Elgiganten is targeting 5% circular share of business by 2027–28. Elkjøp repairs 500,000 units annually and has 4 million spare parts available online. European retailers are not just building circular infrastructure — they are beginning to use it as a listing criterion. For tech brands planning EMEA retail access in 2026–27, the absence of a circular programme is no longer a sustainability gap. It is a commercial risk.
There was a specific moment at TCG Retail Summit 2026 in Copenhagen where the conversation shifted for me. Peder Stedal from Elgiganten/Elkjøp Nordic was not presenting a sustainability report. He was describing an operational transformation — repairs, trade-in, refurbished sales, spare parts, recycling — and explaining why it was structurally better for his business than selling only new product. The brands in the room that were paying attention understood the implication: their listing relationship is with a retailer that is actively building a circular operating model. That model now has expectations attached to it.
This post unpacks what that means for brands — commercially, operationally, and strategically — and what we are consistently telling our clients about how to respond.
What European Retailers Are Actually Building — and What They Are Starting to Require
The numbers from Elkjøp Nordic are not aspirational. They are operational realities already at scale: 500,000 units repaired annually, 4 million spare parts available online, 3 repair workshops across the Nordic region, sustainability ambassadors deployed in every Elgiganten store. Elgiganten has also added 10 new stores in Denmark since 2019 while using 2% less energy across the estate. That is the circular economy as a business system, not as a marketing claim.
Elgiganten's target — 5% of total business in circular activity by 2027–28 — covers repairs, refurbished sales, trade-in, recycling, and spare parts. That 5% target has a direct implication for brands: every category within that 5% requires supplier cooperation. Spare parts require brands to make parts available at commercial terms. Trade-in programmes require brand buy-in on refurbishment standards. Repair services require technical documentation and parts pricing that works at scale.
Brands that engage with this infrastructure become part of Elgiganten's circular value proposition. Brands that do not are, over time, a less useful listing partner.
This is not yet a universal hard criterion. But the direction of travel is clear. In the conversations we are having with buyers across EMEA, circular credentials are appearing — for the first time — in the informal requirements that precede formal range reviews. The door is not closed. It is closing slowly.
The VAT Margin Scheme Nobody Talks About
The most underappreciated commercial argument in the circular economy discussion is not sustainability — it is the economics of refurbishment under the EU's VAT margin scheme.
For standard new product sales, VAT is applied to the full sale price. For eligible refurbished goods, VAT under the margin scheme is applied only to the difference between the purchase price and the sale price — typically a fraction of the full amount. The practical effect: a refurbished device sold at a meaningful discount to the new product price can generate a better net margin than the original sale.
Recommerce market analysis makes the arithmetic explicit: a brand or retailer that sells a premium device new, buys it back through trade-in, and resells it refurbished can earn revenue from the same physical unit twice — with the second transaction often producing better margins than the first. The "circular triple-margin model" extends this further: sell new at premium, earn on refurbishment, earn again on services and repair across the device's lifecycle.
Memory component prices rose 75% year-on-year in February 2026. That price movement makes refurbished smartphones more economically rational for a meaningful segment of consumers — and it makes the trade-in and refurbishment margin opportunity more attractive for brands that have built the infrastructure to capture it. According to NielsenIQ market data, refurbished smartphones now represent 11% of EU6 volume. Sixty percent of those buyers are parents. This is not distressed demand — it is an intentional category choice by a defined demographic.
The financial case for building circular capability has never been clearer.
From Compliance to Brand Extension
The most strategically interesting framing came not from a retailer but from a manufacturer. Acer's question — captured in strategic discussions at TCG 2026 — was direct: "Can I create a secondhand market for Acer products that would be affordable, address customer needs for affordability, and still be my brand?"
That question reframes circular entirely. It is not asking how to comply with regulations or how to satisfy a retailer's ESG checklist. It is asking how the circular economy becomes an owned brand channel — one that reaches a price-sensitive buyer the new product range cannot reach, while keeping that buyer inside the brand ecosystem rather than pushing them toward grey-market alternatives.
This is the frame we use in our BD conversations. A brand that waits for regulation to force a circular programme will build a compliance structure. A brand that moves now — ahead of the regulatory pressure, and ahead of most competitors — can build a circular programme as a genuine brand and commercial asset. The brands that will win the listing conversations in 2027 are not the ones that tick the box. They are the ones that arrive at the buyer's desk with a thought-through circular proposition that makes the retailer's life easier.
B2B also matters more here than many brands realise. According to observations from Whiteaway Group at TCG 2026, B2B buyers in the Nordics are driving sustainability requirements more actively than B2C consumers. Enterprise procurement teams require sustainability credentials from their electronics suppliers. A brand without a credible circular story faces friction in both the retail listing conversation and in the B2B sales motion.
What This Means If You Are Planning EMEA Retail Access in 2026–27
Elgiganten and Elkjøp are the largest consumer electronics retailers in the Nordic region — a market that punches well above its size for premium and innovation-first consumer electronics brands. They are also among the most operationally advanced retailers globally when it comes to circular infrastructure. What they are building now is what MediaMarkt, Fnac Darty, and others will be building in 12–24 months.
In the market entry and growth conversations we have with brands right now, circular capability is appearing as a factor in range reviews that it was not in two years ago. It is not yet a universal gate — but it is an increasingly visible signal that buyers are using to distinguish partners they want to build with from brands they will list transactionally.
What we tell brands in this situation: you do not need a fully built circular programme to begin the conversation. You need a credible circular direction. That means: a trade-in or take-back mechanism (even a basic one), a spare parts availability commitment, a position on refurbishment standards, and a willingness to co-develop the circular proposition with your retail partner rather than asking them to build it for you.
The Elgiganten "cash for trash" programme — paying consumers €10–50 to return old devices — is a useful model to understand. It is simple, it is consumer-facing, and it creates the inventory that makes refurbishment economics work. Brands that cooperate with this kind of programme become structurally embedded in the retailer's circular infrastructure. That is a different kind of listing relationship than transactional range placement.
Four Things to Take Away
▸Audit your circular readiness before your next range review. Can you provide spare parts at commercial terms? Do you have a position on refurbishment standards? Can you support a trade-in programme? If the answers are not clear, buyers will notice — even if they do not yet reject you on those grounds.
▸Run the VAT margin scheme numbers for your category. The refurbishment economics under EU tax regulation may be more favourable than your finance team assumes. Build the model before you dismiss circular as a margin-negative activity.
▸Frame circular as a brand extension, not a compliance exercise. The Acer question is the right one to ask internally: what does a circular channel for your product look like, and what customer segment does it reach that your new-product range currently cannot?
▸Start the retailer conversation now, not when you have a finished programme. The retailers building circular infrastructure want brand partners who are willing to co-design it. Arriving with a proposal — even an early-stage one — is more valuable than arriving with a polished programme two years too late.
Retailers across EMEA are building circular infrastructure and starting to factor circular credentials into the informal criteria that shape listing decisions. If you are planning retail market entry or range expansion in 2026–27, understanding what buyers actually expect — and how to build a circular proposition that supports rather than complicates the listing conversation — is part of the commercial preparation, not an afterthought.
The physical retail investments that make circular programmes visible at shelf are covered in our post on why physical retail is becoming more valuable in the AI era, not less.
Retailers are asking for circular credentials. Let's talk about how to build yours.