Demand for pre-owned goods continued unabated during Covid-19: OLX India

On Mar 10, 2021

Gurgaon, India, March 10, 2021: OLX, India’s largest online classifieds platform today announced that it has witnessed high demand for pre-owned goods throughout 2020, despite Covid-19. A comparison of buyers and sellers data on the platform for 2020 versus 2019 reveals a strong growth trajectory of buyers throughout all quarters in the year over the previous one. Demand for pre-owned goods far outpaced the demand for new goods, driven primarily by consumers in non-metro markets. There is also an increase in listings by sellers from non-metros in the second half of 2020 especially for goods such as laptops, fridges and ACs.

OLX has recorded an increase of 35 percent in demand from buyers in the year 2020 over 2019. Demand for electronics and appliances, mobile phones, accessories and furniture have enjoyed steady demand throughout the year. Demand for pre-owned goods increased further in the second half of the year 2020 driven by users in non-metro cities.

Demand for technology gadgets and electronics – laptops, mobiles phones, tablets and televisions saw a spike during 2020, even during the first few months when the lockdown was announced owing to home entertainment and online education requirements. In the non-metros, each of these products saw a jump in demand by nearly 100 percent in Q2, 2020. In the metros however, high consumer demand was witnessed for Tablets at 98 percent.

By Q3 2020, demand for pre-owned goods across categories- electronics, appliances, furniture, and mobiles grew by nearly 2X times, a reflection of pent up demand that couldn’t be fulfilled in Q1 and Q2, and also driven by home entertainment and online schooling needs. Growth in user demand in Q4 was similar to trends witnessed in the same period of the previous year, indicating a return to normal of pre-Covid times.

Consumer demand for pre-owned goods has outpaced the demand for new electronics, appliances and gadgets. As per Retailers Association of India, sales of new consumer electronics retailers went up by 2% in September and 8% in October 2020 as compared to same periods of last year. Consumer electronic companies reported a recovery of consumer demand in July-September 2020, and their best sales in October 2020 with Indian households continuing to buy appliances like refrigerators, washing machines and dishwashers which helps them to automate daily chores. Sales of laptop, tablets and smartphones have been brisk too due to work and study from home.

“Despite COVID-19’s unprecedented impact, we’re proud to report that OLX continued to serve both buyers and sellers and we were able to record an all-time high quarter as well, with activity reaching pre-Covid normal by the end of the year”, said Sapna Arora, CMO, OLX India. “In this difficult environment, our users are depending on OLX to easily, safely and conveniently find their perfect home, upgrade their lives with gadgets for work or play, sell things they no longer need, or strike a great deal on something they need. We feel motivated and inspired to keep meeting these needs in innovative ways”.

Listings by sellers have moved a little differently with growth being witnessed in the second half of 2020 with users preferring to hold on to their owned items for longer and defer their upgrade/purchase decisions during these uncertain times as the economic effects of Covid-19 unfolded. Seller listings are driven mostly from non-metros in the second half of the year, led by categories such as fridges, ACs and laptops. These categories have grown in 2020, compared to the previous year – fridges by 45 percent, ACs by 67 percent and laptops by 17 percent.

During the months of July-August-September in 2020, as national and state unlock protocols came into play, there was a surge in growth of Seller listings across categories and locations compared to the corresponding prior year period, in large part due to the spill-over effect from the first half of the year.