January 17th, 2023, Bhawna Singh
Latest data from YouGov’s Consumer electronics: Safety and Sustainability in 2023 report shows six in ten urban Indians have either purchased refurbished electronic products (20%) or would consider buying them in future (40%). The remaining (40%) have neither purchased nor would consider getting refurbished electronics in the future.
The global report examines consumer buying behaviour of electronics goods, explores their attitudes to green technology, data privacy, and the preferred security measures for device protection across 18 international markets in order to help marketers and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) gain a better understanding of consumer behaviour and attitudes around these themes.
YouGov research reveals that there is an appetite for buying refurbished electronics with more than two thirds (69%) of consumers across the globe who have either already bought a refurbished/recycled electronics item (28%) or would consider buying one (41%). In contrast, one in three are not open at all to the idea of buying pre-used technology and would never consider it.
The highest proportion of refurb buyers fall within Great Britain (GB) and America, with around four in ten purchasing repurposed electronics, closely followed by Canada. Across all 18 markets more than six in ten have either already bought or would consider buying refurbished electronics, suggesting a strong interest overall, as well as an opportunity for brand marketers, manufacturers, and retailers to convince more consumers of the benefits of buying recycled tech.
Among Indian consumers who have purchased electronics devices in the last 12 months, the reassurance of the product being guaranteed for at least a year is most likely to encourage them to buy recycled or refurbished products (with 36% saying this), followed by a reputable seller (33%) and reduced price by 25% (30%).
We asked this same question amongst people who hadn’t bought any of the electronics items listed in the last 12 months the motivations to buy refurbished/recycled electronics are almost identical. Among non-buyers, the top tier is the reassurance of a guarantee (41%), followed by a reputed seller (33%) and 25% price reduction (31%).
It’s important to understand if different tactics appeal to different age groups. Comparing motivations by age, Indian consumers in the 35-44 cohort are more likely to be enticed by the one-year guarantee and the knowledge that it is eco-friendly, whereas for 55+ rigorous testing of the product is a higher priority as compared to the other age groups. Buying from a reputable seller is least important for 18–24-year-olds and green credentials matter the least to 25-34 year-olds.
Communicating the cost-benefits of repurposed tech, in conjunction with the quality reassurance of the product will be key elements for brand manufacturers and retailers to focus their refurbished marketing messages, in order to nudge consumers to buy.
Download the full Consumer electronics: Safety and sustainability in 2023 paper here.
Methodology:
The insights in this report are drawn from a recent global Custom survey uncovering safety and sustainability in consumer electronics past and future purchasing behaviour and explores consumer attitudes to green technology, data privacy and the preferred security measures for device protection.
Covering 18 global markets of more than 19,000 respondents. Our survey results were further bolstered by connecting respondent level data to YouGov’s proprietary syndicated data solutions, Global Profiles, allowing us to merge our respondents and their answers to the 100,000s consumer attributes that we
collect on an ongoing basis for audience segmentation and profiling. Our survey was fielded the week of 7th to 29th September 2022. The YouGov panel provides a naturally accurate and representative view of the population. Data is adjusted using a mild weighting team using interlocking demographic characteristics—methodology considered advanced in the market research space.
Data for India is based on a nationally representative sample of 1,008 adults aged 18+.