You know how the used car market is often more valuable to even new car dealers than selling new cars? (Perhaps especially in the last couple of years, when used car prices have gone through the roof?
Perhaps the same is true about digital devices: smartphones, tablets. Supply Chain Now host and CEO Scott Luton says the “recommerce market” is worth an estimated $40 billion a year, and is expected to double in the coming years.
I recently wrote about Back Market’s massive $510 million series E funding. From the post:
Back Market offers a marketplace for approved partners to sell old phones, tablets, smartwatches, and other electronics, thereby “up-cycling” them and reselling them to consumers who might want fairly new tech but just a little more affordably. An iPhone 12 in good condition is available for $593, for example, while a Galaxy S21 graded as “fair” sells for $474. Both are significantly below brand-new retail pricing.
The company sells over 200,000 products every month, it says on its seller portal.
There’s clear environmental benefit as well.
The big question for used products, of course, is the quality. But Back Market says that the failure rate on used electronics is tiny: just a hair over brand-new devices.