On average Brits change their phones every 22.4-months so it is no surprise that phone users end up with an average of two phones lying unused around the house. While currently only 15 percent of people trade in old phones, this number is sure to grow as more consumers realise they can trade in a high-end smartphone for a few hundred pounds.
But it’s not just consumers who hoard devices that have reached the end of their first lifecycle. We often encounter businesses that have stacks of devices, such as set top boxes that have reached the end of their lease period and so have been returned. It becomes a problem as dealing with these devices is not their core business so as a result the devices are ending up in warehouses as inventory. These devices are not only of no benefit to the business, they are costing money both in warehousing space and missed revenue.
Traditionally companies haven’t had the resources to deal with the return device market and so were happy to take a back seat on this aspect of the reverse logistics process. However, the boom in sales of refurbished phones and other electronic devices is now proving that it is a lucrative market, and one that they can’t afford to ignore.
No matter what the product is, be it a smart phone, set top box or tablet, there is an opportunity for businesses to maximise on their investments by looking to give it a second lease of life. While manufacturers and operators may not have the capabilities to do this, they should look to work with a trusted partner to ensure they aren’t missing out. Devices that have come to the end of their usability should be returned and tested to determine their serviceability.
Innovations in testing are constantly reducing the times taken to process large numbers of devices. This means they can quickly be sorted. Those that are no longer serviceable need to be ethically recycled and harvested for parts that can be reused in new devices or in the repairs process. However, those that do pass or are worth repairing can move into the refurbishment process.
There are already organisations that have been able to gain additional revenues from a previously untapped market by taking greater control of the re-sale and recycling of their used devices. For one particular manufacturer, volumes from the sale of refurbished lease equipment now total 50,000 units per month with projections to increase those numbers threefold.
In times when margins are squeezed, reselling to generate additional revenues is a no-brainer. The only real question is how to make this happen in a way that is cost effective and beneficial for your organisation.
Xavier Hubert, Solutions Architect EMEA at Teleplan International
Author profile
Xavier Hubert is part of our global Solutions Architect team at Teleplan, one of the top global end-to-end after sales services providers for electronics. For over 12 years, Xavier has been working in the electronics industry building reverse logistics strategies and customized solutions. Xavier’s challenges include strategic supplier relationship management, optimizing the costs and efficiencies of customer logistics flows, harnessing the power of international teams and ensuring that Teleplan anticipates market changes and develops class leading differentiated solutions for customers. Ultimately Xavier wants to push the boundaries as to what is possible with reverse logistics and enable managed logistics to always be considered as a clear value-add area of service differentiation for customers.
