With the success of a pilot project in the Delhi, a Jaipur based C2B trade platform of Secondhand Smartphones, InstaCash is now expanding its footprints in Mumbai and Jaipur. In a short span of 9 months, InstaCash has bought about 12,000 Smartphones from its C2B app and these refurbished Smartphones are in high demand in the Tier-II and III markets of India.

Prateek Goel, Founder of InstaCash, says “With the changed market conditions worldwide, the Smartphones market is shifted from ‘Collect-Recycle’ to ‘Collect-Refurbish-Resell’ for sipping margins. In India, a Smartphone has three afterlives post its first purchase. We see Delhi, Mumbai and Jaipur as some of the big markets since there is a huge potential of buying from these cities and selling refurbished Smartphones in rest of the Indian markets. In January 2018, we are also launching InstaCash App service in Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Pune and Kolkata.”

Mumbai and Jaipur, known for its varied culture and lifestyle, are always updated on the latest technology and new launches in the Smartphones category. Current population size of Mumbai is 21.3 million and as per the joint study of IAMAI and IMRB, this metro city has nation-wide the highest number of internet users at about 16.4 million. Other top cities for internet usage are Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Pune. These facts are quite evident to understand the new Smartphones usage in these markets and it is growing the secondary Smartphones’ market too.

Key drivers of C2B market in these cities are – Willingness to buy high-end models, shorter replacement lifecycle, low pocket size buyers, brand attraction etc. Since, the user does not have the technical know-how and the mechanism of deriving optimum price in the secondary market, the fallback factors of this market are ‘Buyback Price’ and ‘Trust’. InstaCash has created a ‘Trust based Solution’ with a ‘Right Price’ by availing phone health check at user-end and marginally higher price in comparison of unorganized buy-back shops.

As per industry reports, India has an unorganised market of 70 million refurbished Smartphones with a year-on-year 35% growth. The consumer behavior of this market promises an opportunity for organised players in this segment and many have started betting on it.

Prateek Goel, Founder of InstaCash further says, “The subscriber base of internet users in rural Rajasthan was just 7.3 million as in last financial year which is just 6.47% share of the internet users in India. Since the internet penetration is increasing day-by-day, the demand of popular handset models and brands are also rising. Affordability of top models of popular brands’ Smartphones is still out of the reach for the low and medium income groups of people in India.”

It is estimated, that secondary Smartphones market will play a vital role in the penetration of internet in the Rural India. Currently the internet penetration is just 31% in the country which is expected to reach 450-465 million, as per IAMAI and IMRB reports. Considering recent economic jolts – demonetization and GST, the Smartphones sales has witnessed a sluggish growth.