Amazon open Second Chance Store in London

Amazon have today launched their Second Chance Store in London, and when I visited the place was absolutely buzzing but I managed to corner John Boumphrey, Amazon UK’s Country Manager, to find out what the excitement is all about.

In the video:

• 00:00 Introducing the Amazon Second Chance Store
• 01:14 Quality of Refurbished product on Amazon
• 02:05 Why are Amazon getting involved in Second Chance items
• 03:38 How retailers can sell Returned, Refurbished, & Open Boxed on Amazon
• 04:48 The quality inspection process in Amazon’s warehouses
• 05:47 The £1bn size of Amazon’s Second Chance business
• 06:44 Dates to visit the Second Chance Store & Barnados charity partner

Now open, the store is ready to welcome festive shoppers who want the chance to buy Amazon’s quality returned products in-person, for the first time. Customers can shop more conscientiously while benefiting from up to 50% in savings compared to recommended retail prices and the store is ultra enticing with colour coded cubby holes filled with products ready to purchase and walk out with today!

Each section carries messaging highlighting that not only can you save money by buying refurbished, returned or open box products, but you’re also helping the planet whilst doing so. And of course that you can trade in your used Amazon devices for an Amazon Gift card so even earn money when you upgrade or have no further use for them!

The Second Chance Store by Amazon is located at the Brunswick Centre in Central London (nearest underground is Russell Square), and is open for the next two weeks in partnership with one of the UK’s leading children’s charities, Barnardo’s, with all proceeds supporting their work with children and young people.

But the real point of opening the physical Second Chance Store is to highlight the enormous opportunity to buy returned, refurbished and open boxed products on Amazon… and for retailers to sell them on Amazon. The size of the Second Chance on Amazon (they’ve rolled up Warehouse, Used etc into Second Chance) is staggering and for the first time we’ve got numbers from Amazon on the growth of second hand shopping online:

Second Chance on Amazon is a £1bn business!

• Across the UK and Europe, customer demand has driven second-hand shopping on Amazon into a £1billion business
• In the UK alone, Amazon gave a second chance to more than four million products last year
• Last year, Amazon helped British customers save more than £100 million by buying used or refurbished products at a discount
• In the first nine months of 2023, Amazon’s sales of second-hand goods in the UK increased by more than 15% compared to the same period last year

Supporting Barnardo’s

Amazon is committed to giving more products a second chance – both through helping customers shop pre-loved, and through programmes to recycle, trade-in and repair products, contributing to a more circular economy. The Second Chance Store that we’ve launched today with Barnardo’s is all about offering customers a great way to shop second-hand this festive season, while supporting a brilliant charity we have been working with for many years.

– John Boumphrey, UK Country Manager, Amazon

Amazon has donated more than 4,000 products to be featured in the Second Chance Store, including quality used, open-box and refurbished donated products from Amazon. It also features a Repairs Zone where customers can participate in free repairs workshops from experts onsite, learning to fix broken laptops and household tech through live demonstrations. Second Chance Store ambassador Kimberly Wyatt joined the opening today. The store is now open from today until the 12th of December.

We’re grateful to this partnership, which will assist us in supporting more families in crisis across the UK. More than 800,000 children are currently living in poverty in the UK, whilst millions of families are having to choose between essentials like food, clothing and heating their home this winter. The funds raised from the Second Chance Store will help us continue the vital work of supporting families and ensuring children have the best possible start in life.

– Lynn Perry MBE, CEO, Barnardo’s

So far this year, Amazon has facilitated the donation of more than 13 million products to more than 2,000 charities across the UK through its Retail and Fresh operations, and its Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) Donations, a programme which helps independent sellers using the Fulfilment by Amazon service donate their overstock or returned items automatically. Charities including Barnardo’s, the British Heart Foundation, In Kind Direct, Scope and The Multibank initiative are amongst the donation recipients.

Product donations form one part of Amazon’s circular economy programme. In 2022, Amazon expanded its partnership with WRAP and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation to support a global circular economy for products. The company is also supporting the development of a sorting technology to improve plastic packaging recycling through involvement in the Digital Watermarks Initiative HolyGrail 2.0, driven by AIM, European Brands Association and powered by the Alliance to End Plastic Waste.

The Amazon Second Chance Store is an expansion of Amazon’s existing relationship with Barnardo’s, where they have provided millions of donated products since 2019. Amazon and Barnardo’s also launched a ground-breaking programme called the JOBS Project (Journey of Becoming Successful) which has supported 65 young people since 2021, with an ambition to help 500 people in the next five years, many of whom are care experienced, develop the skills needed to secure work and develop their careers. As a signatory of the Care Leavers Covenant, Amazon is one of leading employers of care leavers in the UK.