Smartback: Simplify Returns for Second-Life Furniture
35% of e-buyers made at least one return in 2023, with 48% citing unsuitable dimensions and one-third due to defective or damaged products(1). While some returned items in good condition can be resold, others, which cannot be reused, often remain abandoned in storage, generating high costs for your business and posing a significant challenge for e-commerce.
In response, Smartback offers an innovative solution to give a second life to furniture, decorative items, and other products while optimising your logistics operations. You will simplify customer returns, enhance product value, and contribute to the circular economy while complying with current regulations. Together, let's give your items a second chance while reducing costs and carbon impact.
The Challenges of Managing Large E-Commerce Returns
A Costly and Complex Process
anaging returns of large products presents a significant logistical challenge for online retailers. Whether it's furniture, decorative items from current collections, or end-of-line products, processing returns comes with high costs (on average, a product return costs approximately €100(2)):
- Storage : Unprocessed returns clutter your warehouses and generate additional expenses.
- Manual Handling : Processing these products requires manpower and extends return times.
A Significant Environmental Impact
This ever-evolving practice presents environmental challenges, particularly for bulky items. Returns involve multiple transport steps, with an average distance of 600 km(2), often resulting in poor recovery, increasing CO₂ emissions and the overall carbon footprint.
To address these concerns, the AGEC Law (Anti-Waste for a Circular Economy) imposes new obligations on e-commerce players: mandatory take-back of used products, a ban on destroying unsold stock, and responsible waste management.
Giving your products a second life is not just an opportunity - it’s a regulatory necessity.
Changing Consumer Behaviour
Returns have become a key factor in the online shopping experience. For nearly 40% of e-buyers, unclear return policies lead to cart abandonment(1).
Furthermore, growing environmental awareness is shaping consumer habits. According to Fevad, 57% of online shoppers now prefer second-hand products for both economic and ecological reasons(3).
There is a strong interest in re-commerce initiatives like Smartback, which offers the perfect solution to meet consumer expectations for large products: simple, transparent, and responsible returns.
How to Give Old Furniture a Second Life?
1. Qualification and Reallocation
Upon receiving customer returns that cannot be restocked, you can entrust Smartback with the qualification, collection, and local redistribution of items to ensure:
- Resale : Products in good condition are resold locally through second-chance stores.
- Donation : Damaged or incomplete items are donated to charities for repair and resale in solidarity shops.
2. Collection and Direct Delivery
Within 48 hours, Smartback identifies a local delivery point and organises quick collection:
- From the customer's home, your stores, or your warehouse
- Direct delivery to second-life spaces (second-hand stores, refurbishing sites, and partner charities)
This model eliminates unnecessary transport stages, reducing costs, product damage, and carbon emissions.
3. Resale Through Smartback’s Network
Smartback selects the best resale specialist from its network of over 750 partners, ensuring optimal resale prices while minimising transport needs, giving furniture a second chance.
4. Real-Time Tracking
With the Smartboard management tool, you gain full visibility over every return::
- Real-time return tracking
- Environmental impact analysis
- Customised reporting for effective operations management
Join the Circular Economy and Adopt a Return Solution to Give Your Products a Second Life
Cut Logistics Costs
- Lower storage costs : Less handling, fewer dormant stocks, and more warehouse space freed up.
- Reduced transport costs : Smartback optimises transport routes and eliminates intermediaries to minimise the distance your parcels travel.
Showcase Your Strong Environmental Commitment
By choosing Smartback, a socially responsible enterprise, you not only strengthen your brand image but also actively engage in a sustainable approach by extending the life of furniture.
To ensure that your customers fully recognise your efforts, it is essential to clearly communicate on your website that you are a responsible brand, actively participating in the circular and social economy through your partnership with Smartback. These initiatives are gaining traction among consumers - 66% believe it is important to act for the environment, and one-third see environmental concerns as a fundamental priority(4).
Save Time and Ensure Regulatory Compliance
With Smartback, outsource every step of returns for products you no longer accept: customer exchanges, coordination with transporters, and administrative tracking. Beyond streamlining operations, you also ensure compliance with AGEC regulations, covering returns of unsold goods, product repurposing, end-of-line stock management, and integration into second-life spaces.
Don't Wait - Give Your Furniture a Second Life with Smartback
With Smartback, let's simplify e-commerce returns together so they are no longer a burden but an opportunity for sustainability and responsibility.
Contact your sales representative for more information.
Sources :
(1) Multithématique - Livraison et marque - 2023
(2) Smartback
(3) Panel e-Kommerce de Kantar – 2023
(4) Etude Perspectives de Livraison 2024 - IFOP
