LAS VEGAS – With smartphones becoming ubiquitous, carriers and device retailers are finding it increasingly difficult to get repeat business. The trade-in market for handsets so far has done little to help.
At this week’s CTIA Super Mobility event, Inhance Technology debuted a cloud-based solution called Inhance Trade to address this issue .
The device trade-in solution is looking to define the market through an analytics based approach that Inhance believes will bring more accurate valuations and boost the volume of trade-ins by at least 20%.
“Inhance Trade adds a layer of sophisticated mobile analytics that gives carriers and wireless retailers a smarter way to reach out to customers and build connections by offering cash for old mobile phones and new enticing upgrades,” Inhance Technology CEO Paul Prendergast explained.
The solution takes into account a device’s age, condition, as well as what type of device it is and uses a cloud-based dashboard to determine its trade-in value. The software also identifies when the customer is most likely to buy a new phone and sends notifications when it is the best time for an upgrade. Prendergast believes it will be a win-win for consumers and retailers in that it will allow consumers to get the best trade-in value for their device while carriers and retailer will get repeat customers .
Inhance Trade also helps the customer transfer data from one device to another seamlessly once they have traded in their old phone and purchased another one. The solution has a wireless transfer feature, which facilitates the quick and secure transfer of contacts, images and videos between phones, including Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android. The feature is said to already be in use at 2,000 retail stores.
“We designed this as a complete solution,” Prendergast explained. “The phone trade-in function was overdue for modernization given the well-documented trade-in process problems such as mispricing used phones, issues transferring content and poor customer outreach. Many existing programs are often unprofitable, but now our solution enables retailers and carriers to use data from past sales and get previous customers back into their stores for a new purchase.”
This month, the solution went live with its first U.S. wireless customer and became available in 400 retail stores. Inhance Technology is working with other trade-in companies that include Phobio, C-Exchange and Nextworth. The company has also recently partnered with electronics distributor Ingram Micro Canada.
