Despite steep price tags on the latest models, smartphone sales were in full swing during the 2017 holiday shopping season. TrendForce estimated that 425 million smartphones would ship worldwide during the fourth quarter; resulting in a 6.3 percent YoY growth heavily driven by the iPhone X. As the majority of new smartphones were not discounted during the holiday season, consumers looked for new ways to make device purchases more affordable. As a result, many consumers turned to trade-in and buyback programs, which became pivotal in driving mobile device sales.

With the value of older smartphones on the rise, consumers are uniquely positioned to decrease their upgrade cost for new devices through leveraging trade-in programs. According to our reports, the average trade-in value over the last five years for working grade devices increased nearly 60 percent from 2012 to 2017. Even the average trade-in value for damaged grade devices increased 81 percent in the same period, providing consumers more spending power when they trade old or damaged devices.

Customers looking to trade-in their old smartphones for newer models such as the iPhone X are in luck. While the iPhone X is currently priced between $999-$1149, the working trade-in value for a two-year old phone (iPhone 6S/6S+) is currently about $180 through our device buyback program, SafeTrade.

During this past holiday season, the trade-in volume for smartphones increased by 57.1 percent on Black Friday and 30.2 percent on Cyber Monday compared to 2016 figures. SafeTrade, our device buy-back program, processed 6,938 smartphone trade-ins on Black Friday and 1,854 smartphone trade-ins on Cyber Monday. Christmas was no exception – the week leading up to the holiday experienced a YoY growth of 57.2% across 1,000+ doors. Overall, the top trade-in models SafeTrade received in 2017 were the iPhone 6, iPhone 6S, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 5S, Galaxy S5, Galaxy S6, Galaxy S4, and the Galaxy Note 4. Trade-ins also started off 2018 with a bang – the YoY growth for New Year’s Eve increased 32.7% and put a total of $26,500 back into customers’ pockets.

Here at Phobio, we believe device trade-in is an integral part of the customer experience and created Safetrade to provide mobile operators, retailers, and consumers with the most value at the point of purchase. Safetrade is a flexible, omni-channel trade-in platform for retailers that revolutionizes the way consumers and businesses upgrade to the latest technology. In addition to driving sales and revenue for retailers, Safetrade incentivizes consumers to convert their old devices into cash for upgrades.