Organized Second-Hand Smartphone Market Stutters in Key Regions

CCS Insight has been tracking the growth and development of the organized second-hand smartphone market for several years. We’ve seen robust growth, with plenty of bright spots as countries and regions have entered the segment.

In 1Q25, this pattern was disrupted, with several regions seeing growth stall or even a decline. Several European countries that had previously been strong growth engines saw notably poor performances. For example, France, which has been the powerhouse of Europe’s second-hand market, saw device shipments in the organized secondary segment fall by 11%. The Netherlands saw a 7% drop, and the UK was down 3%.

Why have sales dropped? We attribute the decline to poor retail performance, significantly harming in-store purchases in the quarter. This resulted in tighter margins, putting players under considerable pressure. Also, attractive offers for new and second-hand devices in the second half of 2024 dragged forward some demand, limiting business at the start of 2025.

The industry was already carefully balancing the tightrope of supply and demand before these challenges. And we’ve seen the start of some consolidation, with Exertis acquiring Apple repair specialist Group 8 in April 2025. This gives Exertis stronger refurbishment capabilities for Apple products, complementing its strength in Samsung repairs through its subsidiary, MTR Group.

These challenges aren’t unique to Europe. The three largest markets for second-hand smartphones — China, the US and India — also experienced declines.

In China, strong growth in the primary market, driven by government-backed subsidies that discount smartphones by up to 15%, led to a 3% drop in the volume of secondary market sales.

The US saw a 2% decline as economic uncertainty slowed consumer spending, even before the announcement of President Trump’s tariffs in April. It’s difficult to predict the impact of these tariffs, given the changing nature of their magnitude and scope. However, we expect the US secondary market to improve over the rest of the year. Uncertainty about the price and availability of imported goods should boost demand for products already in that market. This is especially true for lower-priced devices, as we believe some of the added import costs will be passed on to consumers. Buying second-hand helps to offset this pressure, even if domestic resale isn’t guaranteed.

India’s organized secondary market declined by 6% in 1Q25. We attribute this to a shift in sales of new smartphones from online platforms to offline and growth in the unorganized secondary retail channel. These shifts reduced trade-in through organized channels, a major supply source.

The shutdown of Amazon Renewed because of quality concerns and rising consumer dissatisfaction also hurt sales. Its closure reflects operational challenges and signals weakening consumer demand and trust in used smartphones in India. As noted in our recent article on Xiaomi’s performance, cost isn’t as critical in the Indian smartphone market as it once was.

Innovation in the Trade-In Segment

Still, the secondary market continues to see plenty of innovation, with a focus on encouraging more people to trade-in their phones when they upgrade.

For example, brands are working to increase the residual value of Android smartphones through guaranteed exchange programmes. Samsung introduced a buyback programme in the UK, guaranteeing a 50% trade-in value on the new Galaxy S25 Edge. This is the most significant action we’ve seen by a device-maker seeking to directly improve the residual value of its devices in the secondary market, and we expect Samsung to expand the programme to other markets.

Similarly, French trade-in specialists Dipli and Recommerce introduced forward trade-in and guaranteed buy-back schemes for partners in May 2025. We believe programmes like these will be very powerful, particularly for operators, in encouraging consumers to trade-in devices more regularly. This will be vital to European supply moving forward. In India, Flipkart offers an assured buy-back programme in conjunction with Nothing’s 3A series, and Cashify has joined forces with OnePlus for its 13 series.

These updates are designed to affect the primary and secondary markets. By driving purchases and trade-in in the new device market, the secondary market also benefits from a stronger flow of devices.

However, rising trade-in prices and weak resale values have put pressure on profit margins, an ongoing concern for the industry. Forward trade-in programmes are expected to push trade-in value even higher, potentially by 5% to 10% in 2025. Their success will largely depend on the timing and volume of devices re-entering the circular economy.

That said, there’s a silver lining. Higher trade-in prices may lead to improved resale value as higher-quality devices flow back into the market. This could help balance margins and accelerate the adoption of premium smartphones in the second-hand market.

Attention will now turn to whether the market can recover from this poor performance. We expect that growth will return, with demand still proving robust for second-hand devices, and efforts to resolve the challenges of balancing supply and demand will help the industry overall.

Notably, we’re monitoring regional approaches. In India, Apple’s recent partnership with Tata Electronics for local iPhone repairs marks a significant step in the firm’s broader focus on the Indian market. With growing investments in offline retail, the Apple Store app, local manufacturing and now repair infrastructure, Apple might be laying the groundwork to introduce Apple Certified refurbished smartphones in India. These devices would appeal to aspirational consumers, helping Apple expand its presence and drive revenue through its services. We expect more device-makers to join the nascent second-hand space in India.

In Europe, we’re seeing players react to tightening margins by bringing more of the refurbishment process in-house. Leading retailers like Worten, Rebuy and MediaMarkt are taking more control, supported by partners. This is all part of the process for retailers in improving product reliability, which, as discussed in this recent blog, improves trust in refurbished goods and drives the market.

Overall, 1Q25 was a tough quarter for the second-hand smartphone industry, with very few regions managing to continue the momentum of the past few years. But the bubble hasn’t burst. In our view, the deepening focus across the value chain on device residual values, trade-in programmes and refurbishment capabilities will drive the market to new heights in the rest of 2025 and beyond.