Resale is one of the fastest-growing sectors of retail — not to mention one of the few categories that is relatively immune to all this new tariff pressure — yet investment in the space has tended to center almost exclusively on selling apparel online. But Stephen Preuss and Erik Helgesen have taken a different tack: focusing on electronics and brick-and-mortar.
They spent 15 years developing the proprietary tech that powers the PayMore chain of secondhand electronics stores (so named to emphasize the high trade-in values they offer). Now they are off the races, having just opened their 100th store, with 500 more in the works across the U.S., Canada and Europe via a franchise model.
But franchising alone doesn’t explain the chain’s rapid expansion. Helgesen firmly believes that the shopper experience also plays a big part in PayMore’s growth: “When we come into these communities, we have great technology, we have great spaces, well-lit locations, great staff and very safe trade-in procedures that allow people to walk in, trade in their tech safely and easily — no appointments, no shipping — and walk out feeling good about their data security and the cash in their pocket,” he said in this week’s episode of the Retail Remix podcast.
“Outside of that, we’re giving these devices a new life,” Helgesen added. “It’s not just about trading something in, it’s about keeping this device out of a landfill, but also reducing the carbon emissions it would take to create and manufacture a new device.”
Advertisement
In this week’s episode, Preuss and Helgesen take listeners behind the scenes of building the PayMore franchise and also share:
- Why today’s consumer is more open to buying used devices — and what’s driving that shift;
- How PayMore ensures customer trust through modern stores, smart pricing and rigorous data privacy;
- Why they chose franchising as their growth engine and how it supports their community-driven ethos; and
- The challenges of scaling a brick-and-mortar resale model — and the tech they’ve developed to power it.
Listen here or anywhere you get your podcasts:
