The impulse to own a trendy smartphone at a cheaper price is driving sales on OLX, an online platform for buying and selling of used products. Pre-owned smartphones are gaining good traction on OLX platform, with the company saying on Friday that 16 million smartphones were listed on its platform in FY19.

Buyer enquiries for used smartphones have increased by over 100 per cent in the past two years, the company added. “People who want to upgrade to a newer smartphone at a cheaper price are coming to OLX,” Akanksha Dhamija, Head, Customer Centricity, OLX India, told BusinessLine .

Over the past couple of years, the company has seen almost 40 per cent growth in people who list a mobile phone on OLX. “Most of our listings — around 95-96 per cent (of mobile phones) — are for smartphones,” said Dhamija. “We have seen that almost 70 per cent of the listings in this category are sold,” she added.

According to OLX, three of four pre-owned mobile phone buyers, and half of the pre-owned mobile phone sellers on its platform are in 19-29 age group.

OLX revamped the platform earlier this year, giving it a fresh look and interface, and Dhamija said that this mainly targeted the millennial audience. “Rebranding was about creating an image that talks to the newer users coming online — millennials are a big part of our audience,” Dhamija said.

OLX claimed that millennial buyers also exhibit a larger appetite for phones listed above ₹20,000 on its platform, and that enquiries for such models have doubled year-on-year.

The company also noted that the holding period for mobile phones is coming down. “As the demand for newer smartphones is growing and people are upgrading faster, they are also coming to OLX at an increased pace,” Dhamija added.

Tier-II -III cities such as Lucknow, Nashik, Jaipur, Mysore, Vijayawada and Dehradun are contributing in a big way. Also, almost 80 per cent of OLX’s users come from the Android segment, according to Dhamija.