Giving products a second life
A major commitment for the Group, “Second Life” is part of the transition to a more circular economy, where reuse extends product life spans. Given high customer expectations and the obligation set out in the French Anti-Waste Law for a Circular Economy (loi anti-gaspillage pour une économie circulaire – AGEC), the management of unsold products and so-called “non-saleable,” obsolete or worn-out products has become a priority area for the Group in recent years.
“Second Life” provides several reuse channels:
- reselling refurbished or slightly damaged products;
- repackaging and repairing non-functional products with the aim of reselling them;
- reselling non-repairable products to discounters, mainly to recover spare parts;
- donating to charities.
The Group also opens up its Marketplaces to resellers of refurbished products. In 2023, products resold under the Fnac and Darty Second Life brands saw double-digit growth compared to 2022.
Developing a qualitative second-life product offer
The Group has chosen to place the second-life product offer alongside new products and provide customers with an alternative to new products, with the standards of quality, trust and service that characterize its brands, in terms of after-sales service (with a two-year warranty, one year longer than the legal warranty period for refurbished products), and delivery and installation or associated repair services (by including second-life products in the scope of the Darty Max service). In order to increase stock without compromising its quality approach, Fnac Darty has different systems:
- Better categorization and broadening of sorting criteria;
- Trade-in, an effective system to boost product circularity: in order to promote circularity, the Group launched trade-in programs to encourage customers to put second-hand items back on the market.
Donations, a second life of solidarity for new non-saleable products
For several years, Fnac Darty has been significantly expanding its product donations to charities.
These donations benefit long-standing partner charities such as Emmaüs France, Bibliothèques Sans Frontières and Secours Populaire, as well as the Agence du Don en Nature and Envie. In 2022, the Group partnered with Comerso to allow stores to directly donate any unsold items, resulting in a local-level impact being felt across the Group’s territories.
In 2023, almost 600,000 products were donated to charity.
Reuse at the service of social and solidarity-based companies
Since 1984, Darty has been the primary donor of large domestic appliances, collected by retailers, for Envie, an organization that is part of the French social and solidarity economy.
Working for professional reintegration through repair, Fnac Darty gave Envie and Emmaüs nearly 18,000 metric tons of household appliances in 2023, representing 47% of the WEEE collected by the Group.