Second-hand country: The Russian electronics market is increasingly shifting to second-hand products

Even the propaganda media acknowledge the difficult situation. So, the publication “Kommersant” published an article entitled “Electronics of the second freshness. Large retailers expand commission trade.” Channel 24 looked at how bad everything is in the gadget market in Russia.

Nothing new – just old

As you know, after the large-scale occupation of the territory of Ukraine by Russian troops, large technology companies began one after another to leave the invader market. Currently, Apple, Samsung, Nokia, Asus and some other companies do not supply their devices to Russia. There are still Chinese manufacturers such as Xiaomi, Oppo, Huawei. The world community is also waiting for a reaction from them, but for now they just keep quiet and cut off supplies for economic reasons. However, they cannot completely exit the market. We talked about the reasons for this situation in a separate article.

But the fact that Chinese brands are still on the market still does not help the Russians much, as their purchasing power has dropped sharply. For this reason, used and therefore cheaper equipment comes to the fore.

• “Kommersant” spoke with a representative of the large retail chain “Svyaznoy”, which has about 3,000 stores. Against the background of shortages and rising prices, the company launched the project “Technology with mileage” – the purchase, further testing and resale of old smartphones. They say that each Russian has an average of 2 devices that can be applied.
• In the first month of service, the store bought an average of 250 devices per day, 4.5 times more than in the same period last year.
• A similar project exists on the Citylink network for buying and selling old iPhones.
• The seller states that demand for used Apple equipment increased 39% in March compared to February.

Earlier, the purchase of old gadgets also took place, but there were significant differences. The customer did not receive money for his old smartphone, but received a discount on the new one.

Thus, Russians have become much less likely to buy new smartphones. Not only because the consumables stopped, because there are still a number of previously imported tools in the warehouses. In this case, the significant increase in prices and the impoverishment of the population played a role. In the first days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russians were actively discussing the situation around DNS shops, which did not have time to change their price tags, the ruble was falling very quickly. As a result, the management issued an announcement that the value of the goods should be clarified with the sellers.

According to market analysts, the situation will only get worse. The secondary market will thrive in the absence of new supplies. First of all, smartphones, computers, photo and video equipment will be in demand. To a lesser extent – household appliances.