DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AND TECHNOLOGY
AUTUMN 2021, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT WITH INFORMATION
SYSTEMS
RETECH
Refurbishing and selling pre-loved electronics
Introduc*on
ReTech is a Danish company buying and selling pre-loved and
refurbished electronics such as laptops, smartphones, screens, etc. The
company started in the fall of 2015 when three young entrepreneurial
Master’s students from Aarhus University founded the company to get
established in the market for recycled electronics. Building on
knowledge acquired during their studies, the founders have formulated
ReTech’s vision and mission.
The vision of ReTech is: “ReTech contributes to making the world a
beJer place, seeking to secure the survival of the planet by refurbishing and selling pre-loved
electronics and in that way minimizing the waste of the planet’s resources by building a
sustainable business around recycling electronics.”
The mission of ReTech is: “ReTech seeks to sell to both individuals and companies, knowing that as
many as possible must parMcipate if the vision is to succeed. ReTech strives to deliver high quality
refurbished electronics at a low price, making refurbished electronics highly compeMMve to new
electronics.”
Pre-loved and refurbished electronics will make the world a be7er place
Market situa*on
The market for refurbished electronics is sMll relaMvely young, but is expected to see rapid growth
in the following years, due to a globally increased focus on sustainability and climate changes. In a
recent market survey, “75% ... say they are likely to buy refurbished electronics” (LiquidityServices,
2019, p. 4). Furthermore, the market for personal computer and smartphones seems to have
saturated, meaning that the rate of change in these products has slowed down, and thus that the
electronics fabricated two years ago sMll have highly compeMMve characterisMcs compared to new
electronics.
ReTech's history
ReTech started in Aarhus where the three entrepreneurs opened a small shop selling their friends’
and families’ refurbished electronics. They quickly discovered that there was a huge potenMal in
selling refurbished electronics and started buying used electronics from companies and individuals
to refurbish, and hereaYer sell in their shop.
Business is growing
Since then, ReTech has been fast-growing and has recently established two addiMonal business
units in Copenhagen. The three business units are physical locaMons where customers and
companies can either buy refurbished electronics from ReTech or sell their used electronics to
ReTech. Each business unit has 5 employees who deal with both the buying and selling of used
electronics. In the business units, it is also possible to order a product from the headquarters or
one of the other business units if the product is not in stock.
All used electronics are sent to ReTech’s headquarters in Tilst. At the headquarters, the electronics
are refurbished in the repair shop and classified into grade A, B, or C, depending on the condiMon
(See Appendix 1 for details). Currently, this process is only loosely defined, and each business unit
decides independently how to hand over new orders and electronics to the headquarters, and how
the orders are otherwise managed. In total, ReTech consists of 41 employees of whom 26 are
working at the headquarters in Aarhus, distributed into different funcMonal departments across
the headquarters, as shown in Table 1.
"We are aware of the fast development in the market of refurbished
electronics"
Equipment in ReTech
Each employee at ReTech is equipped with a laptop and a smartphone, which are primarily used
for internal and external communicaMon through e-mails and phone calls. ReTech are using
MicrosoY 365 for most of their business operaMons - they use e.g. an Excel file to store informaMon
about their customers. Apart from this, ReTech only has a very limited number of IT systems.
Internal considera*ons
ReTech is a company with many possibiliMes, but also challenges. The fast growth from one
headquarters unit to today’s mulMple business units has led to increased complexity in the
business processes, and some employees claim that the internal processes are no longer effecMve.
The fast growth of the firm has resulted in a lack of coordinaMon between the business units,
waste of Mme in the workshop due to unclear tasks, as well as poor handling of orders. Problems
may occur in managing incoming orders, which orders are ready, and where they are going to be
shipped to. A frequent problem is that the various producMon and order notes are not being
passed on between departments or from the business units to the headquarters. SomeMmes they
even completely disappear. There is not much coordinaMon across business units and funcMonal
departments. The above-menMoned problems are starMng to create difficulMes for the managers of
ReTech. Due to this situaMon, the management has announced that they need to do something to
strengthen their internal situaMon and improve their business
"We are ready to take on the challenges which we are currently facing"
External considera*ons
Even though the market for refurbished electronics is experiencing growth, ReTech is in fierce
compeMMon with other electronic refurbishment businesses. Furthermore, they experience
compeMMon from well-established electronics manufacturers, just like they may also experience
compeMMon from C2C marketplaces, such as eBay or dba (Den Blå Avis). This powerful compeMMon
is revealing weaknesses in the processes of ReTech, as their compeMtors seem to perform much
beJer on order handling, delivery Mmes, inventory management, and customer saMsfacMon, and
there is thus an urgent need for a solid strategy to gain a compeMMve advantage.
ReTech has had a good start-up and managed considerable growth since its foundaMon in 2015.
However, management has realized that the Mme has come to reconsider the rather unstructured
processes and technologies from the start-up days, and they wonder how to increase the maturity
of the organizaMon to support future growth.
We need help
ReTech hired a consultant to facilitate a strategy workshop where the employees were asked to
arMculate the key challenges that they are facing in their daily work. These key challenges were
then grouped into three main problems
• Lack of Control of Internal Processes,
• Not exploiMng IT opportuniMes,
• Limited sales channel.
The outcome of the workshop is aJached in Appendix 2.
Addi*onal Informa*on
ReTech is a ficMonal company. An example of a Danish "compeMtor" is Refurb:
hJps://www.refurb.dk
Another example of refurbished products is Amazon Renewed: hJps://www.amazon.co.uk/
CerMfied-Refurbished-%20on%20Amazon/b?ie=UTF8&node=8362590031
References
Bélanger, F., Van Slyke, C., & Crossler, R. E. InformaMon Systems for Business: An ExperienMal
Approach. Vermont: Prospect Press.
LiquidityServices. (2019). The Rise of Refurbished Products. Retrieved July 2nd, 2019, from hJps://
www.liquidityservices.com/wpcontent/uploads/2018/07/wp_rtcb0101_1502.pdf
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