All About Refurbished

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Category: Sustainability

WebSummit 2017 in Lisbon

WebSummit 2017 in Lisbon

WebSummit 2017 in Lisbon

This week my Co-Founder Peter and I addended the largest technology & start-up conference in Europe: WebSummit. More than 60.000 people attended the event with amazing speakers like Former Vice President of the United States of America Al Gore, European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager as well as many CEOs of the largest corporates in the world like Intel, Oracle, Microsoft or Slack.

The refurbed booth
Refurbed booth at WebSummit 2017

Refurbed booth at WebSummit 2017

Our company refurbed got selected to attend the conference with its own booth in the eCommerce area. We had many interesting conversations with people from all around the world about the refurbished industry in general as well as the current situation and acceptance in the specific areas of the planet.

In addition, we were chosen to participate at the WebSummit “PITCH” competition, where the 200 world’s leading early-stage Start-Ups came together for a live on-stage battle in front of the world’s leading investors.

Keynotes & Fireside Chats

Next to all the meetings, conversations, investor talks we had during the week, we also took the chance to attend at some amazing Keynotes and firesite chats of large political as well as industry leaders.

I would like to outline 3 here:

  1. A discussion between three leading US VCs on the topic of “Profit, Impact & Purpose”. The overall outcome of the conversation was that new companies must be purpose driven, so their business model must combine finance & sustainability to be successful in the future.
  2. A firesite chat on the topic of “Circular economy” including Peter Lacy, the Global Lead Growth, Strategy & Sustainability at Accenture! To summarize the discussion there is a shift away from the old value chain of: “take, make, throw away, waste”towards “take, make, take, make, take, make”, so more about a long-term value a company can deliver to a customer!
  3. The final Keynote was held by Al Gore on the climate crisis, sustainability, the Paris agreement and that we must act now to save the world from a disaster. It was a really intense speech, especially because he was addressing it directly to all of us WebSummit attendees:“My purpose here is to recruit you to be part of the solution to the climate crisis […] You can have a bigger impact than practically any other group in the entire world.” 
    Having a business model, which combines monetarization and sustainability (as more as we are selling as better it is for the environment), which we are glad to have with our company refurbed, lets us take part in exactly this important movement.

Summarizing my experience at WebSummit 2017 in Lisbon I have to say that it is a gigantic event, with amazing speakers, great Start-Ups, the biggest corporates and incredible fascinating people. See you again at WebSummit 2018 – it had been a blast!!! 🙂

WebSummit 2017 Closing Event

WebSummit 2017 Closing Event

What are the benefits of refurbishing?

There are many benefits of refurbished products and refurbishing in general. Probably the biggest one is “Sustainability” as the overall electronic waste, which we produce through destroying used products, as well as that the usage of raw materials, will be drastically reduced!

Just imagine that a new iPhone needs hundreds of individual components, which are produced all around the globe (Battery from South Korea, Camera from Japan, Audio Chips form the US) and finally assembled in China, before sold in each corner of the world.

If we even go one production step before, so to the point where the raw materials for Smartphone batteries are coming from, Sky News has done a shocking investigation on child labor, as young as four years old, who are working in Congolese mines to extract cobalt for smartphones. Here you get to the article and video: http://news.sky.com/story/meet-dorsen-8-who-mines-cobalt-to-make-your-smartphone-work-10784120

Even if this is an extreme example, it shows how brutal the industry is working to produce new electronic products!

Many of these negative examples, the high usage of raw materials and resources can be prevented, if more people are willing to re-use products. Offering products a “secondlife” by refurbishment is probably one of the best ways as it allows you to have a like-new device with just less carbon dioxide wasted through production!

The biggest fear of people buying “used” products is that you have any certainty that the product literally works. Exactly this is where refurbished products jump in. These products are not like classic used products, refurbished products have been tested and repaired to ensure that they function like new and depending on the grading criteria also look like new!

Where we are at the next benefit of refurbishing and refurbished products. You can buy a product, which functions like a new product and looks like it for a discounted price of up to 40%.

You probably ask yourself now: WHERE IS THE CATCH???

Honestly, I have asked myself the same question, when I was confronted with refurbished products the first time! But then I spend some more time investing on that topic, visited some of the largest refurbishers in Germany and realised…THERE IS NON!

If you buy from a trustworthy source these refurbishers are selling the product with a warranty, which ensures you that even, if there would be any problem with the product, you can just return it! The seller would repair or replace the product or if you request even repay you the purchasing price.

So just give it a try and buy your next electronic product “refurbished”. It will not only make your bank account happy, but also help the environment and Dorsen of course 🙂

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