Author: thomasfache

Categories
General

Digital and Solar

In a context where the energy transition is more than urgent, combining digital and solar seems particularly judicious. We even talk about solar home automation. But what is it exactly? Let’s see it together.

Home automation

The integration of digital, and more particularly of the New Technologies of Information and Communication (NTIC), within the housing saw the appearance of the home automation. It represents all the intelligent electrical systems – the smart grids – which allow to control and automate, locally or remotely, some electrical equipment. It is thus possible to improve the comfort of the home, but also to optimize its energy consumption.

This technology is also based on sensors that allow it to control certain consumption items (the heating system, lighting, ventilation, air conditioning, household appliances or monitoring systems), but also to re-inject the electricity not consumed into the public distribution network. In this way, it is possible to improve the energy consumption of the connected home by regulating it.

Solar energy

Solar energy is one of the most environmentally friendly energies, as it comes from sustainable sources, and is produced by means of photovoltaic solar panels.

And the great advantage of this solar electricity is that it can be produced directly by the individual. Indeed, the price of a solar panel is quite affordable, especially thanks to government subsidies, and can be more or less quickly profitable depending on the performance of the device. Moreover, a house equipped with solar panels allows self-consumption, that is to say the fact of consuming the electricity produced thanks to a solar installation.

It can have several forms :

  • the total self-consumption which consists in consuming the totality of the solar energy produced by the photovoltaic panels to feed the electric system of the house. This consumption of electricity is more interesting economically, because the regulated rate of sale (TRV) does not cease increasing each year.
  • Self-consumption with sale of surplus which is the fact of consuming only a part of the electricity production and selling the other part not consumed to the network, made possible thanks to the EDF Solar Purchase Obligation (EDF OAS).

The efficiency of the panels depends on their size, their power, but also on the geographical location of the house.

Solar home automation

Solar home automation allows the integration of renewable energies into the electrical network of the smart home. Being more reactive, it anticipates the variations in production of sustainable sources and facilitates the insertion of green energy in intermittence. It is therefore entirely possible to integrate solar electricity into the operation of the house if it is equipped with solar photovoltaic panels.

It is therefore a good way to improve the energy efficiency of the house, but also to save energy. It is also possible to make more energy savings by optimizing self-consumption thanks to the monitoring of production through connected objects.

Indeed, this digital solution, which is the home automation, allows to activate the household appliances at the moment when the photovoltaic solar panels are the most efficient. In this way, it allows to improve the energy performance of the house.

A solar home automation system can be composed of a control box, smart plugs, current clamps or a connected thermostat. And it can be associated with the Linky smart meter.

Categories
Marketing

4 Inefficiencies in digital advertising markets that remain too little known

The digital advertising market continues to grow rapidly and is becoming increasingly intense. Experts agree that the economic recovery of this market, following the economic crisis linked to the global pandemic, will be a new leap forward for this market. However, there are brakes in this market, which are still too little known or misunderstood by digital professionals. Although they are not necessarily specific to digital advertising, they all have an impact on the digital advertising economy.

 

These 4 brakes are :

The Ad effect measurement, Organizational inefficiencies, Ad blocking and Ad fraud.

If you would like to discover and understand those 4 brakes, I invite you to read the fully detailed article on my LinkedIn.

Categories
Circular Economy eCommerce Marketing Refurbished

Refurbished products : a high-performance market

refurbished-smartphone-hands

 

At the end of October, Ebay U.S. announced the implementation of a portal dedicated to refurbished market. This space, entirely dedicated to second-hand products, welcomes only brands respecting the list of criteria set up by Ebay.

The arrival of this new platform is not that surprising. It follows the trend of a consumption mode which is growing in importance year after year.

If this platform is currently only available in the US and Australia, France is not left behind in the refurbished market.

refurbished-smartphone-hands

The refurbished smartphones market in France

The French remanufacturing market is driven by one product category: smartphones.

More than 2 million reconditioned smartphones have been sold in 2019 in France. This represents 10% of smartphone sales in the country, a figure that has almost doubled in 2 years.
In 2020 this market already shows a 10% increase in sales turnover. This growth is expected to strengthen: 60% of French people now plan to buy a refurbished device.

But why are reconditioned smartphones so popular? These 3 factors can shed some light on this popularity:

-Price

Smartphones are more and more powerful, more and more sophisticated…and more and more expensive! The price of new smartphones has skyrocketed in recent years, pushing consumers to turn to more affordable solutions. Depending on the model, you can see a 20% to 70% drop in the original price for a completely refurbished smartphone.

With a steady pace of new model releases, consumers only have to wait a few months before buying an “almost” state-of-the-art smartphone.

-Sustainable

It’s no longer necessary to prove that the production of smartphones is polluting. According to ADEME (the French Environment and Energy Management Agency): “Smartphones have a very heavy impact on the environment: the extraction of minerals, transport, use and end of life are all moments of life that leave a mark on the planet.

In the context of climate crisis, changes in consumption patterns tend to favor the adoption of remanufactured devices. Thus, “27% of the actors put forward their willingness to make a gesture for the planet” explain Kantar.

Refurbished devices are therefore great alternatives for customers wishing to make a responsible purchase.

-Quality

While the quality of reconditioned smartphones remains a brake in the imagination of some consumers, it is quite different in reality.

A smartphone must pass several rigorous tests before it can be offered for sale as a refurbished device.
During these tests, resellers change certain components if necessary. As a result of this process, refurbished smartphones carry warranties of up to 24 months, just like new products.

Players such as the Backmarket platform ensure that these criteria are respected. BackMarket has set up the “Back Label” for this purpose.

Refurbished market and health crisis

While smartphone manufacturers have started the year very badly due to the health crisis (20% decline in the first quarter of 2020 on average) the reconditioned market is not experiencing the crisis.

The lockdown has forced many consumers to equip themselves with electronic equipment at home, to ensure teleworking. It’s quite natural that, to avoid excessive costs, many have turned to smartphones but also computers, tablets … all refurbished.

However, the reconditioned players had not waited for the health crisis to be interested by professionals. Some resellers had already set up partnerships with companies. They modernize the fleet of smartphones of employees with reconditioned products, without forgetting to recover or buy back the replaced smartphones in order to re-inject them into the circuit. The very definition of a circular economy.

Refurbished market player: BackMarket, a success story made in France

Created in 2014, BackMarket is born in France. In only 6 years of existence, BackMarket has become one of the major players in the refurbished market. Driven by the desire to change the way we consume our electronic devices, BackMarket makes no secret of its ambition.

Back Market recorded a doubling of sales during the first containment period compared to the previous period. Proud of its 1,200 reconditioning partners, the company managed to raise 110 million euros in capital!

This fundraising has a clear objective: conquer the American market, the second largest market for BackMarket today.

“Our vision is that in the near future, refurbished products should become the norm, and the purchase of new products the alternative.”

 “When the Americans received a $1,200 bonus to compensate for the drop in their purchasing power, our sales were multiplied by two in the territory,” says Thibaud Hug de Larauze, CEO of BackMarket. He also adds : “Our vision is that in the near future, refurbished products should become the norm, and the purchase of new products the alternative. And if we want to democratize this new way of consuming, it is primarily in the United States that we must succeed in doing so”.

But BackMarket doesn’t stop there. The company’s goal is to become the world leader in this market within two years. To do so, they plan to double their workforce (currently 300 employees).

One last limit to cross

However, there is still one obstacle to the company’s progress: gaining the trust of consumers.

After being singled out by the French magazine “60 million consumers” in 2019, BackMarket is now doing everything possible to prove to its customers the quality of the devices it sells. Indeed, many consumers are still wary of buying a reconditioned electronic device.

In order to reassure and continually improve the quality of their products, the platform rewards merchants with the lowest failure rates, not those who provide the highest volumes. To push them to improve, it provides them with tools, such as suggestions for reliable battery suppliers. “Our goal is to raise the level of quality so that consumers no longer have factual reasons to buy new,” explains Thibaud Hug de Lazaure.

The impact of each of us

While attitudes are changing, there is still one point on which the refurbished market must convince consumers even more: getting them to resell their old smartphones.

This is the limit of a circular economy: it depends on the number of smartphones put back on sale. Too many people continue to keep all their old phones in the bottom drawer. Often to have a second phone when needed.

That would be nearly 90% of our old smartphones remaining unused instead of being put back in the circuit.

So think about it next time!