Kilian Kaminski: Making Refurbished the New Normal

Kilian Kaminski is the co-founder of refurbed, a marketplace connecting consumers with professional refurbishers of electronics and other consumer goods across Europe.

Since launching in 2017, refurbed has grown into Europe's leading marketplace for refurbished electronics. The company has surpassed €3 billion in gross merchandise value, reached profitability, sold more than 10 million products, and now operates across 24 European markets.

Yet for Kaminski, the company's success is only part of a much broader ambition: making refurbished the default choice for consumers.

"I hope that in five or ten years, people won't ask whether they should buy refurbished," he says. "They'll simply ask which refurbished product they should buy."

A Third Category Between New and Used

Millions of perfectly functional electronic devices were being replaced long before the end of their useful lives, while consumers were looking for technology that was both more affordable and more sustainable.

Kaminski believed there was room for an entirely new product category.

"We really believed that products could become a third category between new and used, but only if we could build enough trust around quality and customer experience," he says.

Building that trust became refurbed's biggest challenge.

Many consumers assumed refurbished simply meant second-hand. In reality, the process is fundamentally different.

Rather than replacing a single broken component, professional refurbishment begins with certified data deletion, followed by a comprehensive inspection of every component. Only the parts that no longer function properly are replaced.

The finished product functions like new, comes with a warranty, and extends the life of a device that already exists.

Building Trust

Explaining the refurbishment process alone wasn't enough.

Early on, Kaminski realised refurbed had a different problem: its value proposition sounded almost too good to be true.

Customers could buy a smartphone for up to 40% less than a new one, receive a warranty, enjoy the same functionality, and reduce their environmental impact at the same time. Instead of being convinced, many simply wondered where the catch was.

To remove that uncertainty, refurbed introduced a 30-day free trial.

"We even had customers calling us and telling us, 'I think you accidentally sent me a new product because there's no scratch on it and it works perfectly,'" Kaminski recalls. "And we're like, no, that's our value proposition. This is what we promised you."

Those early experiences became refurbed's strongest marketing channel. Today, more than half of customers in its core markets come through recommendations from friends and family rather than paid advertising.

Why Sustainability Alone Doesn't Scale

One lesson became clear early on.

Businesses don't become mainstream simply because consumers want to do the right thing. They become mainstream because they solve a real problem.

"If your business model only works because people want to do something good, it will always remain a niche. We're not an NGO. We are still a commercial, business-driven organization," Kaminski says.

The strongest reason customers buy refurbished products is still price. Saving 20% or more on an expensive device is a compelling proposition, particularly after years of inflation and declining purchasing power. Sustainability becomes an additional benefit rather than the primary motivation.

That combination, Kaminski argues, is what makes the model scalable. While sustainable fashion or organic food often cost more than conventional alternatives, refurbished products offer the opposite equation: lower prices alongside lower environmental impact, without compromising quality.

Consumer attitudes, he believes, are also changing. More people actively search for refurbished products today than when refurbed launched. 

Families, in particular, are becoming increasingly conscious of the kind of world they will leave to their children. As a result, environmental impact is becoming a more important consideration alongside price and quality.

Scaling Refurbed

Today, refurbed operates across 24 European markets after doubling its footprint earlier this year. But growth isn't only about entering new markets. It also means expanding what customers can buy.

What began with smartphones and laptops now includes household appliances, sports equipment, e-bikes and children's products. Some categories emerge from refurbishment markets that already exist. Others are created almost from scratch.

Kaminski points to Austria's ski rental industry as one example. Thousands of rental skis are retired after a single season despite remaining perfectly usable. refurbed saw an opportunity to refurbish and resell them instead.

Not every category, however, is equally easy to introduce.

"Hygiene products are probably a bit behind on our launch strategy," Kaminski says. "It's still a bit of a way that people would be willing to buy razors or something like this refurbished. Compared to buying your vacuum cleaner, those are the easier choices."

For Kaminski, that's also why refurbed's biggest competitor isn't another refurbished marketplace. The real challenge is convincing consumers to choose refurbished over buying new.

"The biggest competition for us is not the other refurbished players. It's new products," he says.

Building a Circular Economy

For Kaminski, the company is only one part of a much broader transition towards a circular economy.

He believes Europe has made important progress through initiatives such as the Right to Repair, Ecodesign rules and the Digital Product Passport. Yet today's economy, he argues, remains overwhelmingly linear.

"The future competitive advantage of Europe won't be having more resources. It will be using existing resources better," he says.

The opportunity is significant. According to a study conducted by refurbed, more than 640 million smartphones sit unused in European households. Around 200 million of them could still be refurbished and given a second life, while each contains valuable materials including gold, copper, lithium and cobalt.

"The smartphone in our hands is kind of a little mine," he says.

Rethinking Success

Asked where he wants refurbed to be in the coming years, Kaminski offers a deliberately simple ambition.

"We want to bring one refurbished device into every European household."

Behind that ambition lies something bigger than market share. He hopes refurbished products become the default choice rather than the alternative.

That ambition has also changed how he measures success.

Earlier in his career, success meant growth. Today, he defines it as building a company that creates value for customers, opportunities for employees and a positive impact on society.

Ultimately, he believes businesses will increasingly be judged not only by the profits they generate, but by the impact they create alongside them.