Skip to Search Skip to Content Skip to Footer
Sims Lifecycle Services
  • Locations
  • Blog
  • Client Portal
  • Contact
  • English
    • Deutsch
Menu
  • For Data Centers
    • Overview
    • Cloud Data Center Services
    • Colocation Data Center
    • Ultimate Decommissioning Guide
    • SLS plays a key role in helping companies manage ongoing technology shifts in data centers. Our record of success includes working with businesses, data centers and major cloud companies to provide periodic decommissioning of older data center equipment.
  • For Businesses
    • Overview
    • ITAD Services
      • RFP Template for ITAD
    • IT Asset Recovery
    • Data Destruction
      • On-Site Data Destruction
      • Bulk Data Destruction Services
      • Storage Device Types
      • Data Destruction Standards
      • Vendor Selection
    • On-Premise Data Center Decommissioning
    • E-Waste Recycling
    • ITAD Reporting and Portal
    • Logistics
    • Equipment We Process
    • SLS provides secure and compliant global IT asset disposition (ITAD), e-waste recycling and data center decommissioning services for businesses. We refurbish, repair and restore materials for continued useful life. In addition to facilitating reuse of equipment, SLS also recycles discarded electronics, transforming waste to raw material. Recycling diverts material from landfill or incineration and provides a feedstock for making next generation products.
  • For Manufacturers
    • Overview
    • Returns Management
    • Refining
    • Certified Destruction
    • Defense Contractors
    • Recycling
    • Extended Producer Responsibility
    • Portal and Reports
    • Recycling Innovation
    • How Computers Are Recycled
    • We work with manufacturers to manage reverse logistics and recover value from returned equipment. We resell whole units, manage spare parts recovery and responsibly recycle obsolete equipment. We also work with manufacturers in managing their extended producer responsibility requirements.
  • Global
    • Overview
    • Compliance
      • GDPR FAQ
    • Client Sustainability
      • Sustainability Reporting
      • Circular Economy Explained
    • International Associations
    • Consumer E-Waste
    • Leading companies trust SLS to provide a globally coordinated e-waste recycling and ITAD single solution with a high focus on data security, regulatory and corporate compliance, value recovery and sustainability.
  • About Us
    • Overview
    • Certifications
    • Sustainability at Sims
    • EH&S
    • Equipment We Process
    • Careers
    • As a business division of Sims Limited, SLS has the global reach, expertise, and infrastructure necessary to ensure to our customers that all electronic devices are processed in a secure and environmentally responsible manner.
  • News
    • Blog
    • Videos
    • Resources
    • Infographics
    • Press Releases
    • Backed by a global network of IT asset disposition and e-recycling facilities, SLS is a leader in compliant disposition and recycling of electronic equipment. Stay up-to-date with our press releases, blog, newsletter, case studies, white papers, tip sheets, infographics and videos.

NEW! - HOW TO GUIDE: Template for Developing IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) RFP

Get Your Copy

Trade in and Trade up, Managing Product Lifecycles

Menu
  • Locations
  • Blog
  • Client Portal
  • Contact
July 25, 2017
by SLS Media

Every electronic and IT product has a lifecycle. Following a product release, the item is distributed based on demand, purchased and used to maturity, which is the point at which excitement and demand starts to decline. Decline in demand compromises market share, brand equity and profitability. Manufacturers manage this stage in the product lifecycle through their cycles of innovation, introducing new products with performance improvements, and operational and environmental efficiencies.

In the electronics and IT industry that lifecycle tends to average 2-3 years. New innovations in tablets, wearables, mobile phones and other gadgets are excitedly anticipated and demand is built in advance of release. In addition to marketing and building demand manufacturers can also address the challenge of retiring older generation products from the marketplace, incentivising users to upgrade to the next generation product.

American rugged camera company GoPro recently (April 2017) launched a trade-up website where you can purchase your new camera and trade in your old one for a discount of circa £100. GoPro takes back and recycles old cameras in an environmentally responsible way through a zero landfill program. It is a win-win for consumers and GoPro, as well as for sustainability overall.

Apple has introduced ‘Trade-up’ schemes in various countries including France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States for MacBook’s, iPads and iPhones. Programs like this are usually straight-forward, but Apple has developed several innovative options. One options includes a credit toward a new device in the form of an instalment loan. Another includes credit that can be put toward a monthly bill. Each option is designed to encourage customers to purchase new products earlier than they might have otherwise.

These returns programs have both B2C and B2B applications. Cisco runs a global trade-in program to incentivize business customers to exchange outdated products for discounts on new equipment. Cisco reports that, of all product traded in during 2014, 23 percent was refurbished for reuse or resale, the equivalent to 2700 metric tonnes of equipment prevented from being discarded. Cisco sees the trade-in programs as part of their strategy to adopt circular economy principles that maximise the life of their products, reduce environmental impact and provide business value to both themselves and their customers.

A recent study by the Green Alliance notes that globally only 12 percent of smartphone upgrades involve older devices being sold or traded in for new ones. Obviously this results in a plethora of phones being stashed in drawers or potentially becoming landfill. But it also presents an opportunity to increase the sales of new, upgraded units. This is an area that companies can grow in a number of ways, continually over time. Those looking for new ways to increase sales of new units can partner with returns management companies to introduce renewal programs, therefore benefiting from increased volume sales and value back on returned products.

Renewal campaigns are beneficial to all stakeholders. Consumers don’t feel aggrieved that their laptop, phone or fitness tracker no longer works; manufacturers sell profitable new products; recyclers gain efficiency savings with easier-to-process products, and value returns to the manufacturer are maximised. Collectively, we reduce the strain on our planet’s precious natural resources. That’s sustainable thinking.

Many current programmes are limited to certain geographies. In today’s connected world it is important to be able to offer like for like schemes across the world. Sims Recycling Solutions (SRS) runs returns programmes globally with fully standardised processes via a single online management platform. Multiple campaigns can be managed concurrently to increase sales of certain products in particular focus areas, the program is branded up to your specification and we take care of managing your returns.

The regulatory and compliance requirements for returned products are complex and vary country by country and, in many cases, region by region. Navigating product movement in a global marketplace can be challenging, particularly with increasingly strict compliance regulations around handling, packaging and movement of old IT assets and the potential complications around handling dangerous and hazardous material within that equipment. SRS monitors changing global regulations, ensuring compliance with local and trans-border legislation.

Contact us today to find out more about our renew programmes: www.simslifecycle.com/returns

References

http://csr.cisco.com/casestudy/product-trade-in

https://www.digitaltrends.com/photography/gopro-launches-trade-up-program/

http://www.green-alliance.org.uk/resources/A%20circular%20economy%20for%20smart%20devices.pdf

Posted in: Circular Economy
Previous Post Next Post

Circular Newsletter

Data Center Services

Learn More

Regions

  • Americas
  • Global
  • EMEA
  • APAC

Topics

Archives

Sims Lifecycle Services
  • Corporate Information
    • About Us
    • Certifications
    • Locations
  • Services
    • For Data Centers
    • For Businesses
    • For Electronics Manufacturers
    • Data Destruction
    • Global Services
  • Contact
    • Email
    • News
    • Blog
  • Sims Limited
    • SLS is a business division of Sims Limited. Discover how Sims Limited plays an integral role in the circular economy by making resources available for future use.
      Visit the Sims Limited Website
  • Other Business Divisions (external websites)
    • Sims Metal
    • Sims Resource Renewal

Sign up for our newsletter

  • Visit Us on Instagram (opens new window)
  • Visit Us on Facebook (opens new window)
  • Visit Us on LinkedIn (opens new window)
Copyright © 2025 Sims Lifecycle Services, All Rights Reserved.
  • Privacy Policy
  • Legal
  • Terms of Use