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Free tool · Take-back Scheme Payback

Would a take-back scheme pay for itself?

Customers bring back old products for a voucher or trade-in. Enter your volumes, what returned items are worth and what handling costs, and see the yearly net benefit and how long the set-up cost takes to pay back.

Volumes and incentive

The example figures are illustrative. Replace them with your own.

Units of the product range the scheme would cover.
Share of units sold that come back through the scheme each year.
What you give the customer for each item returned.
Share of vouchers actually redeemed.
Average basket when a voucher is redeemed.
Your gross margin on the new purchase.
Value and cost of returned items
The rest are recycled.
Net resale or refurbished value, after refurbishment cost.
Material value, often close to nothing or a small cost.
Receiving, checking, cleaning and sorting.
Getting the item from the customer to where it is graded.
Scheme admin, marketing and systems.
Design, systems, packaging and launch.

This is an estimate from the figures you enter. Nothing you type is sent anywhere unless you choose to send it with the form.

Your results

Enter products sold and the share of customers taking part to see the payback.

Items coming back
Value recovered from items
Margin on voucher spend
Incentive and running costs
Net benefit a year
Payback on set-up cost
Net per item

Want to design the scheme?

Send us your figures and we will tell you which assumptions matter most for your products.

Your results are sent with the form so we can reply properly. We use these details only for that. See our privacy notice.

How it works

The sums, in plain sight.

Items returned = products sold x take-part rate. Value recovered = items x (resale share x resale value + recycled share x recycling value).

Margin on voucher spend = items x vouchers spent x basket x gross margin. Costs = items x vouchers spent x voucher value, plus handling and collection per item, plus yearly running costs.

Net benefit is value recovered plus margin, minus costs. Payback is the set-up cost divided by the yearly net benefit. It leaves out wider benefits such as customer loyalty, data and meeting producer responsibility targets, so treat it as a cautious view.

Make returned products pay.

Second Tide designs and runs take-back, grading and resale for mid-sized brands.

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