Has Back Market seen too big? At the start of 2023, the French unicorn is carrying out a restructuring plan to regain profitability, after two years of hypergrowth.
The group announced to its employees in mid-November its decision to reduce the size of the teams by 13%. This decision impacts “all of its services”, or 93 people in total, we learned internally, confirming revelations from Sifted.
So far, 26 people have left the foreign offices in Berlin, New York and Barcelona in mid-November. In France, 67 people are part of a voluntary departure plan project.
Difficult balance between hypergrowth and profitability
This decision is “quite difficult, but necessary”, in a “complex economic context to grant a hypergrowth model to a profitability objective” we are told internally.
Back Market established itself as the 14e French unicorn by raising more than 700 million euros in just over a year – first 276 million euros in May 2021, then the record amount of 450 million euros at the start of 2022.
The company aimed to expand its customer base while focusing on brand awareness internationally. The company claimed six million customers last year, in a growing refurbished sector. Its overseas plans aren’t completely frozen: the marketplace opened in South Korea last month and has no plans to close its offices in New York, Berlin, Tokyo and Barcelona. your.
2022, a year of decline in tech
But 2022 hasn’t been a great year for tech. The year was even marked by sluggish investments and growing inflation. Layoff plans at giants like Meta, Amazon and Twitter have followed one another, and recruiting highly specialized profiles is more difficult than ever.
Last June, Back Market also found itself in the crosshairs of justice for its commercial practices, after a complaint filed by UFC-Que Choisir accusing the refurbished specialist of misinforming consumers.
Faced with its detractors, the unicorn had assured that it was striving to be transparent and pedagogical towards consumers, while recognizing “areas for improvement” possible.