Gazelle Accepts its 100,000th Used Electronic; Notches Record Growth in 2009

BOSTON, Feb. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Gazelle (www.gazelle.com), the nation's largest consumer electronics reCommerce service, achieved 300% growth in revenues and product acquired in 2009. Last year, more than 50,000 consumers gazelled more than 100,000 electronics. Such metrics have made Gazelle both the largest and fastest growing player in the reCommerce industry.

Gazelle attributes its growth to its focus on customer experience, expanded marketing efforts, and the launch of several major retail partnerships. In 2009, Gazelle launched three retail partnerships and now powers electronics trade-in and recycle programs for Walmart.com, Costco, and Sears. Gazelle also made improvements on the gazelle.com business by cutting payment time in half and adding Amazon gift cards and Walmart gift cards as payment options. Category coverage expanded from 14 to 20 categories with the additions of LCD monitors, BluRay players, and home audio equipment.  Shipping improvements were also introduced, including carbon free shipping and expanded free packaging programs.

Gazelle also launched two new services, Gazelle for Business (G4B) and Gazelle for Good (G4G). Gazelle's G4B service attracted more than 100 companies to trade in and recycle their office electronics such as laptops, PDAs, and cell phones, while the G4G service enabled hundreds of NPOs and individual fundraisers to raise thousands of dollars for their favorite causes by collecting used gadgets.

As a result of this rapid growth and quick adoption of the service, Gazelle doubled its Allston, Mass office space from 14,000 to 28,000 sq. ft. and, during the year, tripled its work-force to more than 100 local, Boston employees.

2010: Looking Ahead

Gazelle expects 2010 to be another high growth year. During the next 12 months, Gazelle expects to announce the following:

• Gazelle expects to launch 2-3 additional retail relationships throughout the year, with the first announcement coming at the end of Q1
• Gazelle will expand category coverage to include additional consumer electronics such as flat panel televisions, home theatre equipment, and e-book readers
• Gazelle anticipates it will accept more than 200,000 items, preventing more than 10 tons of potential e-Waste

"Gazelle's exceptional growth in 2009 proves that consumers are changing the way they think about consumption and are constantly looking for ways to make smarter, more environmentally responsible purchasing choices," said Israel Ganot, Chief Executive Officer, Gazelle. "We are confident that the efficient consumer will not die out when the economy bounces back, and that 2010 will solidify Gazelle's place as the reCommerce leader. We look forward to exciting new retail partnerships and continuing to build on our innovative, industry leading customer experience and back-end processes for data destruction and recycling."

ABOUT GAZELLE

Gazelle (www.gazelle.com), a service of Second Rotation, Inc., is committed to providing an easy, fast, and safe way for consumers to get cash for selling unwanted electronics or to recycle them responsibly. To date, more than 50,000 consumers have used the service as a way to clean out closets, get cash and help out a good cause. In addition, Gazelle empowers consumers to avoid time consuming and risky online experiences associated with peer-to-peer selling. Consumers can rest assured that all personal information is thoroughly removed from their item while benefiting from conveniences like free shipping and packaging. Based in Boston, Gazelle is backed by premier venture capital firms Venrock Associates and RockPort Capital Partners.

SOURCE Gazelle