Back Market is the leading marketplace for refurbished devices, operating across 16 countries including the US, UK and Japan with 700 employees. Founded in 2015, they've helped millions of consumers access high-quality pre-owned tech at affordable price points.
Types of tools used
CMS, Search & Discovery, Productivity & Collaboration Suite, Data Integration, Customer Engagement
Before Najar
Last-minute negotiations, with limited time to challenge scope, benchmark pricing, or drive savings
Contracts tracked manually across three tools
No external reference point to benchmark SaaS pricing
Overlapping tools sometimes went unnoticed across teams, creating avoidable costs
One person managed procurement part-time with limited capacity for RFPs or complex evaluations
After Najar
Renewals are anticipated months ahead and negotiations start from a position of preparation
Contract information consistent, accessible, and no longer dependent on individual tool owners
Every negotiation is informed by market expertise and competitor alternatives
Scope challenged and license needs questioned on every purchase
Najar's IT buyers cover everything from day-to-day negotiations to full end-to-end Procurement
Procurement was reactive, renewals were hard to track and pricing was difficult to benchmark
In 2022, Back Market made a strategic shift towards profitability, and with it, an opportunity to make Procurement more efficient and structured. The Director of Global Payments, Risk & Fraud had taken over the Procurement function alongside an existing team of ten on payments, risk and fraud. Procurement was 20% of their time, and with a recruitment freeze in place, hiring a dedicated expert was off the table.
Three challenges sat at the top of the list. First, benchmarking: when asking tool owners where Back Market stood on pricing relative to similar companies, reliable answers were hard to come by. Second, contract renewals: tracking them depended on individual tool owners knowing where their contracts were, what the key clauses said, and when notice periods kicked in. Contracts lived across three tools, Google Sheets, Jira, and Docusign, each serving a purpose but requiring manual effort to stay in sync, which created inconsistencies and real risk of missing critical dates. Third, timing: other departments would reach out for negotiation support after the notice period had already passed, days before signing, leaving little room to benchmark pricing, challenge scope, or consider alternatives.
“I used to feel like I was always working last minute.”
Over time, siloed tools and reactive timing also led to occasional overlap between similar tools across teams, and last-minute negotiations that, by nature, couldn't deliver the same results as ones planned well in advance.
With expert support at every stage, Procurement became faster, smarter, and more strategic
Today, Najar operates across two modes with Back Market. On one hand, the teams work together on prioritisation, mapping out upcoming contracts months in advance, reaching out to tool owners early, and defining the right negotiation approach well before notice periods arrive. On the other hand, Najar handles urgent topics as they come up, (eg. an imminent renewal, a specific SLA issue, whatever needs fast resolution). Having expert support available across both speeds is what makes the partnership so impactful.
“The number one asset of Najar is having somebody consistently available with great expertise”
Step into the cockpit of financial excellence
What Back Market values most from Najar's IT buyers falls into two areas. The first is SaaS expertise: challenging the scope of every purchase, questioning whether the number and type of licenses match the need, benchmarking pricing against the market, and flagging competitor alternatives. The second is negotiation: reviewing and sharpening drafts and dialling in the right tone for each vendor conversation, giving Back Market's team the room to maintain the vendor relationship.
Najar in action: running a full software evaluation from RFP to final proposal
When one of Back Market's internal teams needed to evaluate a new software suite with limited availability, Najar took the entire process off their plate, building the RFP, reaching out to providers, analysing responses, coordinating demos, and challenging the financial proposals at the end. The internal team stayed in the loop without carrying the workload.
“They took it completely hand to hand, from the RFP documents to the financial propositions. They really took care of everything.”
Measurable savings, a more proactive team, and a clear step forward in Procurement maturity
In the last 12 months, Najar saved Back Market an average of 16% across contracts and contributed approximately 300 hours of Procurement work on their behalf, time Back Market's teams could redirect towards higher-value work.
But the most telling sign of success isn't a number. Back Market employees now reach out to Najar proactively, without being prompted. Procurement is no longer a last resort, it's a resource the business trusts and actively uses. And that's what Procurement maturity looks like in practice.
