Indians stock unused goods worth Rs 78,300-cr in homes: Survey

The worth of unused items in Indian homes has reached a whopping Rs 78,300 crore, according to a recent survey.

The third edition of OLX Crust (Consumer Research on Used-Goods and Selling Trends) survey, conducted jointly with Indian Market Research Bureau (IMRB) across 16 cities, reveals that stocking of goods continues to rise in the country.

“India has a 90 per cent stocking incidence rate, up 3 per cent from the last year,” the survey said.

Putting things into perspective, the survey claims that the worth of the unused items can fund the government’s Swachh Bharat’ scheme eight times over.

On the flip side, selling of goods has 49 per cent incidence rate in India, up 4 per cent from last year, the survey revealed.

The report estimates the size of the used goods market in India and examines key attitudes towards used goods across different cities of the country.

“One of the more interesting findings of this year is about the value of used goods that are sold online vs sold offline vs exchanged. Value of used goods being sold online was found to be on an average 25 per cent higher than similar types of goods sold offline,” Sushmita Balasubramaniam, Vice President, IMRB, Shopper and Retail, said in the statement.

“This difference becomes even starker when one compares it with the value of used goods being exchanged. The value of goods sold online is 47 per cent higher than those which are exchanged for purchasing new products,” she said.

The report claims 27 per cent respondents who engaged in selling of goods cited ‘boredom’ as a factor, especially for mobile phones, which have emerged as a cluttered category in 2016.

The report also says that on an average, every Indian household is stocking 12 clothing items, 14 kitchen utensils, 11 books, 7 kitchen appliances, 2 mobile phones and 3 watches.

“A few years ago, people didn’t actively think about unused goods and stocking, but now they do. That’s the primary reason why we see stocking figures moving up. Consumerism is another reason why stocking is increasing despite selling rising,” OLX CEO Amarjit Singh Batra said.

The survey revealed that Pune has sold more unused items than any other city.

It also revealed that more and more Indians now wait for e-commerce sales to compare prices of new items during the sale period with that of used goods.