By Johann Foucault
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“Now, when I need a product, before buying it in the store, I see if someone gives it away”: for Marie-Camille, resorting to donations between individuals is now a “reflex”.
A alternative to buying which is on the rise, boosted by the health crisis and the current inflationary context. For four years that she has been using the Geev app, the 32-year-old Lyonnaise “now only swears by this application”, which saves her money.
Geev, a booming application
Created in April 2017 by Hakim Baka and Florian Blanc, the startup wants to “democratize donation between individuals by making it accessible to everyone, everywhere and all the time. »
The two entrepreneurs started from an observation: more than half of second-hand items put up for sale by individuals never find a buyer, and therefore remain either stored in the attic or garage or end up being thrown away. So that they could be given away.
Five years after its launch, the Geev app now registers more than 3.5 million userswhich makes it the first application for donations between individuals, far ahead of its competitors Donnons.org, Recupe.net or Toutdonner.com.
How it works ?
To use the app, just download it for free on iOS or Android and install it on their mobile.
To give :
- Just create an ad, in a fairly classic way. Then agree on an appointment when someone wants to pick up the donation, physically. There is no postage.
To collect a donation:
- You have to geolocate and define the maximum radius in which to find the desired products, among household appliances, clothing and accessories, the baby world, decoration and furnishings, high-tech or leisure products, DIY and gardening, etc. even food, a service offered since 2019 and since then widely acclaimed.
To respond to an ad, use a “banana”, a single-use contact credit :
- Upon registration, each new user receives 3 “bananas”.
- To respond to an ad if you do not have a “banana”, you must wait 48 hours after the publication of the ad.
- Each donation made by a user allows him to recover 2 “bananas”. A virtuous circle that should encourage donation and represents the vast majority of exchanges on the platform.
A subscription to recover without giving
Note that when an object is marked as reservedit is no longer available for the moment, until the donation is realized or the reservation is finally canceled.
For those who would like recover without givinga subscription is offered, monthly at 4.99 euros, or annual at 24.99 euros.
The startup, it is paid on the advertising of its advertisers and its subscriptions. Since the beginning of 2022, 614,000 ads have been posted each month on average.
A competitor of charities?
In an article published by Positivr in early June 2022, Valérie Fayard, Deputy CEO of Emmaüs France, regretted that certain “second-hand platforms are pushing overconsumption.” This enthusiasm is also reflected in the donations received by Emmaüs France, “fewer” in the past two years, of lower quality…
For Hakim Baka, co-founder of Geev, their donation application is another offer, “complementary to those of associations”, which will above all allow its users not to pay a penny.
Some also use the app for associations. “I collect toys for example via Geev, which I then give back to local associations”, confides Marie-Camille, who has also noticed since the start of the war in Ukraine an influx of clothing donations.
“There are products that I no longer buy in stores”
Through this, there is serious savings to be made. “Household appliances go quickly,” notes Marie-Camille, who uses the app to collect “home decor, frames, hygiene products, perfumes, scarves, board games…”
There are products that I no longer buy in stores! The decoration, the hygiene products, if it’s not for an urgent need, I’ll wait to find some on the app.
The Lyonnaise gives herself about three weeks to try to find what she is looking for. This implies discipline in ad tracking. “You have to be quite responsive. It’s super addictive, I go there every day, it’s my reflex in the morning”she acknowledges.
A Covid effect
If success is there, the health crisis is no stranger to it. “Since the Covid, we doubled the number of donations”, details Hakim Baka. In 2020, Geev recorded 3.5 million donations, and in 2021, 7 million.
With the stores closed because of the Covid, there has been a stronger collective awareness of the donation.
A virtuous circle
Added to this is a booming second-hand market, a re-employment sector that is gaining momentum, environmental awareness on the part of consumersalso looking for savings… a rather favorable context.
According to a study by the Cétélem Consumer Observatory, France is also one of the countries that buy and sell the most second-hand goods in Europe. However, there is still a psychological effort to be made about the gift, on everyone’s part.
Many are those who tell themselves that they are going to store, because it can always be used. And we say to ourselves that we are not going to give it away, because I paid such a price for it. Except that if you don’t use the product, if you don’t sell it, in the end it’s no longer worth anything, and it becomes a form of waste.
While giving is offering the possibility of a second life to this object, with someone who really needs it. “And it saves space in your home,” notes Hakim Baka.
Since using the app, Marie-Camille has achieved 300 donations. And even adapted its consumption. Admittedly “we don’t always have what we want when we want it, but it’s also one of the interests, it helped me to question my consumption”, she admits.
Do we need this or that new thing right away? Where can we wait a bit and get it used, or even for free?
A social role?
Beyond the good deals, Marie-Camille also finds her account in the social relations that the application offers her. Like Leboncoin, Allovoisins or other platforms between individuals, Geev promotes social ties.
“With geolocation, it allows you to meet neighbors, people from the neighborhood who don’t live far away,” explains the young woman. We see the people with whom we have already exchanged, even if we do not know each other, there is a feeling that can be created, it can create friendships. We need it all the more after the Covid. »
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