand to several countries in Northern, Western and Southern Europe and then the next step is really to expand outside Europe." Furthermore, to become even bigger in Germany is a big dream. "The refurbished market is huge. The potential even bigger. If you can pull it off in Germany, nothing stands in our way anymore."
