The company, apart from buying and selling used and refurbished consumer electronics, may also use the store as a smartphone repair service center
In a world that is moving towards the online sales channel, Cashify has decided to open a re-commerce store in Delhi NCR located Faridabad. The company already operates an online portal dedicated to second hand smartphones business in India. Cashify had earlier this year announced that it will be investing Rs 20 crore in re-commerce business in India.
An individual aware of the developments told Electronics For You, “Cashify’s re-commerce and other services store is almost ready. The announcement will be made within this week or the next.” The company bought more than 10,20,000 second-hand smartphones in 2018 and disbursed a total Rs 459 crore to smartphone users, who sold their old smartphones to it.
Tom Kang, research director at Counterpoint Research, had recently mentioned that India has tremendous growth opportunities in terms of refurbished smartphone market. He had said, “The India market grew 14 per cent to almost 14 million refurbished devices. This is an impressive number because the refurbished market ecosystem remains nascent in the country and 72 per cent of devices in India do not go into the secondary market. Therefore, there are tremendous growth opportunities.”
Choosing Faridabad
Choosing Faridabad may have been a strategic move by the company as it is one of the cities that is adjacent to a lot of tier 2 towns, rural markets and also has a mix of crowds. While smartphone users may look forward to sell their used smartphones to Cashify, the company may find a lot of buyers for smartphones from nearby areas like Ballabgarh and Palwal. Additionally, it may also be able to generate interest for its door-to-door smartphone repair services.
The Cashify store, as per the individual, will open in the Sector 16 market. These markets are in vicinity to Ballabgarh and Palwal. Interestingly, many global brands have their retail stores located her. Xiaomi also operates a Mi Home store in this market.
Aseem Goyal, VP, Retail Expansion, Cashify, had recently shared that the company was looking to move beyond helping users sell their old smartphones. He had said, “We are looking forward to add a pool of services under brand Cashify. ScreenPro, the instant screen repair service, is one of them, offering quality smartphone accessories to customers is another. With offline kiosks, we want to ensure if somebody would like to sell an old phone, get their broken screen repaired or just want to buy accessories, they can get it all at the Cashify kiosks.”
Cashify raised $12 million in a Series C round recently
The company had raised $12 million in a Seriec C round recently. The investment round was led by CDH Investments and MorningSide Group, with Chinese re-commerce giant, AiHuiShou, participating as a strategic investor.
Cashify shared that it has bought 20 lakh (2 million) gadgets till now, disbursed Rs 900 crore in cash to sellers and served more than 15 lakh (1.5 million) customers. It is to be noted here that the company now aims to reach out to 20 cities via 75 new kiosks.
