CeX (Computer Exchange)

CeX (branded "webuy") is a high-street retailer trading in pre-owned and refurbished technology and entertainment — video games and consoles, smartphones, computers and laptops, tablets, audio gear, and physical media. What sets it apart is its two-way counter model: every store buys, sells, and exchanges at the same time, so the walk-in customer is both the supply chain and the buyer. A proprietary live pricing and stock platform (webuy.com) sets buy and sell prices in real time across the whole network and lets shoppers reserve in-store stock online — turning second-hand trading into a standardised, data-driven retail format rather than an ad-hoc pawn or trade-in shop.

For the operator this is a full-format retail franchise offered as a single-unit licence, with paths to multi-unit area development and master rights for the entire market. HQ supplies the brand, the central pricing/inventory/point-of-sale software, store design and fit-out specification, an intensive multi-month training program directly in-store (covering everything from practical operations and POS systems to people management and business basics), site-selection and lease-negotiation help, ongoing support for your team, marketing, the central e-commerce platform, and links to banks that fund franchises. The operator funds the build-out and opening stock, secures the unit, hires and runs the in-store team, manages local buying decisions and cash handling, and drives day-to-day service and footfall. However, the network currently has no stores in Czechia or Slovakia — in the surrounding region, it operates in Poland, so negotiations would go through the UK head office.