Back Market Diversifies Beyond Smartphones

The mix shift away from smartphones shows Back Market is becoming less dependent on a single inventory constrained category and more like a general refurbished electronics marketplace. Phones still anchor demand, but longer upgrade cycles and tighter premium handset supply have pushed the company to grow laptops, tablets, consoles, and services around each order. That matters because it broadens supply sources, smooths category risk, and creates more ways to monetize each customer beyond the basic 10% seller commission.1 2 3 4

• Smartphones were about 70% of goods sold in 2024, already down from earlier levels, while non phone categories were expanding as phone refresh cycles stretched to roughly 40 months and refurbished inventory tightened. The operational response was to push into other household devices and capture more trade in supply through partners like Sony, Verizon, and Bouygues.1 2
• This is a key difference versus Swappie, which is much more concentrated in refurbished iPhones. Swappie keeps the full resale price by buying, repairing, and reselling phones itself, but that heavier model left it flat at about $213M revenue in 2023 as smartphone supply tightened, while Back Market kept growing by adding more categories on top of an asset light marketplace.2 4
• As marketplaces mature, the biggest revenue opportunity often comes from raising ARPU around the core transaction rather than only taking a cut of the sale. Back Market’s growing mix of warranties, insurance, seller ads, and carrier programs fits that pattern. The sale of a device becomes the starting point for extra services, not the whole business.1 5

The next step is a broader refurbished electronics stack where phones bring buyers in, but growth comes from cross category inventory and higher value services layered on top. If that continues, Back Market can look less like a used phone marketplace and more like the default checkout layer for buying, selling, financing, protecting, and trading in consumer devices.1 3 5