Demand for refurbished smartphones, tablets and laptops is soaring as some customers are now being forced into an upgrade cycle since their devices are no longer compatible with emerging AI technologies unveiled by a number of brands.
Alchemy, a circular technology company headquartered in Dublin, which ships to more than 60 countries including Australia, South Korea and the US, says that it has refurbished over seven million devices.
By doing so, it claims to have saved 424 million kilograms of CO2 emissions.
A few years ago, Alchemy launched Callisto, a platform for global wholesale buying and selling a wide range of secondary and used tech.
Callisto has reportedly grown by a 2181% over the last five years and now connects over 3,000 wholesale buyers and sellers worldwide.
It helps buyers, including traders, resellers, refurbishers, wholesalers and e-commerce stores, to source high-quality refurbished tech, while reducing supply chain issues and unnecessary costs. Alchemy’s own facilities are used for device warehousing, device triage and grading, reverse solutions and picking, packing, and shipping.
The platform also helps sellers, including retailers, carriers, and OEMs, to then offer the refurbished devices to customers.
Callisto’s tech marketplace connects sellers to a network of buyers around the world. A new feature for Callisto is the ability to ‘Make an Offer’, where buyers can make offers on eligible catalogued products and take part in a dynamic and interactive negotiation process.
In the past 12 months alone, Alchemy claims that 620 new buyers began trading through Callisto and the platform recorded a Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of $600 million (A$954.81 million).
Callisto has facilitated the sale of used, refurbished and like-new tech amounting to $1.6 billion (A$2.55 billion) in GMV since April 2019, marking a 2181% growth in sales.
“Callisto is helping all wholesale buyers, from regional resellers to individual repair shops, access consistent, quality refurbished stock at competitive prices. Callisto has transformed access to the secondary tech market for thousands of wholesale buyers, connecting them to a global network of trusted sellers,” said James Murdock, co-founder and chief marketing officer at Alchemy.
“We’re making significant investments over the coming years to enhance Callisto further and set new industry standards.”
The used market for smartphones in particular is expected to grow significantly this year. Apple, for example, has made its Apple Intelligence available on iPhones that are 15 Pro and higher, which means that those with lower-grade iPhones will necessarily have to trade in their device if they want access to Apple’s latest suite of AI features.
Last year, following two consecutive years of decline, the global smartphone market recorded a 7% growth in 2024 to reach 1.22 billion units. With that booming demand for smartphones, the secondhand and refurbished market is also set to grow rapidly.
