Producing a new smartphone costs no less than 16kg of CO2. Finite resources like gold, silver, platinum, or lithium - amongst a whole range of others - make smartphones one of the most resource-intensive products. At the same time, 67% of the world's population own a mobile device, out of which smartphones make up around 75%. Environmental concerns like such have led many people to rethink their everyday lifestyle choices and to opt more for green and sustainable solutions - one of them is buying refurbished smartphones. The Rotterdam-based company Green Mobile was one of the first sellers for refurbished phones in the Netherlands. Today, they are an established market player, with a customer base all over Europe and a thriving webshop with payments powered by Multisafepay.
In this article, we speak to Linda and Erik from Green Mobile to learn more about leading a sustainable business and how a partnership with Multisafepay helped them create a great customer experience for their webshop.
About Green Mobile
Founded about five years ago, Green Mobile today has about 22 different models in their assortment, ranging from different iPhones to Android providers. The main drive behind their business, Linda tells us, is the idea of contributing to a more sustainable world by using less precious materials. For them, small steps can make a big difference: "Just because a refurbished phone has been owned by another person before, it isn't any less good. We check and clean all our refurbished phones thoroughly and replace old parts if necessary before offering them in our webshop - so it is theoretically on the same level as a new one, just for a lower price. Contributing to a greener product cycle while saving money is what drives most of our customers to get a refurbished phone."
"However, for us, being sustainable goes beyond our services, and we always try to make the best and most sustainable decision daily," Erik adds. "By scanning labels instead of printing them and using paper-free and digital solutions wherever we can, we manage to reduce unnecessary waste. We work closely with trusted vendors from all over Europe and try to reuse and recycle as much of the old phones as we can. We investigate fair and ethically produced products, trace their origins, and always find the most sustainable solution. We experimented with adding small packages of flower seeds with every delivery we sent. We just thought it's a nice gesture to send people some 'actual green,' and we got a lot of positive reactions to this."
"It's been smooth sailing since we started working with MultiSafepay"
Green Mobile has set its foot on the market with a vision to establish a growing customer base all over Europe. With Green Consumerism being on the rise, the potential for green businesses is immense. And so we are curious, what's next? "Of course, we want to grow and make sustainable cell phone options more prominent," Linda says. "We want to become better, and we want to become greener. But in the first place, we want to provide our customers the best customer experience possible." To realize that, they have chosen MultiSafepay as their payment supplier: "Even though most of our customers live in the Netherlands and Belgium, we are active all over Europe. Therefore, we want to offer our domestic customers the most conventional Dutch payment methods and options, as well as commonly used international ones for our customers outside the Netherlands, like credit cards. MultiSafepay has many payment methods to choose from which allow us to offer something for all our customers."
"For us, a checkout has to be easy and intuitive to use in the first place, regardless of the age or technical savviness of the customer - and that's exactly how it is since we are working with MultiSafepay," Erik says. "It's smooth sailing. The integration process went easily and uncomplicated, but it was particularly great to see that MultiSafepay’s services don't just stop there. In fact, the support we receive on a regular basis exceeded our expectations by far. We are really happy with our account managers and the personal contact and care we experience - we always get immediate replies and all upcoming problems are solved in no time. There's not much more to ask for, right?"
The power of partnership
Payment methods vary between consumer groups and countries. Therefore, offering the right payment method to the right audience is crucial for a successful business. MultiSafepay has an extensive mix of over 30 national and international payment methods. With our flexible payment tools and solutions and more than 20 years of experience in ecommerce, we can help every business always find the right tools and adapt optimally to changing market trends and demands.
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