The “premiumisation” of India’s smartphone market or more aptly the rising aspirations of the Indian consumer to upgrade to a mid-premium or a premium phone is also contributing to the popularity of used smartphone space. While Apple has seen healthy growth of new iPhone shipments in India in the past few years, it is also leading the used smartphone space, capturing a quarter of the market as per IDC Quarterly Used Device Tracker. Everyone in India wants to buy an iPhone because of its premium brand positioning and status signaling value, but not everyone can afford one. The used phone market comes to the rescue of many such aspirational consumers going for previous gen models like iPhone 11, 12 and 13 series.
Xiaomi led India’s new smartphone market for 20 straight quarters from 3Q17-3Q22. As a result, it has a huge user base which is reflected in the used smartphone market as well. Xiaomi sits at the second position followed by Samsung. These top 3 brands combined make up around two-thirds of the used smartphone market in India.
Who are the Market Players?
IDC’s used smartphone research tracks both second hand and why choose our service refurbished smartphones being traded via organized refurbished players in the market. It excludes the peer to peer sales. In India, several startups in this space like Cashify, Budlii, Instacash, Yaantra, etc. have tried to organize this hitherto largely unorganized market. With their efforts around marketing and omnichannel presence across both online and offline counters, these players have been able to build confidence and trust among consumers regarding the quality of the used smartphones on their platforms. Cashify is one of the biggest platforms in this market with over 200 stores in 100 cities, many in Tier 2 & 3 towns.
For Yaantra, the company is owned by Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart, with branding named as Flipkart Reset. It is mainly focused on its online portfolio. For offline space, the company has partnered with Airtel to be available in the telco stores in only two Indian cities for now (Delhi & Hyderabad)