Survey Finds Inflation is Motivating Holiday Shoppers to Recycle Used Electronics 

There’s no doubt about it – inflation has been hitting the United States hard for quite some time with little alleviation. While shoppers continue to feel the pains of rising prices, the holiday season is knocking at the door with the biggest shopping period of the year.  

To better understand the current situation and help provide a solution, we conducted a survey to learn more about how people are approaching this season, including whether or not they’re still planning on shopping for this year's newest tech.  

2024 Holiday Smartphone Shopping Survey Results  

Here’s what we learned from the 1,000 American consumers we surveyed.  

Inflation continues to impact consumers’ spending on smartphones this holiday season.  

Of the consumers surveyed, more than half (53%) have a smaller budget to buy a smartphone this year. The same percentage of respondents have also reported that they’ve had to take on some form of debt to afford their smartphone. In fact, 21% of Gen Z respondents have picked up additional shifts or work multiple jobs to afford their tech.  

Due to the reality of inflation, nearly 1 in 4 respondents reported they are intending to purchase an older generation phone this holiday season instead of this year’s model. Having the latest, shiniest new thing appears to be less of a desire compared to having a reasonably priced device that does when they need. 

Shoppers are focusing on online holiday deals over in-person deals.  

Shoppers are opting for online shopping this holiday season when it comes to smartphone purchases. 62% of our respondents are planning to utilize Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals for their next smartphones.  

The online shopping plan doesn’t only sit within one income bracket either. 70% of those who make a higher income plan to shop online for their next smartphone compared to the 54% of those who receive a lower income.*  

Most respondents expressed interest in selling pre-owned items to earn money to put towards smartphone holiday shopping this year.  

We found that 75% of our surveyed shoppers are motivated to recycle their preowned smartphones with a recommerce company to earn money for holiday shopping. 21% reported to selling old items like electronics, bags, clothes and other items to help buy a new smartphone.  

How to Make the Most of Your Holiday Shopping This Season 

With inflation continuing to affect prices this season, it’s more important than ever to consider what you currently have and make smart choices with your purchases.  

You can start at home by decluttering your drawers of any old devices and bringing them to an ecoATM to earn instant holiday shopping cash. You can earn cash or digital payment within minutes rather than letting your old devices go to waste. Price your device online now and enjoy more cash for shopping this holiday season today.  

*For this survey, higher-income groups were made up of American adults that earn $100,000 or more in a year and lower-income groups were American adults that earn $50,000 or less in a year.