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Last updated: Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Increasing competition for new customers and dismal economic reports have prompted cell phone retailers to reinvent old tricks to lure new customers, market sources said on Saturday. “The most recent trend is to offer customers trade-in value for their used phone when they buy a new phone,” said Bob Sullivan, president of The Wireless Source, a trade-in program sponsor. “While trade-in programs have been used for decades in other industries, it has not had much wide spread use within the cell phone industry,” said Sullivan who was attending the 2009 Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Wireless retailers and most of their customers don’t realize that their used phone has financial value, since new phones are sold very heavily discounted or subsidized, Sullivan said. However, offering the customer an instant discount for their used phone is a great technique to incent the consumer to buy now and not wait, he noted. Sullivan further stated “consumers will not only buy more rapidly, but they tend to spend more and buy more expensive phones compared to customers who aren’t offered the trade-in value.” Sullivan’s firm currently supports over 6,000 wireless retailers nationally. Most retailers see offering a trade-in program as a great way to differentiate their store from others. Also, any discounts that can be offered to the customer without coming out of their own pocket are a real win for the retailer and the consumer. “Wireless retailers are turning to old tricks to create new opportunities,” Sullivan said.

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Cell Phone Retailers Reinventing Old Tricks

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