Bargain or Brand New? How To Navigate the Refurbished vs. Non-Refurbished Electronics Dilemma
Revisiting Refurbished
At ZWM, we are committed to creating and promoting products that are sustainable, carbon neutral, and can reduce a customers environmental impact.
We're not the only ones working towards a more sustainable planet, and outside of our own products, there are plenty of other industries on the forefront of making change and spreading the same ideals and messages. One that's s been prominent in news cycles in recent years is refurbished consumer electronics.
In this blog post, we'll dive into the recent growth in the Refurbished electronics market, and explore its impact on how consumers decide to spend their money on electronic devices. We'll also talk about how purchasing a refurbished product can help lower your individual environmental impact.
What are the Benefits of Buying Refurbished?
There are many benefits to buying Refurbished products, some more obvious than others. Below are just a few of the most prominent benefits you can expect when buying a Refurbished electronics product.
1 | PRICE
When buying a refurbished or second hand phone, laptop, or any other electronics device, you are going to get a discount compared to the latest model of that device and the original purchase price of the product.
With electronics getting more and more expensive, this is an obvious benefit to buying refurbished.
2 | AVAILABILITY
When a new phone or consumer electronics product is just released, it may be difficult to get your hands on the product depending on location, supply, and other factors. Even if you are able to find the product, it may not be in the right colour or specifications that you wanted.
With refurbished products, these are often older models that have been on the market for much longer, so whilst they may not have the most up-to-date specifications, you will find a lot more variety of colours, models, and further customisation options.
3 | ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
Did you know that E-Waste makes up 70% of our overall toxic waste, and just 12.5% of E-Waste is recycled? By buying refurbished, you are helping to prolong the life of electronics and give them a new home. While getting the newest iPhone model every year may be appealing, it's slowly destroying our environment.
It's not a sustainable consumer habit.
How Big is the Market for Refurbished Products?
Research from Custom Market Insights shows that the market for just used smartphones is currently around 60-65 billion dollars in 2023, and that by 2030 this number will be closer to 140 Billion. This is an average expected growth rate of nearly 11.45%, making it one of the fastest growing markets in the consumer electronics space. Clearly there is a huge market that is just starting to grow, and with the cost of living crisis, supply chain issues, and rising costs making new electronics less and less affordable, the refurbished market is poised to grow rapidly in the upcoming years.
Is Refurbishing the Future?
Whether or not the refurbished electronics market meets its expected growth targets is yet to be seen, but the combination of lower cost items that are more environmentally friendly and easily purchasable than new products makes it an industry to watch. At ZWM, we believe that buying refurbished is always a better option than brand new, and giving life to an old device that would have been thrown out and added to the growing pile of E-waste is a step towards protecting our environment and living a sustainable life.
Next time you are window shopping or browsing online for electronics, keep an eye out for refurbished or second hand products.
It's a simple way to do your part to help preserve our environment and reduce E-Waste!
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Thank you for reading! If you found this blog post informative and inspiring, share it with your friends and spread the message of sustainability.
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Sources:
https://www.custommarketinsights.com/report/refurbished-used-mobile-phones/
https://www.theworldcounts.com/stories/electronic-waste-facts
