Part of the Gothenburg Stadsmission
Stadsmissionen’s secondhand store is part of Göteborgs Stadsmission and is operated as a social enterprise. Its main purpose is to provide realistic work integration for people who have difficulty entering the regular job market. They aim to inspire more people to adopt circular consumption, and through the donations they receive, they can offer a wide selection of items—including clothing, accessories, and home furnishings—in their stores. Thanks to their secondhand operations, they are also able to provide clothing tailored to the needs of people experiencing homelessness and poverty. Neither Stadsmissionen’s secondhand stores nor Göteborgs Stadsmission distributes any profits. Any surplus remains within the organization.
We spoke with Mia Redemo, e-commerce manager at Stadsmissionen’s secondhand store, who shared her team’s experiences and challenges in establishing and running a socially-oriented secondhand business with a digital focus.
How do you use Tradera today?
At a warehouse in Bellevue in eastern Gothenburg, our team of four employees, two trainees, and two volunteers works to prepare around 225 auctions each week. The facility is located next to the Gothenburg City Mission’s Second Hand Collection & Sorting Center, where all donations from individuals and businesses are sorted and distributed to the various stores.
All auctions start at 1 kr, and the Tradera store sells items such as books, clothing, electronics, and home furnishings, but the focus is on offering a more exclusive and unique selection that appeals to a broad customer base.
How can you, as a customer, get involved and contribute?
When you shop at any of Stadsmissionen’s stores, you’re helping in several ways. You’re helping to reduce the production of new goods and, as a result, lessen the impact on the environment. By shopping at Stadsmissionen’s secondhand stores, you’re also helping to create job opportunities for people who want to re-enter the workforce.
In our Tradera operations, we currently have two people participating in a work training program, but we hope to increase the number of spots as the business grows.
What are the biggest challenges in your industry, and why?
We rely on donations from individuals and companies who choose to donate to Stadsmissionen’s secondhand stores, and you can do so directly at any of our nine stores located in Gothenburg, Alingsås, and Borås, or at our collection center in eastern Gothenburg. The flow of donations can vary, and this affects all of our operations. Competition is fierce, and as more individuals sell items through Tradera or other websites, we are no longer competing solely with businesses.
However, we hope and believe that many people will choose to shop with us—both online and in-store—because they’re familiar with Stadsmissionen’s secondhand stores and know that it’s an organization that helps many people in need. There are so many people who want to contribute to a more sustainable world, and when you shop with us, you’re contributing to sustainability for both people and the environment.
What are your top three tips for similar businesses that want to succeed on Tradera?
- Just get started, even if it’s on a small scale. Our Tradera business has grown steadily since its launch in 2020, and over the past four years we’ve moved to new offices, expanded our team, and—slowly but surely—built a solid foundation that will hopefully allow us to continue growing in the future.
- Offer a diverse selection to reach a wider customer base. Be bold enough to try different types of products and give customers time to discover your store.
- If the team is doing well, the business is doing well, and that is our constant daily goal when we’re at work. We are an inclusive workplace where people with different circumstances can work and receive on-the-job training, and even though production needs to keep moving, it should be a stress-free environment.
Do you have any fun Tradera memories to share?
Speaking of daring to try new things and having the patience to wait for the right customers to find you, we have a fun memory from when we sold a pair of statues at an unexpected price. We partner with a local auction house, and on a couple of occasions they had tried to auction off a pair of Chinese dragon statues, but no buyer had taken the bait, and they hadn’t sold for the starting price of about 2,000 SEK. We then took the chance to try listing them on Tradera with a starting price of 1 kr, and there they sold for nearly 13,000 kr!
