Selling refurbished phones online is not hard to start. It is hard to keep tidy once orders come from three places, stock is shared between them and invoices pile up. This guide is the order of steps for a team of two or three people, so the second marketplace does not break what the first one built.
The short version
- Apply to Back Market and Refurbed early: both review a seller before opening the account.
- Sort out the warranty and the VAT scheme before the first sale, not after.
- Keep one stock, one SKU per product, and record what you paid per batch.
- Build the daily routine around one list of orders, labels and tracking that send themselves.
Step 1 · Decide where you sell first
The places to consider, and what each one asks before you can sell:
- Back Market. Its seller API documentation says a seller gets an account after validation by their team, applying with information about the company.
- Refurbed. It describes its sellers as carefully selected professional refurbishers, and its API credentials come from your account manager.
- Amazon Renewed.You register as a seller first, then apply. Amazon’s Renewed page lists the criteria, among them invoices showing a value of refurbished purchases over the last 90 days, and a stricter bar to sell Apple smartphones.
- Your own webshop, on Shopify or WooCommerce for example, and in the Netherlands bol. No approval, but you bring the buyers yourself.
The marketplaces take time to say yes, so apply early. The differences between the two refurbished marketplaces are in Back Market vs Refurbed for sellers.
Step 2 · The paperwork, before the first sale
- The warranty.Back Market’s API sets the warranty in months, 12 at least, and Refurbed’s API supports 12 months for new offers. Price that in.
- The VAT scheme. Phones bought from consumers usually go under the margin scheme, stock bought with a VAT invoice under standard VAT. Decide with your accountant before the first invoice. The rules are in margin scheme invoices for second-hand electronics.
- Returns. Decide where a returned phone goes, who checks it, and when it goes back on sale.
Step 3 · Products, not spreadsheets
The cleanest start is a short list of products, each with a title, a SKU and a quantity. Use the same SKU on every platform: it is what lets one product feed every listing.
In MARGIXA you can type the barcode from the box or generate one, switch on the IMEI scan for phones, and add the first stock with what you paid for it. Every later delivery is a new batch with its own price, so you always know what the stock on your shelf cost.
Step 4 · One stock for every platform
The day you list on a second platform is the day overselling becomes possible. One stock, with a number that drops everywhere the moment an order arrives, is the answer. Every platform gets what you have, minus a buffer, minus what open orders already hold. The detail is in one stock on Back Market, Refurbed and Amazon.
Step 5 · Prices with a floor
On Back Market and Refurbed there is a box to win in every country, and competitors move their prices every day. Repricing by hand does not keep up. Set the lowest price you accept for each product, the floor, and let the price move above it. See repricing on Back Market and Refurbed with one floor.
Step 6 · The daily shipping routine
- 1Every order from every platform in one list.
- 2The oldest first, whatever the platform.
- 3The IMEI scanned with the phone in your hand.
- 4The label printed, the tracking sent back on its own.
Both are covered in shipping on time on every marketplace and in IMEI tracking.
Step 7 · Invoices that do not pile up
Both refurbished marketplaces take the invoice on the order, and Refurbed stops accepting one about 30 days after the order was released to you. Make the invoice when the order ships, not at the end of the month. See automatic invoices for Back Market and Refurbed.
What to watch each week
- Orders older than a day still waiting to ship.
- Products out of stock that still sell well somewhere.
- Listings where a competitor sells below your floor.
- Stock with no purchase price recorded, so your costs stay real.
- What sold, on which platform, at what cost. In MARGIXA every report downloads to Excel.
A small team does not need more screens. It needs one place that says what to do next, and the rest done on its own.
Checklist
Your first month as an online refurbished phone seller
- Apply to Back Market and Refurbed, and register on Amazon if Renewed is the plan.
- Agree the VAT scheme and the invoice wording with your accountant.
- Set the warranty each marketplace asks for.
- One product per item you sell, with one SKU used on every platform.
- Record the price paid for every batch.
- One stock for every platform, with a buffer on fast sellers.
- A floor on every listing you reprice.
- Ship from one list, oldest first, with tracking every time.
MARGIXA does all of the above for a small team: one stock on every platform, orders in one list, prices that hold your floor, invoices that send themselves. The first month is free and we set it up with you. See the features, the integrations, or ask for your price.
Sources
- Back Market · API Guidelines (opens in a new tab) · Getting started: an account after validation, information about your company · the warranty field
- Refurbed · home page (opens in a new tab) · Carefully selected professional refurbishing partners
- Refurbed · public API definitions on GitLab (opens in a new tab) · Credentials from your account manager · 12 months warranty on new offers · the invoice window
- Amazon · Renewed, for sellers (Germany) (opens in a new tab) · Apply and be approved · the criteria, including invoices for refurbished purchases over 90 days
- Amazon · Renewed, for sellers (in English) (opens in a new tab) · A registered selling partner first · the performance bar · a stricter bar for Apple smartphones
See it in the demo. The video opens at the beginning.
For the sharpest picture, open Settingsin the player, chooseQuality · 2160p (4K)and watch it full screen.
Questions we get asked
Which marketplace should a small refurbished phone business start with?
Apply to Back Market and Refurbed together, since both review sellers before they open an account, and start with the one that accepts you first. Amazon Renewed asks for a sales history in refurbished products, so it often comes later. A webshop of your own can run from day one.
Do I need a company to sell on these marketplaces?
Back Market and Refurbed work with professional sellers, and each asks for your company details when you apply. Back Market's documentation says you provide information about your company, and Amazon asks you to be a registered selling partner before you apply for Renewed.
Can I run it from a spreadsheet at first?
For one marketplace and a few orders a day, yes. The spreadsheet stops working on the day you list the same stock in a second place, because nobody can update two marketplaces by hand fast enough to avoid selling the same phone twice.
Do I have to register every phone's IMEI when it arrives?
Not in MARGIXA. You add stock as a quantity, with the price you paid, and scan the IMEI on the day the phone ships. That keeps receiving fast and still gives you the number of every phone that left.
How long does it take to start with MARGIXA?
A person on our team opens every new workspace, within a working day. From then on you can connect a marketplace, add products and ship the same day, and we help you set it up. The first month is free.