Who is the UK’s Fastest Growing Phone Refurbisher?

UPDATE:

It feels like we jumped the gun on our last update – it was only the beginning. In the last three months, our website traffic has skyrocketed, making November our best-ever month by a long, long way.

In terms of Google Search traffic alone, our website has reached a growth rate of 3.6x across only SIX MONTHS! (May-November). We also saw our estimates for total website traffic come dizzyingly close to TEN TIMES what they were at this point two years ago.

The Big Phone Store

The numbers don’t lie – in 2023, The Big Phone Store is officially the fastest-growing independent refurbisher and recycler of mobile phones in the UK!

Between August 2021 and August 2023, The Big Phone Store has grown to over 360% of its original size over the 2-year period, according to data provided by ahrefs*. This represents a faster growth rate than any independent mobile phone refurbisher or recycler (of a comparable size or greater) in the UK.

+365.3% visitors per month since 2021

What is a Refurbished Phone?

A ‘refurbished phone‘ is any phone that is sold on after the packaging has been opened. This could include “Like New” phones which have never been used, but also could refer to phones that have had a previous owner and undergone repairs. All refurbished phones sold here at The Big Phone Store (from “Like New” to “Good”) have passed a rigorous testing procedure to make sure that they’re in fully working condition, and we’ll back that up with a 12-month warranty on each device! The conditions listed refer to the cosmetic condition of the phone: the more obvious the signs of use, the lower the price!

Refurbished Phones: A Rapid Growth Industry

Refurbished devices have always had a certain amount of stigma attached, but their reputation in the UK is changing as major brands have started to promote refurbished devices more and more – including Apple, Curry’s, O2, and GiffGaff. People are more aware of the environmental impact of their devices than ever before; and as the cost of living continues to climb, so does the price of a flagship phone.

Not only that, new-this-year phones are becoming less exciting year on year. Whilst phones are certainly getting faster, and our screens and cameras are becoming higher and higher resolution, the differences from one year’s phone to the next are becoming less noticeable. If a phone from 2020 has a great camera, full-HD screen, AI image processing, and enough battery and internal storage to stop you from running out all the time, then it might feel far better value for money than a much more expensive phone from 2023.

Projections published by Market Research Future estimate a continued growth rate for the global refurbished phone market of more than 12% annually in the coming years, with the UK currently home to the fastest-growing refurbished phone market in Europe.

What does “Fastest Growing” mean?

There are a number of different ways to measure growth rate. When we say we’re the fastest growing, here’s what we mean:

1. We have the greatest percentage growth rate of any independent refurbisher or recycler of our size or larger.

For larger websites, percentage growth rate is the more reliable measure. The only independent refurbishers with a larger overall increase in traffic than The Big Phone Store were Mazuma and musicMagpie. Of these three sites, the Big Phone Store’s percentage growth rate was by far the highest.

2. We have the greatest overall increase in traffic of any independent refurbisher or recycler of our size or smaller.

For smaller websites, an overall increase in traffic is the more reliable indicator of growth. This is a simple fact of mathematics – a website that starts at zero visitors will have an infinitely large percentage growth rate! In addition to this, there is no way for us to be sure that we’ve counted every single UK refurbisher below a certain size. For both of these reasons, we’ve chosen to exclude any site with an estimated monthly traffic of less than 10,000.

Sites larger than The Big Phone Store

The Big Phone Store attracts tens of thousands of visitors every month, and is well on its way to becoming one of the largest independent refurbishers in the United Kingdom.

Sites a similar size to The Big Phone Store

These are the sites that have recently shared near-identical website traffic estimates with The Big Phone Store – in other words, our closest competitors.

Sites smaller than The Big Phone Store: 

The following sites were found to have lower amounts of estimated traffic than The Big Phone Store: We Buy Any Phone, Handtec (Site traffic has decreased since 2021), UR, Sell Any Mobile, Reboxed, Fonebank (Site traffic has decreased since 2021), Mozillion.

We are increasing the size of our lead compared to every one of these sites.

Honorable mentions

These services may be fast-growing, but they do not represent independent refurbishers or recyclers.

1. Fastest growing third-party mobile phone recycling website: Back Market
2. Fastest growing recycling service provided by a mobile network: GiffGaff
3. Fastest growing recycling service provided by a manufacturer: Apple Trade In

Find Out Why Folks are Flocking to The Big Phone Store

It’s very simple, really – with incredible customer service, and the best prices on the market, The Big Phone Store is the best place to sell your old phone, recycle your broken phone for cash, or buy a refurbished phone you can trust! Find out how we can help you get the best deal today!

*All values provided are sourced from ahrefs, and can be easily verified using their professional search engine optimization tools. All information presented here refers to week-by-week estimates of monthly traffic, based on the website’s performance in Google search results. These estimates are widely understood to be lower than the true website traffic. All information correct as of 20/08/2023.