With the growth of disposable income and rising consumerism, more and more people are stocking used goods, especially in urban India where the total realisable value of such items is estimated at a whopping Rs 56,200 crore, a survey by online classifieds player OLX said.
According to the survey, Consumer Research on Used-Goods and Selling Trends (CRUST), discovered that across 16 cities in urban India, one-fifth of the goods stocked in urban Indian homes have ceased to be relevant to them. Last year, CRUST estimated the market for used goods to be Rs 22,000 crore, in addition to conceiving the survey in 2013-14, OLX also conceptualised the term ‘Brown Money’ that refers to the money that is locked in goods gathering dust in our homes. This amount is so huge that it is enough to launch the Mars Orbiter Mission Mangalyaan 125 times over, can clear entire arrears of the Food Corporation of India, and is one-and-a-half times the budget allocation for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Guarantee Scheme, says the survey.
The top three categories of goods stocked across India are clothing, kitchen utensils and books. This is followed by mobile phones. Indians are not known for selling their unused items. There are several psychological reasons like emotional attachments and 'will use some day' attitude. However, trends are changing now. A lot of people are selling their unused items including high value items online. But, we Indians continue to hoard a large amount of unused items.
At a recent discussion on the findings of the CRUST survey, Amarjit Batra, CEO of OLX India; Dhiraj Nayyar, economist and CEO, Think India Foundation; Santosh Desai, MD and CEO of Futurebrands India Limited; renowned social scientist Shiv Vishvanathan and actress Tara Sharma, shared their views on unlocking ‘Brown Money’ in Indian households - The Power and Magic of Used Goods.
Batra said, “Before we instituted CRUST survey last year, there were only guess estimates on the size of the used goods market in India. CRUST experienced an immense rise in the market for used goods over the two years just in urban India. If we take the whole country into account, then this number will be much higher. At OLX we are committed to helping people unlock the money hidden in used items. From a country of scarcity, we are moving towards a country of abundance, for at least some people. People are buying more, consuming more, and in the process wasting more. We help people waste less through collaborative consumption and extending the life-cycle of the products.”
The top three categories of goods stocked across India are clothing, kitchen utensils and books. This is followed by mobile phones. Indians are not known for selling their unused items. There are several psychological reasons like emotional attachments and ‘will use some day’ attitude. However, trends are changing now. A lot of people are selling their unused items including high value items such as mobile phones online. But, we
Indians are still hoarding a large amount of unused items.
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