I met @brunowong at Rocket Space in the city and he showed me this prototype. Really excited for his team that they're launching. I've sold my phone on craigslist in the past and it's a hassle. This flow is really well thought out and they make it incredibly easy every step of the way. Would love to hear his thoughts on explaining why they put the app together and how many phones they're helping sell.
@noinput — so glad you enjoyed the app. The idea actually came from something you clearly have some experience with: trying to sell a phone on Craigslist.
This was back when I was trying to sell my phone before upgrading to an iPhone 5S. I took a few preliminary scrolls through Craigslist and was immediately turned off of the whole thing. I just remember it being mostly listings for unlocking services, or NIB iPhones selling for suspiciously low prices. I knew that I could make the most money by selling the phone myself, but the DIY route seemed almost too much trouble than it was worth.
So, that's where the Orchard app came in. We originally envisioned it working kind of like a trust layer on top of Craigslist listings, but honestly, there was still so much distrust lingering in the transaction that we noticed buyers just seemed more comfortable the more hands-on we were in the process. Now, we handle everything to do with buying or selling a used iPhone and we're seeing a really great response from this approach.
Yeah, that’s a great question @tehsin681. Just for some background, we spend our first year serving Canada only and just recently expanded into the US market. I think the difference between us and our competitors that people will notice off the bat is our pricing. We developed a unique pricing algorithm that uses data from marketplaces like Craigslist and eBay so we can consistently offer sellers more than what they would be getting with other resale options.
Just quickly looking at some numbers, Gazelle will offer you $195 for an unlocked iPhone 5S 64GB in flawless condition, while we will offer you $330 for basically the same device.
We’ve taken a mobile-first approach with iPhone sales. The app allows us to be really responsive to not only the actual condition of the phone, but the condition of the resale market itself.
@jepatel — It's definitely in our roadmap but... what's that saying? No plan ever survives contact with the enemy?
Right now we're just focusing on getting things right with the iPhone. Then I think we'll be able to open things up, take our learnings from the iPhone, and roll out service other to high-end devices, like Android smartphones. The Apple Watch and other wearables are something we would love to get our hands on and we're working hard to move in that direction as quickly as possible.
Giving Assistant
Doji
Doji