United.b leverages innovation to advance its commitment to sustainable development. Collaborating with Microsoft, the company utilises cloud technology, data, and AI to create more efficient and sustainable IT infrastructures. This partnership enables United.b to strategically manage its ESG initiatives and optimise its model for product recovery, refurbishment, and resale. Beyond a typical supplier-client relationship, Microsoft and United.b are connected through a European program for the recovery of products from the Microsoft Store, managed by United.b.

Circular economy principles are central to United.b’s operations. The platform comprises various retail and appliance companies dedicated to creating a comprehensive and positive circularity chain for electronic products, from distribution to recycling, including buyback and refurbishment. Each company within the platform adopts a sustainable and responsible approach, necessitating profound internal transformations. This strategic partnership with Microsoft exemplifies their shared commitment to fostering a more circular and sustainable economy.

A key aspect of the partnership between United.b and Microsoft involves migrating the platform’s infrastructure to the cloud using Microsoft Azure. Sébastien Hidocq, Chief Digital Officer of United.b, highlights the benefits of public cloud services, noting their high performance, flexibility, and energy efficiency. This migration aims to integrate Green IT practices across the group’s brands, allowing them to run business applications efficiently by consuming resources as needed, which is crucial for the platform and its subsidiaries that experience cyclical activity throughout the year.

United.b’s commitment to frugality is further demonstrated through a strategy focused on extra-financial data to better measure environmental impact. The goal is to simplify, automate, and accelerate data collection and processing to offer better products and adopt a more virtuous approach towards customers, employees, and ecosystems. United.b has chosen Microsoft Sustainability Manager to efficiently manage data and stay ahead in this increasingly central area. This tool supports the creation of mandatory extra-financial reports under the CSRD, helping the group identify relevant data and develop reliable measures for decision-making, ultimately aiming for a more sustainable circular economy. Additionally, Recommerce, part of United.b’s ecosystem, leverages AI through Azure OpenAI Service to enhance pricing strategies and detect product faults, improving the performance of the circular economy by predicting trends and optimising the resale of refurbished products.