BERLIN — Recommerce executives argued during the panel “The truth about refurbished tech: quality, pricing and guarantees” at the recent Retech Days conference that the future of the industry depends less on one-off sales and more on building long-term customer trust and recurring relationships.

The session, moderated by Dr. Marianne Kuhlmann, co-founder and CEO of Germany-based Circularity Partners, which says it “supports shapers in business and society in the circular transformation — through collaborations, consulting, training, networking and much more.”

Other participants included Simon Kemoun, co-founder and CEO of France-based Evy, an insurtech startup that provides services related to product protection and extended warranty to retailers and e-commerce companies; Jean-Marie Guian, founder and president of France-based Save Group, a retail network specializing in the repair, servicing and recycling of smartphones, tablets, laptops and game consoles; and Dr. Philipp Gattner, CEO of Germany-based ReBuy, which buys and sells refurbished consumer electronics and secondhand media, such as books, CDs and DVDs.

A recurring theme throughout the discussion was the supply shortage facing the refurbished-device market. Guian noted that there is a considerable gap between device sales and the quantity of devices that can be bought back. 

Panelists argued that solving this challenge requires marketplaces and recommerce companies to shift from a transactional model to lifecycle-based customer relationships. 

According to Kemoun, subscription models, trade-in services and protection programs are becoming increasingly important to ensure devices return to refurbishment channels.

“The goal is to build loyalty to the brand and the institution. Once the value chains are in place to take back the device, you can almost lock in the customer, especially if it’s through a subscription,” he said.

Meanwhile, Gattner warned that relying on single transactions is becoming unsustainable as customer acquisition costs rise. “Only the companies that are able to build long-term relationships with their customers are going to succeed,” he said.

Gattner argued that recommerce companies need to cultivate “circular customers” who both buy and resell devices and expand into adjacent product categories.

Transparency, quality control and customer education were repeatedly highlighted as critical competitive differentiators. Executives pointed to warranties, standardized grading, repair transparency and fast delivery as key drivers of consumer confidence.

“We said a few years ago that NPS [net promoter score] needs to be at 70, and that’s what we have reached now. The next step is basically spreading the word that there’s no alternative to buying used devices. That’s really for us the focus in the years to come,” Gattner concluded.