Indians stock Rs 78,300-cr worth unused goods: OLX Crust survey

Indian homes are estimated to have over Rs 78,300 crore worth of used goods like clothing, utensils and books, a study by used goods marketplace OLX said Tuesday.

According to the third edition of 'Consumer Research on Used Goods and Selling Trends (CRUST) Survey 2015-16', the estimated market for used goods was about Rs 56,200 crore.

In its first survey in 2013-14, OLX had coined the term 'Brown Money' to represent the value locked in unused goods gathering dust in homes.

The report prepared by OLX and market research firm IMRB found 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.

South India leads other regions on stocking, while among cities, Chandigarh and Kochi at 98% lead the stocking chart.

Delhi and Bengaluru followed closely at 97% stocking incidence, while Chennai and Patna were at 74% each and Bhubaneswar at 66%.

"India has a 90% stocking incidence rate, up 3% from the last year," it said.

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

About 68 per cent respondents said desire to upgrade was the primary reason for them to sell used goods, while 27 per cent cited 'boredom' as a factor, especially for mobile phones.

"The emergence of consumer-to-consumer (C2C) online classifieds in the country has led to greater awareness about used goods. 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 India CEO Amarjit Singh Batra said.

Mobile phones emerged as the most bought category among used goods as both price and quality of the product are most sought after pieces of information by sellers. Buying from shops/dealers and directly from friends and family continues to be the most important channel.

CRUST includes inputs from across 16 cities covering metros as well as tier I and II cities like Patna, Guwahati, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Indore, Kochi, Bhubaneswar and Pune.