Summary
Back Market provides high-quality refurbished electronics and helps reduce e-waste. This mission resonates strongly with Gen Z, so to engage them, Back Market created an exclusive discount for college students. In 2020, the company partnered with SheerID to verify eligibility for the offer and launched a comprehensive, omnichannel campaign that brought in 300,000 verified students in one year.
Since then, verifications have increased by 4x year over year, and the first-party data collected through SheerID’s Audience Network has helped drive student customer lifetime value (CLV) to 30% higher than the company’s global average.
Challenge
Back Market was founded in France in 2014 and quickly developed a market niche for refurbished electronics that fueled the company’s rapid growth in the US and Europe. Its business model offers high-quality products at a great price, which benefits both buyers and sellers and helps reduce the e-waste sent to landfills.
Back Market recognized that tech-savvy, environmentally conscious students could be a lucrative community to target. To reach this audience, the company created an exclusive discount for students and partnered with Student Beans to verify eligibility for the offer, in part because Student Beans also provided marketing support.
But affiliate verification providers like Student Beans retain the customer data they collect, and the company knew that to successfully expand, it needed that data appended to Back Market’s CRM so it could re-engage students directly. Back Market decided to find a new partner that could protect its student offer and give the company the data it needed to nurture students’ loyalty and increase their CLV.
SheerID provided instant and secure verification—an experience that would attract students and give us valuable data.
Solution
Back Market re-launched its student discount program using SheerID’s Audience Network. Students could now be instantly verified by entering basic information into a simple form during the purchase process—all without leaving Back Market’s website. This seamless experience also allowed Back Market to collect valuable and exclusive first-party data for nurturing student loyalty.
To promote its new student program, Back Market launched an extensive marketing campaign that included:
- Blogs
- Organic and paid search
- A dedicated landing page
- Banner ads throughout the website
- Paid influencers
Initially focusing on back-to-school promotions, Back Market later expanded campaigns in the US to include graduations and shopper holidays like Black Friday. Knowing SheerID would prevent discount abuse gave the company the confidence to aggressively promote the program across all channels.
Our student program delivers great value, and we’re excited to continue promoting it.
Results
Partnering with SheerID and running big campaigns paid off. In the first year, Back Market verified 300,000 students, and then saw a 4x increase in verifications year-over-year. And in 2021, the offer generated a 5x increase in student orders during the back-to-school season, year-over-year. The incredible success of the student program inspired Back Market to expand the strategy.
“2021 was a turning point,” Justine said. “SheerID delivered incredible value in countries where our market was mature, so we decided to extend the offer to students in all of our 15 markets.”
With SheerID, Back Market can now reach more than 650 million college students in 190+ countries. And the company uses the data verified by SheerID to re-engage those students—a strategy that’s already paying off. Back Market’s CLV for students is 30% higher than its global average.
Back Market looks forward to using SheerID to acquire and retain more customers and plans to drive that success by expanding its marketing strategy to include in-person exchanges.
“We want to meet students where they are, and we’re very happy to have SheerID support us in this journey.”
SheerID delivered incredible value in countries where our market was mature, so we decided to extend the offer to students in all of our 15 markets.