In April, we queried our Thought Leader's Research Panel on mobile phone reuse and recycling. We asked about 1,200 mobile users questions about overall mobile phone recycling, whether that had actually sold back a phone with a program and even posed some questions about buying pre-owned phones and modular devices.
In this particular sample, we saw higher phone recycling rates overall, with a large amount of respondents saying they had at least recycled a mobile device of some kind in the last six months. In addition, many of the respondents (37%) said they had traded-in or sold back a device and received some type of incentive for it in the last six months. (Note: Compass Intelligence estimates average mobile phone buyback or trade-in participation to be around 20% overall.)
When asked about the programs used to sell back, respondents said they opted for the carrier channel (Verizon had the highest amount of responses), but Amazon was also a frequently chosen program for this panel.
Here are some other key metrics:
- 58% of the respondents chose in-store or "live" buyback options vs. 42% who used an online program.
- 44% used a carrier program (either online or in-store) vs 66% who used a 3rd party retailer or recommerce vendor.
- 55% of all respondents told us they had old, used, not active (idle) phones and devices on hand that could be recycled or sold back.
On the topic of motivators to sell back devices, we asked our panel members about what types of incentives they would like to see. The highest response was for cash, with PayPal credit as the second-highest incentive chosen.
Other questions in this survey involved preferences around pre-owned devices, modular and smart designed phones. There is still some apprehension in the marketplace around pre-owned devices. However, consumers seem more interested in modular (Lego-inspired) devices and more efficiently-designed phones.
If you'd like to see the executive summary, please click here. Or, for more information on how to purchase the report, contact Kate Pearce at [email protected].