European consumers are mostly saying 'non' to trading in their old phones

Less than a third of European consumers trade in or sell their old phones, limiting the supply of secondhand devices that might otherwise stimulate a more environmentally friendly alternative to buying brand new.

The global market for secondhand smartphones declined 2 percent during the first quarter of 2025, according to CCS Insight, which says this is the first year-on-year decline in over three years. Europe showed a similar decline.

It estimates that a modest 27.1 million smartphones were sold via organized secondary markets worldwide, which compares with figures from IDC showing that 304.9 million new handsets shipped into sales channels during the same period.

CCS believes this drop in secondhand sales is just a temporary blip, driven by strong promotional offers for new devices during 2024, and that the market will recover during this year.

"The European secondary smartphone market had built strong momentum going into 2025. Consumers were turning away from brand-new devices amid a lack of innovation and ongoing economic pressures, both factors that play to the strengths of the secondhand market," said CCS Market Analyst Ben Hatton. "We expect these headwinds to continue weighing on new device sales, which bodes well for secondhand options."

But as The Register has previously reported, users are also tending to hold onto their devices for longer than ever before, with replacement cycles for phones extending past 40 months, which has contributed to a shortage of available inventory for the secondary market.

And only 31 percent of Europeans sell or trade in their old phone when buying a new one anyway, CCS says, citing its own survey into mobile buying behavior. According to its estimates, that means there are up to 100 million smartphones every year that could be resold if their owners can be persuaded to part with them.

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For this reason, a key goal of the European secondary smartphone market will be finding ways to boost the internal supply of devices through measures such as trade-in schemes. The analyst biz says that network operators, manufacturers, and retailers are developing new and improved programs in response to regulatory pressures, supply shortages, and environmental targets.

This focus on an internal supply of devices is because Europe has been a massive importer of used phones, mostly coming from the US, Japan, and Singapore. But with the EU Radio Equipment Directive requiring all devices to support USB-C for charging, many of those handsets (two out of five) can no longer be imported.

"The regulatory landscape in Europe is encouraging players to pay much closer attention to trade-in, as it restricts their ability to source devices from outside the region," Hatton commented. "Companies that can secure supply through their own trade-in programs will benefit in the long run as imported devices are restricted."

CCS said that such programs include "forward trade-in" schemes that guarantee a future buyback price for a phone at the time of purchase. The firm said it will be closely monitoring whether these initiatives boost trade-in activity in Europe during this year. ®