Since refurbed only acts as an intermediary between seller and buyer, it does not maintain a warehouse itself and does not carry out any fulfilment. The devices sold via the platform are delivered directly to the end customer by the "refurbishers".
Despite its marketplace concept, refurbed wanted to do cross-selling, as the potential of cross-selling was obvious to the company: if customers were automatically offered complementary products with their selected items, refurbed could become a “one-stop shop” for electronic products. Customers would no longer need to purchase suitable accessories, such as mobile phone and tablet cases, screen protectors, and matching laptop bags, in a laborious and time-consuming process from other online shops.
By selling supplementary products, refurbed envisioned not only to increase sales but also customer satisfaction.
"We knew that without cross-selling we would lose some sales and that we could help our customers with additional products," says Peter Windischhofer, founder of the platform.
As a marketplace, refurbed had no opportunity to set up the processes and departments for purchasing and warehousing necessary for cross-selling. Storing many different small products that are rarely needed was too risky; running fulfillment themselves would not be profitable.
In addition, the traditional concept did not fit refurbed's sustainable business model.
"Running an own warehouse with thousands of cross-selling items, which may or may not sell, does not fit our sustainability standards and our business model," says Windischhofer.
Refurbed found a solution for this dilemma with the 35up platform for cross-selling. This way, no warehousing or fulfilment is necessary. 35up automatically suggests products that customers can add to their shopping cart with just one click. The delivery is made by the respective dealer from the 35up partner network.
refurbed was able to integrate the 35up platform into its marketplace via an API within a few weeks. Nothing changed in the user experience. It is not apparent to customers that the cross-selling products do not come from refurbed.
When a customer adds a product to the shopping cart, the 35up platform automatically identifies matching cross-selling items. For an iPhone 8, for example, different mobile phone cases and screen protection with the right dimensions for this product are displayed. The customer sees this selection of compatible products and can enlarge the product images. With just one click, she can add the desired product to the shopping cart.
In the cart, she then sees all the items with a preview image, price, and expected delivery date. If a purchase is concluded, the respective sellers arrange for the shipment of their products – without any action on the part of refurbed. Returns also go directly through the retailers.
Peter summarizes:
"The 35up platform precisely solves our cross-selling problem." The big advantage from his point of view: "Since we have full control over the user interface and the products displayed, the experience for our customers is just as good as before."
In the 35up admin area, refurbed can control which products are offered as cross-selling items and at what price – or rely on the automated product selection and price recommendations of the platform.
Up to 20% Cross-Selling Rate
With the 35up platform, refurbed can implement cross-selling without having to store or ship the corresponding products themselves.
As expected, the cross-selling approach is successful for the company: up to 20 percent of customers buy additional products, and the numbers are increasing. The company achieves additional sales in the six-figure range every year. At the same time, refurbed's own conversion rate was not affected.
For Peter Windischhofer his view on the integration of the 35up platform is therefore very positive:
“Our expectations have been fully met. We can offer our customers more products, our sales have increased, and we didn’t need to compromise on sustainability to achieve this.”
