Two-thirds of UAE residents have either bought or would consider buying refurbished electronics

Latest data from YouGov’s Consumer electronics: Safety and Sustainability in 2023 report shows two-thirds of UAE residents have either purchased refurbished electronic products (27%) or would consider buying them in future (40%). The remaining third (33%) 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.

In working towards a circular economy for consumer electronics, it is important for marketers and OEMs to understand which tactics could be adopted to encourage more consumers to buy recycled gadgets.

Among UAE residents 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 33% saying this), followed by a price reduction of 25% (31%) and a reputable seller (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 (36%), followed by a reputed seller (32%) and 25% price reduction (26%).

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 UAE is based on a nationally representative sample of 1,052 adults aged 18+.