Flipkart to sell refurbished smartphones soon

In 2016, the renewed smartphone market was a $17 Billion market with customers selling 120M used smartphones at an average value of $140 per device. It is estimated that it represents a 7% of total smartphone sales.at the same time refurbished market is booming in India . Flipkart is also looking to organise the "unorganised" refurbished market of India, and build it too.

The selling of refurbished smartphones to start from Diwali and will be sold on the online marketplace and offline retail stores, for which discussions have been held with distributors. Flipkart will use its logistics arm Ekart for deliveries.

Flipkart will begin selling refurbished smartphones from popular brands, including Samsung ‘On Series’, Lenovo, Motorola and Sony Xperia . The decision to sell refurbished smartphones comes after the high rate of handset returns and the absence of a pricing advantage with the introduction of goods and services tax, according to industry executives cited in the report.

Three categories of refurbished phones will be offered, priced at 60-75% of their original value, the other executive said. “The refurbished market in India is mostly unorganised and Flipkart wants to build it. Amazon India already sells such devices. However, industrialists suggest that both need to open up newer channels for refurbished phones’ sales, especially offline, if they want to see this market growing.

Lastly, some experts asking a million dollar question on the sourcing of the cell phones. Weather it will be from inside the country or will import from other country. If it is from other country, then how it will be addressed the legal issues like Anti-dumping law and secondly, this rise in smartphone reuse will impact not only the sales of new units, but also the revenue streams of all those involved in the smartphone supply chain.

Earlier, India has rejected a plan by Apple Inc to import used iPhones. However, Apple sells what it calls refurbished iPhones at a discount in some countries, including the United States. Extending this practice to India would have likely helped it increase its share in one of the world's fastest growing smartphone markets against competitors with much cheaper offerings.

Tags: Flipkart, flipkart refurbished smartphones, smartphones on flipkart, smartphone, iphones