Table of contents
Inside the report
01
Synopsis
Preview02
Introduction
PreviewTrade-in
The commercial opportunity for trade-in
beyond mobile
For gaming, audio, floorcare and kitchen appliance brands, the smartphone trade-in model offers a clear blueprint for reducing discount dependency and turning otherwise discarded products into new growth opportunities.
24 pages15 min read3,000 respondentsPublished on By the Alchemy research team
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Three findings at a glance
66%
of consumers a more positive perception of the brand post trade-in transaction
43%
of floorcare products are kept for longer than 5 years and 20% are kept for over 7 years
37%
of consumers thinking about trade-in for their kitchen appliances, indicate that trade-in does not yet influence their purchase decisions
Explore the data
Outcome of previous electronic device
By product category% of respondents
Gaming & Home Entertainment
Kitchen Appliances
Floorcare
Source: Alchemy proprietary research, n=3,000
Executive summary
What's inside this report
This report is written for brands offering consumer electronic goods such as gaming, audio, floorcare and kitchen appliances, especially those who are seeking new ways to drive growth and understand how trade-in can be used as a commercial lever to do so.
You'll learn
- Why categories such as gaming, audio, floorcare and kitchen appliances have lower trade-in maturity than smartphones, and what that means for brands trying to build customer participation.
- How product size, replacement frequency, residual value and customer awareness shape whether trade-in works differently across non-mobile categories.
- How you can use trade-in to reduce product disposal, encourage earlier replacement, support brand switching and create new value from products that are often thrown away or recycled too early.
Trade-in has become a well-established and expected part of the purchase journey in mature categories such as smartphones. In such segments, consumers are not only highly aware of trade-in programs but have also come to view them as a standard feature of upgrading - an easy, valuable way to offset costs and stay current with the latest technology. As a result, the majority of consumers have either already used trade-in or are open to doing so in the future, making it a powerful and normalised driver of upgrade behaviour.
As affordability pressures increase, this research explores how brands can stimulate demand, accelerate replacement, strengthen loyalty and unlock incremental revenue across these categories, whilst protecting the brand and limit use of discounting, through the successful use of trade-in programs. The report outlines the growth levers enabled by trade-in, the benefits it delivers across the customer lifecycle, and the key barriers that limit consumer adoption and how to overcome them. Drawing on cross-category insights, it highlights how trade-in strategies vary by product type and maturity and sets out clear actions businesses can take to improve performance.
This research was commissioned by Alchemy and conducted by CCS Insight in Q4 2025. It combines qualitative interviews with industry leaders across various consumer electronics sectors, with two focus groups and a quantitative online survey of over 3,000 consumers in the US and UK.
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