May 17th, 2024, Lesley Simeon
The Consumer Electronics Show, the Tech.eu Summit and Mobile World Congress are some of the conferences that get the tech industry excited about everything new and shiny. While getting your hands on the latest gadget might interest some people, what does the market for second hand look like right now?
A recent YouGov survey asked consumers across 17 international markets about the categories of products they would consider purchasing second-hand/pre-owned items of. Equal proportions of consumers say they would consider buying used tech products like TVs, laptops and home appliances (29%) and cell phones (29%).
A similar proportion of consumers were up for buying second-hand tech products and cell phones (27% each) in 2023 as well, data from YouGov Surveys: Serviced shows.
We now look at data reported from individual markets.
Cell phones
Consumers in Indonesia and UAE are the most likely (37% each) to say they would consider buying pre-owned cell phones. Consumers in Great Britain (35%) and Poland (33%) follow.
In Asia, three in ten Indians (30%) are also open to purchasing second-hand cell phones - the most likely in the region to say so.
Conversely, Hong Kongers (19%) are the least likely across all markets surveyed to say they would go the second-hand route when it comes to cell phones, followed by Singaporeans (20%) and Americans (23%).
Tech products
Among consumers who are willing to opt for pre-owned tech products like TVs and laptops, Britons lead (36%). A number of online retailers have reported a surge in second-hand sales, in general, in Britain and Europe, in light of the cost-of-living-crises.
This is followed by Sweden (33%), Poland (33%) and Australia (33%). In Asia, Indonesians (26%) and Indians (24%) would be open to considering pre-owned tech goods.
Consumers in another Asian market surveyed - Singapore - are the least likely (20%) across markets to buy second-hand tech products, closely followed by Hong Kongers (20%).
In Europe, French (23%) are least likely to consider buying second-hand tech items.
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Methodology: YouGov Surveys: Serviced provide quick survey results from nationally representative or targeted audiences in multiple markets. The data is based on surveys of adults aged 18+ years in 17 markets with sample sizes varying between 512/500 and 2034/2002 for each market. All surveys were conducted online in February 2023/ February 2024. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from Mexico and India, which use urban representative samples, and Indonesia and Hong Kong, which use online representative samples. Learn more about YouGov Surveys: Serviced.