Refurbished smartphone sales soar as new devices struggle

livemint.com:

Mint projected a mid to high single-digit growth for refurbished smartphone market, as well as a rise of over 50% in average selling price of second-hand phones. Talking to Mint, Glen Cardoza, senior research analyst at market research firm Counterpoint India, said demand in refurbished smartphone market remains strong.

“The refurbished smartphone market grew at a very strong rate of 19% year-on-year (y-o-y) in calendar year 2022. While growth rate may not be as strong so far this year, there is still healthy demand in the second-hand market—the first half of the year has seen a mid to high single-digit growth in device sales, and the same growth rate is likely to be retained through the rest of the year," Cardoza said.

On 30 August last year, Mint reported exclusively that 65 million smartphones were projected to be sold in the refurbished smartphone market by the end of 2022, as per data from market tracker Redseer. Cardoza said at the time that while the growth rate of refurbished phones had already slowed from 2021, the healthy double-digit growth rate in 2022 was due to the rising price of smartphones—and the lack of available options in budget price ranges.

“This year, the refurbished phone market has continued to grow, as buyers are finding competitive premium smartphone options among an increasing number of organized sellers in the second-hand market. The sector, however, continues to be ruled by unorganized segment—which accounts for at least 80% of all refurbished or second-hand smartphone sales in the country," Cardoza said.

Organized sellers such as Cashify, ControlZ, HyperXchange and Xtracover have also been seeing growth in their businesses. Nakul Kumar, co-founder and chief operating officer at Cashify,