Loving Pre-loved Devices: More people are buying refurbished smartphones this festive season

Turn the clock back by a few years and you will see that people would normally refrain from buying refurbished smartphones, for a variety of reasons. More importantly, though, most people, even those who love technology, kept their smartphones for longer and did not upgrade every year.

Now though, it seems that people are not only opening up to the idea of buying refurbished devices, they are actually loving it. The refurbished smartphone market is set to grow exponentially this festive season, if industry experts are to be believed.

A massive uptick in sales of refurbished devices
During the upcoming festive season, experts in the industry and market analysts anticipate a massive uptick in revenue, year-on-year, in the refurbished market. This robust growth is expected to outperform the new phone segment, where the growth rate is projected to remain at approximately 7 per cent.

Companies like ReFit Global and Cashify, who specialize in selling refurbished phones and electronic devices, are also optimistic about a significant uptick in their revenues during the ongoing festive season

Refit, for example, is confident that they will sell about 3.5 lakh smartphones during the Dusshera-Diwali festive season. They also expect that they, along with the rest of the refurbished smartphone market will see revenues grow by 18 per cent, year-on-year. Saket Saurav, a co-founder of ReFit Global, stated, “We have high expectations of tripling our revenue, with a goal to achieve Rs 200 crore in the final three months of this year. This would surpass our revenue record for the fiscal year 2022 by December.” ReFit Global has established partnerships with major e-commerce giants like Flipkart and Amazon, and sell their devices through the e-commerce giants, on their own platform, as well as channel of distributors.

Change in consumer behaviour
One of the biggest reasons why more and more people are buying refurbished devices is the increased availability of these devices. Earlier people would hold on to their smartphones for longer, and would not upgrade that often.

Now, thanks to the previous-gen devices becoming available at greater discounts, and an increased supply in premium devices, mean people are updating their phones more often.

An in-depth trends analysis by ReFit has revealed that most people are buying iPhones, or devices from OnePlus. Devices like the iPhone 12, iPhone 11, are highly demanded, and are just as easily available. As for Android-based devices, premium Samsung flagships like the Galaxy S21, and some of OnePlus’ flagships are in demand.

One of the reasons why Apple is particularly popular is its longer lifecycle compared to most Android flagships. Then, there is also the fact that Apple has an aspirational value like no other brand. Similarly, OnePlus, which built its reputation as the ‘Flagship Killer’ is almost as popular as Apple.

Why are more people buying second-hand smartphones?
Affordability is not the only reason why people are going more for refurbished smartphones, over brand new devices. Over the last few years, smartphones haven’t really changed that much, and perform more or less the same. The areas where smartphone makers are innovating are not necessarily the areas where customers see value.

Moreover, people have started to trust refurbished brands more now. Because platforms like Amazon and Flipkart are selling refurbished and renewed devices, and backing most of these sales with their own return policies, people started buying refurbished products from these platforms and trusting second-hand devices from reputable refurbishers and platforms.

What does the data suggest?
Refit’s sales over the last four years also suggest that more and more people are buying refurbished smartphones. In FY 2019-20, they sold 80,000 units, in FY 2020-21, about 110,000 units, and in FY 2021-22, they sold 247,000 units. In their last fiscal year, for the period 2022-23 they sold 453,000 units.

Saurav explained that there is a robust demand for aspirational brands like Apple and OnePlus in major metropolitan areas, surpassing the available supply. Consequently, this increased demand has driven up the availability of used phones.