Reuse: How Can We Successfully Scale Up Industrial Operations?

Turning heterogeneous product return streams into an industrial-scale system requires careful planning: securing access to sufficient volumes of products, establishing reliable sorting processes, and ensuring full traceability. In this article, Gaëtane Lemarchand, Circular Offer Director at Boulanger, explains how the retailer is building, step by step, a sorting and assessment system capable of handling growing volumes. Diversifying sourcing channels, digital tools developed with Reconomia, and a strategic partnership with Ecologic: she outlines how the sector can scale up, delivering tangible benefits for both consumers and the wider industry.

Building a large-scale offering of reused products means addressing a fundamental operational challenge: securing sufficient product volumes, sorting them efficiently, and turning inherently heterogeneous streams into predictable flows that can be processed at an industrial scale. At Boulanger, this is no longer a peripheral issue. A team of around fifteen people is dedicated to the challenge, supporting our ambitions to expand our range of refurbished products in the years ahead.

Securing Access to Product Streams Through Diversification and Data

Our first priority is diversifying our sources of supply. We purchase products that have already been refurbished from companies such as Recommerce, one of Europe’s leading multimedia refurbishment specialists and part of our United.b group. We also buy back products from our brand partners, including items returned by customers within 30 days, products damaged during logistics operations, or appliances that malfunction during initial installation, rather than transporting them back to their original suppliers. Finally, we recover value from our own internal product streams, with refurbishment carried out either in-house or by third-party service providers.

Our second priority is optimizing these product streams through mapping and traceability. This visibility helps us identify anomalies, such as a batch of products in good condition being mistakenly directed towards recycling rather than refurbishment, and take corrective action. For household appliances, we work with Reconomia, a United.b subsidiary that provides diagnostic and traceability technologies to quickly determine whether each product should be sent for refurbishment, recycling, or further assessment.

The challenges of securing supply vary significantly between product categories. Smartphones account for more than 50% of the refurbished products market, with intense competition for the most sought-after models, such as previous-generation iPhones and certain Samsung devices. For household appliances, the challenge is different: products are available, but their size and weight make geographical proximity to refurbishment operators essential to maintaining profitability and preventing damage during transportation.

Industrializing Sorting: From Reverse Logistics to Test-and-Learn

Our delivery and installation service is central to scaling up our sorting operations. Delivery teams install new appliances in customers’ homes, collect old ones where applicable, and direct them to sorting centres using dedicated containers, working alongside the producer responsibility organisation Ecologic or our refurbishment partners. This system, spanning national warehouses and local delivery platforms, did not previously exist. We are building it step by step, as there is no established model that can simply be replicated at our scale.

This expansion has not been without setbacks. Just before the summer, we encountered a bottleneck: the volumes of household appliances we were supplying to certain refurbishment operators exceeded their processing capacity, delaying the return of refurbished products. This was an important reminder that predictable product flows depend not only on our ability to collect products, but also on the capacity of the refurbishment ecosystem to keep pace.

We are therefore taking a gradual approach, starting with the most mature product categories before expanding further into household appliances, where the main barrier to purchase remains consumer confidence in product quality.

Traceability: The Foundation of Trust and Large-Scale Deployment

This is where Valoran, the product assessment and traceability tool developed by Reconomia, comes into play. Using a QR code attached to each returned product, refurbishment operators can scan the item and record key information, including replaced components and repairs carried out. This technological solution represents a first step towards a more comprehensive digital product passport.

In addition, through the quality charter and procedures that all our suppliers and marketplace sellers are required to sign, we can provide a two-year warranty on our refurbished smartphones.

Within this approach, the producer responsibility organisation Ecologic plays a coordinating role. Beyond the operational management of collection, reuse and recycling, it helps us develop a nationwide network of refurbishment operators and skilled repair professionals, notably by involving the Envie network. It also works to promote equal access to both product streams and data for all stakeholders.

For household appliances, where capacity constraints are particularly significant, this support is essential to structuring a still-emerging sector. Ecologic also encourages the entire ecosystem to adopt more rigorous traceability practices.

Making reuse both widespread and reliable is therefore not simply a matter of technology. It requires the methodical rebuilding of entire logistics chains, supported by trusted partners. This work may be largely invisible, but it is decisive in helping us achieve our ambitions in the years ahead.

This article is a translated version. The original publication is available on Les Echos Solutions :

https://solutions.lesechos.fr/business/actu-entreprise/reemploi-comment-reussir-l-industrialisation-a-grande-echelle/