Avito began to buy used smartphones from users, writes Commersant with reference to the company's information. The project partner was Pedant's telephone repair service. If necessary, smartphones will be repaired, then resell with their own guarantee, which will range from three months to a year.
The company's commercial terms of cooperation chose not to disclose. Avito reported that it planned to expand the range of partners in the future. According to the company, the sales of smartphones on the site increased by 35% in September compared to the same period last year.
Avito is entering an already overheating market with a model proposal, confirmed by the independent expert, Sergei Villanov, who noted that the company has an advantage over other players, a large marketing site, although organizing a mass buyout of the devices would be problematic.
Avito will be in the secondary smartphone market, with strong competition from electronics and mobile operators from retailers. In particular, the ransom and reselling of used smartphones started this year with the contact, MegaFon, MTS and Wimpelcom. Previously, operators only bought used smartphones under the trade-in programme without reselling.
Director-General TelecomDaily Denis Cuskov estimates that the secondary smartphone market has grown by 70 per cent over the past seven months in terms of the number of offers, and he believes that Avito will only be able to obtain a significant share of the market if it offers favourable prices to second-hand dealers.