INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Eva Yoo is founder of Seek Road, the project wherein she cycles from Seoul to London while interviewing startups on the Silk Road. More
posts by this contributorWhile a number of startups have been hard hit by efforts to curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus, refurbishing
firm Back Market is showing increased growth globally.The Paris -based startup encourages customers to send in their old devices so they can
be refurbished and resold into the e-commerce secondhand market
The growth achieved in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis is partly due to increased laptop sales as people seek better devices to work
remotely.For people who are unsure whether refurbished products are reliable, Back Market permits customers to send in old devices,
exchange them for newer versions and pay the difference
CEO Thibaud Hug de Larauze said this payback service is currently possible only in France, but starting in Q2, it will be available in other
two weeks, Back Market saw skyrocketing demand from Italy, a nation with a high coronavirus death toll where citizens were warned they would
their retail stores, a move that turned Back Market into a major supply channel
While offline retailers and carriers are shut down in Europe, Hug de Larauze says Chinese offline retailers and refurbishing factories are
starting to get back to work.
