With consumers going online for mobile phone shopping, leading electronics retailer, The Mobile Store (TMS) has been trying out different initiatives to woo customers and boost sales.

The Essar Group-promoted retail chain is offering a buy-back scheme that allows buyers to exchange their old phones for a new one. Last year, the company had introduced several such offers including cash-back and easy EMIs to attract more customers.

Himanshu Chakrawarti, CEO, Mobile Store, quoted a market survey that every Indian household has at least one or two old phones that can be exchanged for a new one at a reasonable price. However, many consumers are not willing to do so on concerns of price and data transferability.

Chakrawarti said consumers would get e-vouchers, valid for a year, on every exchange of a phone. This is being offered as a door-step service in Mumbai and has received a very positive response. It plans to roll out the scheme in all major cities in the next few weeks. The buy-back market in India is estimated at 150-200 million sets. The replacement cycle for mobile phones have come down to 12-14 months as against 3-5 years a decade back on back of new launches and affordable smartphones.

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