With a vision that redefines the resale ecosystem and a powerful identity that elevates the recommerce industry, the Cashify White Paper for 2025 is here. Through this white paper, our brand aims to establish itself as the leading platform for refurbished and buyback forums in the Indian market. Ever thought about what impact you put on the ecosystem every time you put your old phone on sale? Wondering which brands Indians prefer buying in the refurbished market? Then take a glance at this blog, where we summarise our Cashify White Paper 2025.
The Great Indian Upgrade: The Theme Of Cashify White Paper 2025 Revisits Indian ‘Hoarders’
We are ditching the ‘hoarder’ tag from the Indian market. But what’s the Hoarder tag? Let’s disclose.
In India, every phone that we buy is a ‘sign of prosperity coming home’, and the sentiments with which we are attached to our phones, we don’t really wanna sell them. That is when we become the ‘hoarders’ of our phones.
And that’s when Cashify embarks on a mission to transform you from a hoarder to a contributor in a more sustainable, renewable, and revolutionary ecosystem. This takes us to the ‘Great Indian Upgrade’, a theme we chose to completely transform the Indian mindset of not upgrading and sticking to their old ‘e-wastes’. And guess what, we have facts to prove it! So, let’s begin.
India Lags Behind With The ‘Hoarder’ Tag Challenge: But Cashify Loves Challenges
According to our studies, we found that India is the 3rd largest collector of “E-Waste”, with a whopping number of 1.75 million metric tonnes of e-waste produced annually.
Our CEO and Co-founder, Mandeep Manocha, said that,
“ This is the real challenge, moving forward from a world where people don’t know what to do with their old phones, to one where resale is as natural as the upgrade itself.”
In the Cashify White Paper 2025, we have highlighted our remarkable numbers when it comes to the buyback market, which means when people sell their old phones on Cashify.
During the last annual cycle of April-May 2024 to June 2025, 70 per cent of users hoard 2–3 unused phones at home, signalling a massive untapped resale opportunity.
This number was the remarkable feat that we aimed for in our mission to bring about the ‘Great Indian Upgrade’.
Regarding the signals that triggered this shift, we discovered that nearly 33 per cent of users sold their old devices to fund their next phone. While 40 per cent were motivated by competitive buyback offers.
Now, let us move on to the next part of our Cashify White Paper 2025 analysis. In this white paper, we highlight how Cashify, as a representative of the ‘Re-commerce’ industry in India, has significantly elevated the market for selling used phones and buying refurbished ones.
How Do We At Cashify Elevate The Re-Commerce Industry?
At Cashify, we aim to bring a new era to the re-commerce industry.
With the global refurbished smartphone market projected to reach $219.7 billion by 2033, Cashify aims to capture the largest share of this market. This way, we will be bringing the most significant evolution of the re-commerce industry in India.
“Our goal is to transform resale from an afterthought into a mainstream economic force, helping consumers unlock value, create trust in the ecosystem, and reduce the environmental cost of constant innovation.” – Quoted our Co-founder and CMO, Nakul Kumar.
Also Read: How To Sell Your Old Smartphone On Cashify
How Drawers Become Landfills Of E-Waste?
As we disclosed above in this blog and in the Cashify White Paper 2025, India has approximately 1.75 million tonnes of e-waste stockpiled. The biggest dump of this e-waste is your drawer.
In this White Paper, we highlight how people often do not sell their old phones due to various factors, including sentimental value, data concerns, a repairability crisis, and more.
Highlighting The Ease Of Repair Rankings And The Shift In Selling Trends
In this White Paper, we introduce repairability as the first line of defence against e-waste. If you can repair a phone quickly and affordably, that’s the ultimate solution. With Cashify, users can easily access this solution.
Moreover, with brands like Apple, OnePlus, and Xiaomi leading the ease of repair rankings and the resale value indexes, we’ve seen significant growth in the buyback market.
We introduced a section called ‘Ease of Repair Rankings’ in the Cashify White Paper 2025. In this, we listed that Apple, Xiaomi, Samsung, and OnePlus are among the top brands that are easy to repair, have higher resale value, and have more indicators.
Regarding the buyback and refurbished figures, the iPhone series and the Redmi Note series were among the most popular phones in our buyback market.
When it comes to cities, Mumbai was the city that sold the most phones, followed by Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Pune.
Talking about brands, we found that Apple dominated the buyback market in 2024 with 33% of trade-ins, followed by Xiaomi with 15.7 per cent, and Samsung with 12.6.
Moreover, in 2024, Cashify witnessed a whopping 63 per cent of people selling old devices within six months of upgrading. This number was reflecting the growing acceptance of the trade-in culture.
Also Read: Cashify White Paper 2023: A Summarised Analysis
Indian Customer Is The Smartest: An Observation Of Refurbished Zone In The Cashify White Paper 2025
One notable observation from our side, as noted in the Cashify White Paper 2025, is that Indian customers are among the most discerning and informed buyers in the market.
As we were setting up our brand in the refurbished markets, a dark phase was ahead of us. People were cheated in the name of ‘new-like phones’. They were handed faulty phones in the name of ‘rebranding’. And the refurbished phones could never place their true identity.
Often regarded with terms like ‘shady market’, ‘scam’, and whatnot, we faced numerous challenges. But our mission was to change the mindset of the Indian customer base.
The first and foremost step was to make people aware of what a ‘refurbished phone’ actually means. We partnered up with refurbished phone retailers, set up our own kiosks. This way, we targeted the whole Tier-1 and Tier-2 city bases of India.
And just when the Indian customer base grasped the actual tone and trusted the refurbished market, India shipped 151 million smartphones in 2024 (4% YoY increase).
Our shipments of 5G refurbished phones increased from 55% to 73% from 2023 to 2024. This trend signified a huge growth. This was among the key highlights of the Cashify White Paper 2025.
Also Read: Why Does My Final Price Differ From The Online Quote? Explained by Cashify
This meant only one thing – once you make the Indian customer aware of the true value, he/she will give you the best of revenues,which means the Indian customer is the smartest. And this is what we highlighted in the Cashify White Paper 2025.
Brandwise Figures: Which Brands Lead The Refurbished Market
Now, let us show you which brands led in the refurbished market as per the Cashify White Paper 2025.
Apple was the leader in the refurbished market with a 64.5 per cent share, signifying that people love buying refurbished iPhones.
This was followed by OnePlus with 10.9 per cent sales. Then came Xiaomi with 9.9 per cent, and Samsung with 5.7 per cent.
We found out that 3 in 5 refurbished buyers in H1 2025 chose iPhones. This was due to a sustained demand for iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro Max, and iPhone 12 Pro, which grew 33% YoY.
Talking about cities that bought the largest number of refurbished phones from Cashify, Delhi was in the number one position. This was followed by Bangalore, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Gurgaon.
In A Nutshell: Concluding Remarks On Cashify White Paper 2025
Cashify has acted as the one-stop solution for selling old devices and buying refurbished phones. As we grow with our ‘Great Indian Upgrade’ mission, the Cashify White Paper 2025 is a significant achievement. An achievement that we put forward in the marketing and recommerce industry.
For everyone who inspires us, who gets inspired by us, and who jumps into this sea of sustainable hope with us, is truly welcome in this mission of bringing a step forward in eliminating E-Waste from the world, and bringing the best value with refurbished deals.
And as we say always, Cashify is here to make technology more affordable and accessible for everyone.
Visit The Cashify White Paper 2025
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