Miguel Giribet (San Sebastian, 1977) is the CEO of Cash Converters, one of the references in Spain in the field of buying and selling second-hand items. With more than ten years of experience in management positions in companies in the digital sector such as or Stubhub, In the last year, Miguel has faced the challenge of running a company with a strong presence in physical stores throughout the toughest periods of confinement. To find out how he has approached it, how Cash Converters has changed in this time and what his future plans are, we have spoken with him.
A new Cash Converters for the covid era
Cash Converters arrived in Spain in 1995, when eCommerce was almost in its prehistory. Since then it has been growing, first in the physical field and now it is a very recognizable brand, with 75 stores and a large online presence. In what situation did you arrive at the outbreak of the pandemic?
Exactly, we carry over 25 years giving a second life to products from different categories and we intend to continue doing so for many more years because we have a very clear vision and purpose: to maintain our leadership in the omnichannel second-hand world with the aim of changing consumption habits in Spanish families to achieve a more sustainable world economically, socially and environmentally.
When the health crisis breaks out, the company was in full growth: the economic forecasts were very good, we forecast a growth of 5% in our stores and 25% in the online channel. At an organizational level, we were incorporating new managerial profiles, with extensive experience in online business and retail with the aim of evolving towards an omnichannel model, always under the umbrella of our purpose.
The pandemic has made us, as a company, rethink our goals since despite the fact that we live in a context of great uncertainty, we are already seeing an important change in the habits of people in general, and an awareness of the sustainability in particular, that it positively affects our business model.
People, in general, have realized that we have the opportunity to do better in terms of life, work and consumption habits. And this is awakening people’s consciences. In this context we aspire to lead the change in consumer behavior of families in general.
For this reason, how could it be otherwise, we are strengthening our digital strategy while maintaining our commitment to our physical stores, which are extremely important to us from the point of view of generating trust and brand recognition. In addition, through our physical points of sale we can make logistics and delivery much more sustainable and boost the economy of communities/neighborhoods where our stores are present, promoting the reuse of products and the circular economy
Intuitively, Cash Converters seems like one of those businesses that should withstand the impact of an economic crisis well. Have you noticed an increase in the number of customers who decide to put their used items up for sale?
Unfortunately, the pandemic situation and the restrictions on people’s mobility do not allow us to observe significant increases in traffic in our stores. What we do perceive is two very interesting trends:
- More and more clients with a higher socio-economic profile They see selling their products in Cash-converters as a highly recommended option to give them a second life. Also, the products they sell are of greater value than just a year ago. Not surprisingly, both the average purchase ticket and the average sale ticket have experienced an increase of close to 40% during 2020
- We perceive an increase in online product purchases through our assessment and purchase process “Venta Express”with which our customers can sell a product without leaving home, although it is true that we have a lot to improve in this area and it is part of the strong digitization process that we are promoting.
What is your balance of this unusual year?
Honestly, I make a positive balance; Every crisis gives rise to opportunities.. The reality is that as a company we have faced a very complex challenge, especially when you combine online and offline activity in physical stores. But it is also true that this crisis has forced us to rethink many things as a brand and as a business model. In this context, we have verified the ability to adapt and improve our team, It has exceeded all our expectations.
I am left with two learnings, in addition to the business opportunities, very important:
- Protect our workers and our customers will always be our priority. The importance of guaranteeing the emotional safety of our team at all times is vital now and always.
- Internal communication in periods of crisis is nuclear and strategic. A communication that I have personally led to accompany our people in this trance. Transparency is a fundamental pillar of our company and one of our values and we have made an effort to keep our collaborators promptly informed, both in terms of health and safety, as well as in terms of the future of the company and, of course, of the reasons and purpose of the different actions we have carried out. It has been a complicated path, although exciting and from which we have come out strengthened as people, as professionals and as a team.
Sustainability and CSR
What are their motivations for coming to your services? What role does the defense of values such as sustainability play?
Our proposal is based on two fundamental pillars: responsible consumption and intelligent consumption.
- smart consumption, based on a relevant saving in price compared to the first hand, a quality product and a guaranteed product (both its origin, its functionality and its return)
- responsible consumption is related to the impact we have on society and on the environment through our actions and our business model.
And that is precisely what is good about our model: its essence is based on the reuse of products, extending the useful life of tons of them that would otherwise become waste, garbage.
However, the fact that our activity “per se” is sustainable is not enough for us, so we are reflecting on what actions or initiatives we can put in place to advance our commitment to sustainability and to our stakeholders, promoting from within the organization a model based on Corporate Social Responsibility that is concerned with managing and reducing the impacts that our activity can generate in various areas and that deals with generating shared value in society.
To do this, we are creating an internal team, “the sustainable tribe” that allows us to define, centralize and execute an Action Plan that helps us achieve our goals quickly, objectives aligned with the 17 sustainable development goals defined by the UN.
Where are your plans for this year? What goal do you set for yourself?
The current situation does not allow reliable estimates to be made regarding what 2021 will be like. In any case, both in the offline business (stores) and in the online business We foresee very relevant growth compared to 2020 and sensitive growth compared to 2019.
For the next 5 years we aim to double our turnover focusing on improving the average billing of our stores and multiplying by 4 the billing of our online store through 3 essential axes: eithermini-channel, attracting new customers who value intelligent and sustainable consumption and increasing recurrence
Undoubtedly, the current situation generates more uncertainty than normal, but we are very positive about the impact on people’s awareness of everything we are experiencing and, of course, about the macro trend of sustainability and sensitivity to the environment. All this requires players like us to provide scalable and reliable solutions. In addition, 2021 is going to be the year of the implementation of an ambitious CSR Action Plan to align all our actions with our purpose.
How Cash Converters works
On your website you can find articles of all kinds and value, from relatively recent plasma televisions to an NES console that must easily be 30 years old. What items are the most recurrent both to sell and to buy?
At Cash Converters we buy and sell many products from very different categories. Our main categories are The electronic (mobile phones, ipads, etc.), computers and game consoles. That said, in recent months we are seeing a growth in other categories that are important to us such as mobility (bicycles, electric skates), sports, or small appliances (Thermomix, irobot, etc…)
In addition, there is a category, jewelery/watchmaking, which is very interesting and which we believe will be a category for the future and in which we make a firm commitment to sustainability.
From the buyer’s point of view, Cash Converters is an eCommerce, but how is the operation from the seller’s side? How do you carry out the remote appraisal of products?
We have our service “”, platform for online product purchase. In it, the client can upload their product, completing all the required information: model, brand, etc. Y in less than 72 you will receive your appraisal. This appraisal is carried out by a team of professionals specialized in the different categories, who evaluate and analyze the product in detail in order to offer you the best price according to its characteristics and state in which it is found..
Once the product has been appraised, uploaded to the platform and sold, how do you manage the collection and delivery of the product?
Our objective is to give the best service to our client, therefore, we carry out the pick up your product for free at your home or, if you prefer, you have the option of taking it to any of our stores.
On the other hand, as we said, your business has a strong omnichannel component. What is the relationship between physical and online stores?
We do not reveal anything new if we say that the market and the consumer have been tending towards omnichannel for several years. In that sense, we believe that the pandemic has changed purchasing behavior and customer expectations. We are currently working on evolving towards a pioneering omnichannel model in the second-hand sector and which, without a doubt, can represent an important competitive advantage, in which full product traceability, supply chain and logistics will play an important role.
As we said before, from a logistical point of view stores play the role of “small stores” from where…
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