Why it matters:
- The company is poised to leverage surging consumer demand for secondhand shopping. The global market for secondhand electronics was valued at $222 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow to $322 billion by 2023.
- PayMore is poised to leverage that surging consumer demand for secondhand shopping. The electronics resale chain has 100 stores, an increase of 500% in two years, with 460 additional locations expected to open in the United States over the next five years.
- PayMore is attracting the attention of major franchise operators, with several signing multi-store development deals this year.
PayMore Founders Erik Helgesen and Stephen Preuss Sr. have taken an idea they had for a modern secondhand store specializing in electronics and turned it into one of the fastest-growing franchise chains in the country.
PayMore, a chain that buys secondhand electronics in its physical stores and resells them online and in-store, just opened its 100th U.S. store and has development deals in place for 460 additional stores in this country and 180 international locations.
Its growth is accelerating as veteran business owners with experience running restaurant franchises and other franchise operations are signing up to open multiple PayMore stores.
“People are opening their eyes to new age retail, which is what we consider ourselves,” Preuss told CO—. “Even though we have these traditional brick-and-mortar locations, we are completely powered by technology, data, and e-commerce.”
One of the reasons for PayMore’s success, Helgesen and Preuss told CO—, is that they spent 16 years perfecting their business model before selling franchises.
They started with a general merchandise secondhand store in the New York suburb of Massapequa Park on Long Island, and they noticed that the bestselling items in their store were pre-owned electronics.
“We were making more money on the electronics than anything else that was coming into the store, and everyone loved to talk about how we were giving them optionality in the electronics space” by letting them sell their pre-owned electronics for cash and also giving them the ability to purchase secondhand items, Preuss said.
Rehabilitating electronic resellers’ image: ‘Our repeat customer rate is 10X the market average’
The global market for secondhand electronics, valued at $222 billion in 2023, is forecast by research firm Global Market Insights to reach $322 billion by 2032, with North America having a dominant 29% share of that market.
When Helgesen and Preuss opened their original shop, stores that bought and sold secondhand electronics often weren’t known for being customer friendly.
“We wanted to change the narrative—with nice, clean stores, with technology, and get people in and out quick with a fair deal,” Preuss said.
Helgesen led the development of proprietary technology that gives store employees up-to-the-minute data on the resale value of used electronics, so they can quickly give customers a price for their goods.
“We’ve sped up the transactions nearly 600% so we can get them in and get them out,” Helgesen said. “Our staff have pricing at their fingertips so it’s not something where they’re trying to look at multiple platforms to figure out a price,” he said.
The average time for a seller to complete a transaction in a PayMore store is eight minutes, compared to 50 minutes for the average secondhand store transaction, Preuss and Helgesen said.
PayMore employees also wipe devices like phones and laptops of all personal data and can show sellers that the devices have been wiped clean.
The Founders believe being able to see that done in person and to sell items with a face-to-face transaction in a clean, modern store gives consumers trust and a comfort level that leads to repeat transactions.
“Our repeat customer rate is 10X the market average,” Preuss said.
[Read more: Resale’s Next Big Wave: Execs From ThredUp to Trove on How Tech and Brand Adoption Are Driving Secondhand Retail Boom]
We find some of the most successful multi-unit franchise owners are ones that go by the playbook.Erik Helgesen, Cofounder of PayMore
The franchise appeal: The average PayMore store generates over $1 million in gross sales
Helgesen and Preuss said they are seeing accelerated interest by business owners with previous experience in franchise ownership, particularly from owners of food franchises.
Over the past year, companies that own dozens of restaurant and fast-food franchises have signed multi-unit development deals to open PayMore locations.
Part of the attraction, Preuss said, is that gross sales at PayMore stores are similar to many quick-serve restaurants, but with lower labor costs and shorter hours. The average PayMore store generates over $1 million in gross sales, according to the company.
PayMore stores can operate with only three to four employees and can be ready to open within three to four months, compared to 16 to 18 months for a food operation, Preuss said.
PayMore stores typically are 1,000 to 1,500 square feet. Franchisees pay a $35,000 franchise fee, and monthly royalty, tech, and marketing fees. New franchise owners typically need between $131,750 to $361,500 for startup costs, according to the company.
Randy Griesbach, who just opened his third PayMore franchise store in the Charlotte, N.C. metro area, said he was looking into franchising opportunities after previously owning a manufacturing company and he was impressed with the PayMore model.
“Low employee count, simplicity of the systems—those were very high on our priority list,” he said.
He originally thought he would partner with a larger franchise brand but was impressed with Preuss and Helgesen after meeting them.
When he opened his first store just over a year ago, he saw how strong the demand was for a place to buy and sell secondhand electronics.
“We had people really loving what we did,” Griesbach said. “It was a place for them to bring something and sell it and walk away with cash.”
[Read more: 5 Consumer Trends Shaping Spending Patterns in 2025]
PayMore Founders on two critical elements that make for successful franchise ownership
PayMore began selling franchises in 2020.
Since then, Preuss and Helgesen have identified some characteristics that make for a successful franchise owner.
The first, Helgesen said “is following a system that’s been proven to work,” rather than reinventing the business model. “We find some of the most successful multi-unit franchise owners are ones that go by the playbook,” he said.
“The system is what’s going to make them successful and get them into their second and third store very quickly,” Preuss said.
Another indicator of a successful franchisee is past experience in bringing something to scale, Preuss said. “We’ve found people who have scaled something in their past—it doesn’t necessarily need to be franchising, do the best,” he said. “It can be building sales teams or IT teams. People with a history of scaling stores or human capital or people previously” have seen the fastest growth as PayMore owners, he said.
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