Identifying Factors that Influence Customers’ Interest in Buying Refurbished Smartphones: An Indonesian Context

In this paper, we investigated the factors that influence Indonesian customers in buying a refurbished smartphone. The decision model is constructed using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). There are four main factors: Price, Performance, Benefit, and Risk, with sub-criteria for each factor. Three smartphone alternatives are determined for comparison: flagship, refurbished, and mid-range smartphones. The model was constructed based on the van Weelden model and by interviewing 13 respondents who had either flagship, refurbished, or mid-range smartphones. The respondents’ age was between 21 and 59 years old. First, in-depth interviews were conducted to identify their experience, reasons, and factors in choosing a smartphone; a small survey of 10 respondents was then conducted to test the model and check the questioners’ inconsistency. We then surveyed 54 respondents using the final questionnaires, segmented by age, gender, job, knowledge, and experience using a refurbished smartphone. The results show that age and experience using refurbished products are significant factors influencing customers’ decisions to buy refurbished smartphones. Furthermore, younger people consider performance to be the most critical factor influencing their smartphone purchases, while older respondents consider it a benefit. As for performance, both hardware and software are the most critical factors. In all aspects, the flagship smartphone outperforms the refurbished and mid-range smartphones, except in its environmental aspects. In conclusion, only people with concerns for the environment would tend to buy the refurbished smartphones. However, increasing the benefit and hardware performance of refurbished smartphones may drive the younger age groups to switch from buying mid-range to refurbished smartphones, while an increase in risk factors would tend to lower customers’ priority of buying refurbished smartphones.