Flipkart gets serious about the pre-owned market, sees a new opportunity parallel to e-commerce

“If you refurbish a used phone very well, it can function as good as a new one.” Adarsh Menon, Senior Vice President & Head – New Businesses at Flipkart, tries to present the advantages of pre-owned smartphones. Although it may sound like a sales pitch, Menon says his goal is to make used smartphones as desirable as brand-new ones but without making them prohibitively expensive.

India’s pre-owned smartphone resale market has historically been offline through local phone dealers. Low-quality devices are pervasive in this space and it takes research and a well-trained eye to spot the difference.