Swedish Sellpy helps you get rid of your old stuff
Getting rid of your old stuff can be demanding and time consuming. This is why many of us have huge piles of stuff lying around, which we would actually rather sell or give away. Sellpy is an on demand service that undertakes the hassle for you and make sure that you will never see your old stuff again.
Michael Arnör, who is co-founder and CEO of Sellpy, got the idea for the service as he was experiencing hassle of getting rid of old stuff himself.
“I got the idea when I moved back from the US last summer. I had to clean up my old room at my parents’ house and realised that I have so much shit that I wanted to either sell, give away or throw away,” he explains
However, Michael Arnör never really had the time to put the stuff on eBay, and whenever he visited the local Red Cross it was closed. Recognising that he could not be the only one experiencing this problem he started the company in September last year together with his two partners Oskar Nielsen and Philip Gunnstam. The purpose of the company is simple.
“We want to make it as easy to sell things as it is to buy things,” Michael Arnör states.
Simplicity does the job
And the concept is totally simple. You simply go to sellpy.se, order a Sellpy bag and then fill it with anything you like. The next part is what especially separates Sellpy from other players.
“What makes us unique is that we actually come and pick it up. You simply just have to order a bag. You don’t even have to be home when we pick it up,” Michael Arnör says
Sellpy helps you loose your old stuff, but can’t guarantee that everything gets sold. It is Sellpy who decides what is suitable for selling, and whatever can’t be sold is instead given away to charity.
“We try to sell anything that we believe is worth more than 50 SEK. Whatever we choose not to sell or can’t sell we give to charity if the condition is good enough. The fact that we also give to charity is a big selling point in itself for many of our users.”
Michael Arnör explains, that they decide to try to sell about 50% of what they get in, and out of that about 75% gets sold.
A need in most rich countries
The fall was a tryout period where Michael Arnör and his partners got everything tested and formed the concept. Since late january the focus has been on growth.
“In february we grew about 200% and in marts another 50% measured in number of bags sent out. Currently the plan is to stay and grow in Stockholm but next year we
will expand both within Sweden and in other countries. We definitely see it as a service that has the potential to do well in every country where people buy too much”
The growth in demand has led to hiring more people and the startup now consists of six people. As it takes up quite some time to sort and organise the stuff, another part of the service has been partly outsourced to external partners.
“We are partnering with the delivery company Move By Bike, who pick up all the bags in the city region. Once a week we rent a car and pick up stuff outside the city.”
After tax and advertising is paid Sellpy share the profits with those who donated the sold thing. So far, 40 percent of those who have used the service ordered bags anew. One month ago Sellpy closed their first investment round securing 1 million SEK.
